These are peer feedback
- This is a great idea. Your business seems to include everything I can think of. You say that you will have better customer service by ensuring customers get notified of flight delays or changed but how would you ensure customer satisfaction if their flight is cancelled? Will your business have some sort of deal with the places that it books that ensure customers get full refunds for hotel and other planned events? Also, will there be a required amount of time before hand that consumers will be notified of flight delays/changes (like 1 hour after airline announces or something like that)? Having some sort of guarantee may make customers feel more prone to use your business.
- Overall, great job, Team C6. Please find my feedback below.
I think the idea/solution your group is proposing is very interesting because I’ve also had numerous negative experiences with the travel booking websites such as Expedia. Also, it can be stressful for people to plan a trip to a new place you’ve never been before since you do not know anything about your travel destination. This stress will be more significant, especially if you plan international trips and don’t speak their language. It seems like your solution can resolve these pain points by allowing people to plan their trips with suggestions and assurance.
I hope my feedbacks are helpful, and please let me know if you need any clarifications or have any questions.
Thanks!
- Peer Feedback:
#1: I’ve never heard of the KIWI travel booking website and had done some research on my own about this website. Overall, you give a good intro about the company, but it would be nice to add that their products focus on providing customers with affordable travel options.
https://www.kiwi.com/en/pages/content/about
#2: Upon researching, it seems like the customer service seemed to be the primary issue of KIWI.com, and a lot of people experienced poor customers experience with cancellation and refund. Additionally, the reviews that I found about KIWI.com in blog posts and KIWI website reviews all stated that any customer service after booking your trip was a complex and lengthy process to get a hold of the live agent. Customer experience/customer service is the most critical factor, especially for companies that offer services as a product. I see that you have noted that customer service is a problem for KIWI.com in question 4. But, I think stating this information about their poor customer experiences in this section for question #2 can be more helpful in supporting why your group believes you could kill this company.
#3: This is a great plan to offer the customer a full travel planning feature that will bring a meaningful and positive customer experience where they can book, plan and pay for their trip on the same platform. The website offers basic recommendations with the ability for the customers to customize their travel plans depending on each user’s preferences(like schedule builder). For your group’s solution to be more valuable and sound more appealing, it would be nice to add how you’ll resolve the current pain points or prepare for any problems that might arise from the new solution you are proposing can kill KIWI.com. So I believe adding more info about how your solution will bring certain emotional benefits, financial benefits, positive customer service experience, or specifically mentioning the details will be helpful.
#4: I know this question was optional, but I would like to comment that you have a good starting point that customer service is a critical component for your group as the “Killer” organization. But your notes don’t specify which management practices your group will practice encouraging your company employees to do better than the KIWI company you are killing. It would be nice to think about what your group can do as a manager or a company to encourage your employees to work and offer exceptional service to your users and customers.
Actively shaping and managing positive company culture or Recruiting diverse people is something I can think of that you can do as a manager. I believe recruiting various and diverse people in the customer service department can lead to a more customizable customer service experience for users worldwide in providing them with more exceptional service in assisting them. Also, company culturing is essential because working in a customer service dept can be extremely stressful. Customer service agents should be happy themselves(not stressed) to provide a positive experience to their customers — so management practices that resolve employee stress could be another option.
#5: I found this article that shows travel planning apps that don’t offer the same solution but aim for similar service and value to the customers. To name a few, I think wanderlog, tripit, and google maps/travel could also threaten the success of your idea. If these existing products/services partner with larger travel booking websites, they can leverage and deliver a more enhanced customer experience with their data and technology.
- Great job giving a clear-cut description of the company because it’s something I’m not familiar with. I think you might also want to add a just bit more background about the company; market share, their dominance, app, etc.
- I think the weakness is clearly stated, but it could also be considered a positive for some users. For example, having too many options might not be a bad thing- people want the freedom to craft up their own travel plan using the tool to assist them, not make all the decisions. Your app is probably better, but this argument needs to be refuted in your paper on why the app is superior other than just less choices to reduce time/stress. Dive deeper into how you’re superior in the way you’re more like a live travel agent, which was a very good competitive advantage.
- This part is great and really fills in the gaps from the part above. I love the detailed explanation of how you’re using tech for that specific goal, but we’re definitely missing quite a bit of the meat of the step-by-step planning to launch this company, which will probably be added in the final version.
Overall, great work Team!
- Great job team C6, I really like your idea. Your app basically contains many services that users desire. Provide users with very convenient services. But I still have some questions. For example, when people want to find a tour guide to travel with them, will the platform provide tour guides? Is car rental service available? Maybe this would be a good idea. If users can get their own car at the airport, I think this will bring a very convenient experience to users.
We listened to the feedback and made changes to it.
You will need to complete the seventh question below based on this information. (1 page)
This is the complete project
KILL A COMPANY
- Briefly introduce the company (or product, service, technology) that you will “kill”. Make sure that even someone completely unfamiliar with the company understands what this company produces.
Our company will be killing Kiwi.com. This is an online travel booking website that allows users to book airfare, accommodations, a few activities at specific destinations, cruises, rental cars, and occasionally sells packages that include all of the aforementioned items. Users also pay for their booked items online at the time of booking.
Kiwi.com does not offer a great deal of personalization for the user. It only handles simple booking. A user has to know exactly where and when they intend to go up front. All hotels are presented as options and since the site knows nothing about the user it offers no recommendations suitable to the user. This site knows nothing about the customer and therefore cannot provide a level of service that can be considered anything other than basic reservations.
- What are the weaknesses of the company that make you believe you can “kill” it? Clearly explain how you know that these are weaknesses.
