Partner experience
What might a white-label experience be when TripActions offers affiliate experiences?
Background
The challenge + opportunity
In Q4 FY 2022, Lufthansa Group sent out a bid to travel management companies for a white-label experience. As one of TripActions leading investors, we felt we needed to answer this challenge but in a way that would be scalable should we expand this offering to more than LHG.
The approach
Spread across a few weeks, we pitched the ideal version of what a Lufthansa Group experience would be on the TripActions platform. We aimed to provide only certain customizable aspects while ensuring the TripActions foundation and service was also at an equal presence. In the summer of FY 2023, we also are entertaining expanding this to a more holistic Partner Experience.
The team
1 PM (changed product owners over a few months)
1 engineering manager
1 product designer
The timeline
1-2 weeks of designs for the Pitch
* Pitch included the different phases of how we would implement: proof of concept > MVP. This was prior to further investigation of technical constraints and needs for actual features.
For each new feature, about 1-2 days of design.
The requirements
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Cobranding with a partner
We had to establish an in-product principle of the amount of cobranding and customization we would want to support – without having to build a completely separate engine or experience. We landed on a cobranding logo lock-up (in product), custom background images, loading animations, and applying the partner’s primary color in navigation.
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Supporting rewards and benefits
The key differentiator in the TripActions Partner Affiliate experience is not just the cobranding, but offering users ways to more easily earn and use the benefits/rewards points acquired in our platform. For Lufthansa Group, the only way to use the PartnerPlusBenefit points a company accrued was to call an LHG representative. Now, TripActions can serve as the direct-to-consumer gateway.
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Show value and growth
In the summer of FY 2023, we are working on the Partner Affiliate experience – which aims to give visibility and tracking to our partners. The Partners serve as another sales source and they own this channel. What insight and progress can we provide them on the customers that enroll in the program?
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Expanding purchase options
This goal is shared across the company – to expand the types of add-ons a customer/traveler can purchase on our platform. As an aggregator, it’s uncommon/unheard of to be able to purchase different upgrades, meals, wifi, etc. that is historically limited to direct-purchasing (ie you can do this direct on an airline’s website, but usually not on Priceline).
* To optimize these .gifs, there is some gradient & transparency loss
Where it is now + what’s up next…
Our partner experience has been launched with Lufthansa Group as the inaugural sales customer. Focused on small businesses in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), companies joining TripActions through this channel have access to earn BenefitPoints (the LHG rewards system) and using them on flights bought on TripActions. We’ll be expanding the BenefitPoints system to all TripActions users in the near future.
Next up is building out the Partner Hub, a central location for partners to follow how their customers are doing– where they’re spending and earning, and more. For more details, please reach out as this project is also still currently ongoing and cannot be shared publicly.