Funnel Frustrations to Fixes: Optimising a Travel Giant

Welcome to another edition of Friday Funnel Fix! Every Friday, we dive deep into the nitty-gritty of website optimisation to help you turn more clicks into conversions. Whether it’s a landing page, checkout process, or overall user experience, we’re here to diagnose what’s working and prescribe actionable fixes that will have your conversion rates soaring. Let’s get your funnel firing on all cylinders!

Today we are going to do a review of a well-known travel site that allows booking of trains to the continent. Having recently used the website to book a train, I was left slightly frustrated, not only did I get charged twice (a 3d secure validation error) but I also had to go through the process a few times to find the best times for us to travel. On a positive, I do love how quick it is to get to the continent on their service!

So first things first the booking path was clean, they had a clear concise button that said "Search" and utilised an FMI (Forward Motion Indicator) to get me to click through to the booking page, so far so good.

On arrival at the booking page, there are a lot of things that are right, I can search by number plate, and easily give them the extra info, but here's the rub as I scroll down and get to the point of continuing I can't find the continue button... I look about the page, I can see the sign-in option, but can't see checkout/continue... Then I finally see it, they have an ever-present overlay in a light purple, that's pretty good, it confirms some bits of key info to me, but on both mobile and desktop the continue button is partially covered by the help icon, and they are the buttons same colour!

I couldn't see the button because it didn't stand out, I had subconsciously assumed it was a cookie policy acceptance, and then when I looked in detail it was half covered up.

It's great that they offer a help solution, but one has to consider how many people ask how to continue.

Funnel Prescription:

- Test changing the colour of the continue button so it contrasts and stands out more.

- Move the help button so it doesn't cover the main page CTA.

- Test Increasing the size of the 'Continue' button (especially on mobile) so it is easier to click.

The rest of the process was fairly straight forward and I even got my refund in a few days, but I was left struck by how many large organisations are missing out on these key usability and conversion features.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Funnel Fix! Remember, the smallest tweaks can lead to the biggest gains. Keep testing, keep optimising, and keep driving those conversions. If you’ve got a website you’d like us to review, or if you have any burning questions we’d love to hear from you! See you next Friday for another dose of conversion-boosting insights!