Welcome to our first ‘In Review’ series, where we choose apps from the app stores to put under the microscope, to see how they can be optimised for organic acquisition, drive engagement and increase retention. Each month we will review a different app, focusing on onboarding, user journey flow, App Store Optimisation, mCRM, UX, UI and much more, all integral elements of our Fit to Market programme.
This month, we will be reviewing the Thomas Cook – My Holiday app on Android.
About the App:
The Thomas Cook – My Holiday app helps its customers manage their bookings, access information regarding their holiday and explore holiday packages and deals.
First Impressions of Thomas Cook:
Observation:
Making a good first impression is imperative, as it increases the likelihood of a user downloading your app from mobile search, be that in the app stores or on Chrome or Safari. With an effective App Store Optimisation strategy (see more on ASO here), you can make sure that your app appears high in the rankings for relevant searches and drive visitors to your app store listing. Focusing on the listing to encourage users to convert from visit to install through branded and engaging creatives plays a key role. When first searching for a holiday app from Thomas Cook in the Google Play Store, the search results brought up an array of apps under the Thomas Cook brand. There is an inconsistency in the branding of different app icons, with different logos, and no clear indication of which app is catered specifically for holiday planning, is it Holiday 360 or My Holiday? Thomas Cook – Holiday Packages also looks relevant, but on closer inspection, we can see this is from Thomas Cook (India).
Recommendation:
By cleaning up the look of their suite of apps, and adding differentiators through the app title or with visual markers on consistent icons, users will be more likely to find exactly what they are looking for, whilst left with a good first impression of the brand and its breadth of services.
Commended:
When clicking on to the app listing, the app’s ratings usually validate the quality of the product. On the Google Play Store, the Thomas Cook – My Holiday app has a 4.3* rating. The high rating could be due to the support feature in the app, allowing users to get immediate responses to their qualms and queries through the live support chat feature. As issues are dealt with immediately, there’s a smaller chance that users will use the review section to make their qualms heard. Good ratings are integral in making a good first impression, as 79% of users check ratings and reviews before downloading an app. For more tips on improving your rating, see our blog post here.
User Journey:
Commended:
The native functionality is clearly useful and intuitive, and of great use to those who want to access existing booking details for holidays booked through Thomas Cook. Users can manage their holiday by accessing flight details, checking-in straight from the app, viewing a countdown timer until they jet off, and also checking what the weather is like at their resort. The app’s use post-booking is evident.
Observation:
For a user who doesn’t have an existing booking, the fragmented user journey of the Thomas Cook – My Holiday app is hard to avoid. When using the pre-booking side of the app, users are served an in-app web-view. This makes it difficult to navigate the most important part of the app for potential customers, where the user browses holiday packages and deals. The discord of the journey also has a large impact on the consistency of the UI and the UX, as mobile sites tend to be built as a secondary to the desktop site, rather than building for a small screen and adding appropriate features and elements that feel intuitive on mobile.
Recommendation:
By committing to a native app, Thomas Cook – My Holiday could utilise native functionality such as such the ability to use Face ID or Touch ID to log back into your account. It could also unlock the potential convert potential customers by driving bookings from holiday searches or drive re-bookings. Thomas Cook could cater to this by also making the Wishlist functionality native and not only available through web-view, a useful feature as users can return to options at a later date. By doing this, Thomas Cook could use this app to not only manage bookings and up-sell local excursions, but they could utilise the app to gain new customers.
Final Thoughts:
By focusing on creating that great first impression through effective ASO, and by really utilising the holiday deals search function of the app, the Thomas Cook – My Holiday app could unlock wealth of potential to increase return on investment for the brand.
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