SAN MATEO, Calif., — March 3, 2005 — Online travel agencies are outperforming airline Web sites in terms of customer experience and that is impacting their booking success according to a new study by Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®. Keynote provides the industry’s most comprehensive competitive benchmarking of leading travel and airline Web sites through its syndicated research reports.
The Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for the Airline Industry are based on research with 2,000 customers as they evaluated and interacted with 16 leading travel and airline Web sites. In addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote’s proprietary research technology collects detailed qualitative and behavioral data as customers perform tasks at each site.
The AirTran, Alaska Air, America West, American Airlines, CheapTickets, Continental, Delta, Expedia, Frontier, JetBlue, Northwest, Orbitz, Southwest, Travelocity, United, and US Airways Web sites were evaluated as part of this competitive benchmarking study.
Online Travel Agencies Fly Above Airline Sites
The Keynote study revealed a significant gap between the online travel agencies and individual airline Web sites, and showed that the advantage is rooted in a strong online customer experience. The study also drew a direct correlation between customer experience performance and conversion of site visitors into customers.
“Greater selection is a major inherent advantage for online travel agencies,” said Dr. Bonny Brown, Director of Research and Public Services for Keynote. “But online agencies are also creating a better overall online experience for customers and this is a significant contributor to the success of these sites over airline sites. The airlines are just not fully capitalizing on their loyalty programs and direct ties to the customer.”
The top three agency sites tested scored significantly better than any airline site, aside from Southwest, in customer satisfaction and customer conversion. Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity ranked as the best sites in the Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings, an overall measure of online customer experience based on evaluation of more than 250 metrics.
| Keynote Customer Experience Rankings | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Expedia |
| 2 | Orbitz |
| 3 | Travelocity |
The same sites also topped the Keynote Conversion Impact Index, which gauges the overall likelihood of a visitor to book on a site or return to the site in the future.
| Keynote Conversion Impact Index Rankings |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Expedia |
| 2 | Travelocity |
| 3 | Orbitz |
Low-Cost Carriers Fly Past Competitors
Low-cost carriers Southwest and JetBlue were rated best among other airline sites in terms of customer experience and conversion, easily topping the sites of market-leading airlines. In fact, Southwest was the only airline site to drive bookings as effectively as the online agency sites. Southwest performed well because of its industry-leading price satisfaction and because it possessed the industry’s best online booking process.
“Airlines such as Southwest and JetBlue have demonstrated that airlines can successfully compete against online travel agencies,” said Dr. Brown. “Those sites clearly take great strides to produce a positive online experience and it appears to be paying off for them.”
Web Impact on Airline Industry
The Keynote report also documented the growing importance of the Web in the airline industry, with 70% of consumers with online access saying they book air travel online compared to just 25% who call an airline customer service line. In selecting a site to book with, price is still the most important consideration with 81% of consumers self-reporting this as a factor in their decisions, followed by the ease-of-use of the Web site, which 50% of consumers reported as an important factor. The ease of booking and the ability to compare prices are the leading factors influencing consumer perceptions about ease-of-use.
Best of the Web
As part of its evaluation, Keynote also determined the specific areas most important to a site’s success and competitively ranked the sites in these categories. As a result, researchers were able to determine what consumers viewed as the best of the Web in the airline industry:
| Best of the Web – Airline Industry | |
|---|---|
| Price Satisfaction | Orbitz/Southwest |
| Design & Organization | Orbitz/United |
| Ease of Booking | Southwest |
| Flight Availability | Orbitz |
| Flight Search | Expedia |
| Customer Support | CheapTickets |
Southwest was lauded for its simple booking process which does not force registration and displays pricing information up-front. Orbitz received high marks for its pricing and its flight matrix which enables users to easily view flight options, improving the perception of flight availability. Expedia was the industry-leader in terms of providing tools that simplify the flight research process and ease of use.
The entire study, Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for the Airline Industry, is a large-scale competitive benchmarking study examining overall industry trends and providing analysis of specific sites. The full report includes hundreds of additional data points, a detailed analysis of the findings, and recommendations for improving site performance. For further information about the full report, visit http://www.keynote.com/syndicated.html.
Keynote Customer Experience Research
Keynote is the leading provider of customer experience research services, offering both syndicated and custom research examining consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. Keynote’s research provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies for a variety of vertical industries. In addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote’s proprietary research technology and access to a panel of 160,000+ consumers allows for the collection of detailed qualitative and behavioral data that inform its reports.
Keynote’s syndicated research includes two distinct types of reports: the Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings, which provide competitive benchmarking and rankings of the leading Web sites in a specific industry; and Open Web Research (OWR), which takes a broader look at the customer’s experience across the entire Web when performing specific tasks, such as booking business travel.
Keynote CE (CE) Rankings are available for a number of industries including the retail, banking and credit card industries, as well as several travel verticals, including the lodging, cruise and rental car industries. The Keynote CE Rankings are the successor to the Vividence CE Rankings following Keynote’s acquisition of Vividence in September 2004.
To learn more about Keynote’s syndicated research offerings and for a list of the various vertical industry reports that are available, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_syndicated_research.html.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the worldwide leader in e-business performance management services. Over 2,100 corporate IT departments and 16,000 individual subscribers rely on Keynote’s growing range of measurement and monitoring, service level and customer experience management services to improve e-business performance by reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and increasing profitability.
Keynote is viewed as The Internet Performance Authority due to the company’s global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis over 40 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis, the company’s market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets and leading customer research that provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
© 2005 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Della Lowe, Keynote, (650) 403-3233, dlowe@keynote.com
Dan Cahill, Roaring PR (for Keynote), (415) 552-3999, dcahill@roaringcommunications.com