Blog homeOne of the problems that I have written about before is how do you launch a web based travel community when you are a risk averse large travel company. After all, creating a community is about creating the right environment – but in the end it is the people in the community (the members, not the staff) who really determine whether it will be a success or not. Also community management can require a different set of skills to running an ecommerce operation so additional recruitment to cover the new roles may be needed.
The core dilemma is that with a large brand it is a risk to start small because it doesn’t reflect very well on the brand…. and people will expect more of your site than it initially delivers. However you can’t build a new community overnight. This is why so many existing communities are being purchased by the leading travel companies as it is easier to buy than build (also completely removes the element of risk involved in building a community from scratch)
MakeMyTrip are an India based OTA travel dot com with an annual revenue of 125 million USD. They have a travel community called OkTaTa Bye Bye
I have a couple of thoughts about their community website:
Branding strategy
There is no mention of the ownership of the site at all (no connection with the MakeMyTrip.com company). I assume therefore that they are following the strategy of “release under a non-core brand name” and build critical mass – then integrate at some future point. In reverse, there is only one mention of OkTaTaByeBye on the MakeMyTrip.com website…. so they have pretty much disconnected them 100%.
Site design
It is a very busy design – by this I mean there are elements all over the page and you can navigate around the site for quite some time without quite knowing what you may discover on the next page. If an ecommerce website was designed like this I think people would object (and vote with their mouse) but for a website where you can find great destination content actually it makes the experience quite fun. I enjoyed navigating around wondering what I would find next.
I would liken it to walking around a cramped antique furniture shop! Everything is interesting to look at but you don’t know where to look because there is too much going on. Probably not ideal if you are looking for something specific.
Destination knowledge when its your “back garden”
One of the challenges of creating a community for travellers from India who are travelling around India is that much of the previous “destination knowledge” has been created for international travellers. I have no experience of solving this problem but I imagine that it requires a very different approach.
The grievance department
They have a new (and empty) grievance section on their website.
- Submit your complaint
- Discuss with the supplier on your own complaint page
- Reach an acceptable solution
- Share your experiences and thank everyone involved
This is where the real challenge of running an independent website at the same time as being a leading online travel agency starts. How will negative comments be handled? Will they be moderated if they are negative about the parent company?
Side note
I know that I have a problem with this under UK law….. because as a travel industry blogger – I can’t blog negatively about any direct competitor and use their trademark. Indeed, it is not just my own blog that is a problem but also the Small Fish Big Ocean community (where of course anyone can publish anything – yikes!)…. So businesses that are in the tour operator reservation business are safe from me…. but not if you run a travel website!
For example Coca-Cola can’t blog negatively about Pepsi….. but anyone who isn’t Coca-Cola can. (Yeah – this isn’t legal advice) (More information from Out-Law – UK law – Trademarks)
Rewarding loyalty
One of the aspects of their website that is notable is their loyalty point system:
I am not an expert on community loyalty schemes but this looks like a fun approach. I probably would have put in some “cost free” rewards such as have your profile on the homepage for a week. If I was a regular user I would probably be more excited by that than a pair of headphones.
Overall its a reasonable, functional, fun site. If I was responsible for it I would immediately do some usability testing to see if the overall navigation is understandable because that is my largest concern.
Incidentally, this website was reviewed as part of the “Review my website” theme that I started last weekend. I will repeat again next month. We had 6 entries this month! (more details)
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