Kuoni is a luxury travel agency service that was established in 1906 in Switzerland. Kuoni grew to be the biggest travel company in Switzerland and arrived in the UK in 1965. Since then, Kuoni has grown to become the country’s leading long haul tour operator, has picked up over 200 service and travel awards and has opened over 40 Kuoni stores. Their main selling point is exceptional service and beautiful destinations and have partnerships with hotels and even some islands that are exclusive to their customers. In 2014 they launched their responsive website which is what will be evaluated.
The AIPD model will be used to analyse the website. (Simeon, 1999)
Attracting
The website is aimed at a market who can afford luxury holidays. So these are going to be working professionals and also people who have retired, probably between the ages of 30 and 75. This is a large range of ages so it is important that the website appeals and is user friendly to this large age range. The purpose of the website is to encourage people to buy luxury holidays with them, so the website includes lots of imagery of beautiful destinations, and lots of options for the user to talk to them, whether that is online on their chat service, over the phone or in a store. This could appeal to all the age ranges as older people are more likely to want to speak to a travel agent in person to plan their holiday. The homepage emphasises that the holidays are tailor made to your liking by experts and that no two are the same, this cements the view that this is luxury, not a budget travel agency that organises cheap holidays.
Informing
The website is very user friendly and easy to navigate. You can search for specific destinations and see the kind of hotels and activities Kuoni offer in that destination. You can look at their offers or their holiday types. Or you can go through to the ‘Inspire Me’ page which acts as a kind of travel blog with articles about different destinations and why you should visit them. Graphically it is all very clean cut and simple to read and understand. It would be very easy for someone who doesn’t use the internet much, to navigate which is important regarding parts of their target audience so they have definitely thought about their customer. The role of the website is Service oriented / relationship building with a view to become transactional (Chaffey & Ellis Chadwick, 2016). Something that could be improved upon here is perhaps attracting new customers and not just aiming at older people. There are no ad banners on the site which too improves usability and Ivesp (2001) says that removing these distractions improves the customer experience.
Positioning
The website has an offer of the week on every week. This would encourage people to come back weekly and check the offer but as this is a luxury brand, discounts don’t seem to be offered apart from in sale periods. In terms of unique merchandise and customised products this is what the brand does best and all holidays can be tailor made and everything is customisable. Variety of products is large. Valacich, Parboteeah, and Wells (2007) say that “Consumers visit sites not only to search for products/ services, but also to have rich, entertaining experiences.” Kuoni is only offering images to have these entertaining experiences. There are no videos easily accessed, or music, or any other interactive activity.
Delivery
The after sales service seems to be pretty well reviewed on the website. Once you have purchased your holiday, Kuoni communicates with you up until your holiday and afterwards. Customer service is their big focus here so is undoubtedly something that is addressed. You can’t actually purchase holidays on the website, you have to speak to an agent to book the holiday, the website is more for informational purposes. Perhaps so an agent can up sell you or ensure that you are getting that luxury service, it says on the website they want you to get that personal touch. The focus is all on the customer.