The weakness of Kiwi is that it doesn’t help people with their full itinerary. Someone first has to select where they want to go and then determine which flight they need, then pick their own accommodations from anywhere within 20+ miles of their destination. Overall, they offer all the options a user could ever want with no guidance. Having too many options can lead to analysis paralysis and make it difficult to choose what’s best without a substantial time investment and the stress of just trying to plan a simple vacation. [Insert co here] also does nothing to help with questions concerning what restaurants may be available, what may or may not be best for family travel, and really only gives the user a basic framework where the user may have to spend a lot of time filling in the rest of the details. Overall, it could potentially take weeks to come up with an entire itinerary after booking the simple transportation and accommodations.
Online travel booking has been a great improvement over the way travel plans were done in the past without a live travel agent but it lacks the personal touches that a travel agent would have traditionally provided. Kiwi’s weakness is that they don’t go far enough in providing users a fully formed travel plan.
- Present a detailed plan for how you would put the company out of business. How would you serve its customers better? How do you know that your product or service will be better than what the company is currently offering?
– Itinergizer (Itenerary Engergizer?) – Consider our product a concierge level travel booking site. This company asks a number of questions similar to what turbo tax does and builds a fully detailed itinerary based on user inputs in various categories. Categories include travel companions, travel style (adventure, luxury, etc), travel type (family, individual), travel pace, leisure preferences, meal preferences, budget, trip start/end dates, and trip duration. Our product uses machine learning to categorize similar users to determine appropriate activities based on what others with a similar profile like. It also uses an algorithm to identify the best transportation options to fit each user, locates hotels that are within budget and near appropriate activities. Our algorithm also locates potential restaurants that will be near the travelers’ activities or hotels based on the users’ specific tastes. By conducting our initial interview we’re able to build a traveler profile and even recommend destinations.
We also save this information to expedite future travel. When a user returns to plan a new trip they only have to review the previously entered preferences and our algorithm guides them through the rest. Perhaps instead of a cultural exploration somewhere like Athens, this time the user just wants a relaxing vacation somewhere warm. Our system might recommend a number of destinations including Nassau, Hawaii, or perhaps Fiji (depending on previously asked questions).
Example of Options Filtering and User Preferences Interview
Our website provides an initial itinerary that’s fully planned but also fully editable by the user via click and drag blocks to rearrange the details of their trip. If any aspect of the trip is not to the user’s liking they can click on that portion and have it search for other options. Once the user is happy with the trip itinerary they can purchase directly from our website. Once purchased the user will have full access to make changes to the options on their itinerary that do not require purchases (restaurants, attractions, etc.). Transportation tickets and accommodations may be altered based on availability and may incur additional fees and costs. Our itineraries will also come with digital guide books containing information about the surrounding area, menus for the proposed restaurants (if available), and reviews for all the locations and attractions on their itineraries.
Additionally, we offer something no other online booking providers offer. The ability to plan collaboratively. Suppose there’s a group of people who intend to travel together but are not in the same family. As things are today, a single member of the group would have to book everything for all people or each person would have to book separately. Our site would also offer a collaborative approach. People can select their flights and accommodations together and split the costs (e.g. if they choose to share a room). Since they can also each have their own restaurant and activity preferences our algorithms can choose itinerary items that suit each traveler to make trips that work out best for each member of the group. This will help travelers better negotiate travel plans for everyone’s benefit.
Where our product/service succeeds is that all the heavy lifting is done for the users. No more needing to search for the top 10 things to do at the destination. No more having to wonder about what there is to eat there. And if it’s not how someone likes to travel, no problem, we’ll have a slider that allows the user to determine the level of detail in their itinerary. Slide to the left and only basic items like transportation and lodging will be presented. Slide to the right and all aspects of the trip will be planned with little to no unplanned time on the itinerary. Taking a user’s input and desires, and budget into account before beginning to create a plan for them is at the heart of our product.
- Recommend two or more effective management practices to the “killer” organization. What would you as a manager do to make this organization effective in killing its “victim” company? Be sure to use at least one course material in answering this question. This and #3 above are the most important aspects of the assignment. ( Lang )
- Kiwi has had many complaints about their customer services. The company states that they will fully be engaged and will protect customers from disruptions of delays, cancellations and schedule changes. However, customers’ feedbacks reflects that they did good job on informing customers about flights delays, and didn’t provide good resolutions to customers
- Our company will focus on customer service by encouraging customers to provide feedback through our surveys. We will have 24/7 customer services to assist people.
- We also provide better technology which notify and inform customers if their flights are deployed or changed
- Which competing products or services may threaten the success of your idea? Clearly explain what these products are and why your idea will succeed despite this threat. If you believe that your idea has no competition, explain what you did to arrive at this conclusion
We believe that existing booking websites could threaten our idea by having in-person customer service that can help them book their vacation whereas currently Expedia and Kiwi aren’t doing it.
We expect that other sites will attempt to replicate our services and develop their own algorithms to compete with us. However, we don’t believe they’ll have the digital resources to compete and we intend on protecting our intellectual property through patents and other legal protections.
Currently, there are a few other online travel booking providers that have enough of the right type of data that they could potentially compete with us but we don’t believe Kiwi is currently in a position to do so.
. 6. What benefits will the company’s customers and/or society at large receive from you killing the company? Be brief and specific.
Our product goes well beyond what’s currently available and essentially becomes the travel agent of the future. All the benefits of a traditional travel agent with the automation and convenience of the current travel booking sites. Current travel booking sites provide a quick way to book the basic travel needs (i.e. transportation and lodging) but lack the capabilities of catering the entire travel experience (i.e. places to see, things to do, and where to eat). Our service also provides a customized guide book based on the customers’ interests. In the future people will wonder how people ever had a good vacation without being provided a full itinerary to assist them.
- Briefly describe how you used peer feedback to develop your project. If you did not use peer feedback, explain why you did not find it useful.
