Aer Lingus Loyalty Email Communications

Client:     AerClub / Aer Lingus
Role:        UX/UI/Product Designer
Date:       2022/2023

The inbox is a busy place. If you don’t capture attention in a few seconds, there are plenty of other emails that will. A captivating email design stands out, conveys a message, represents your brand and drives interaction.

Overview

In 2022, the Aer Lingus Digital Experience team held a number of workshops with various stakeholders to review and identify critical areas for improvement across our customer communications. Some emails (from a suite of 40+ emails) had not been revisited in almost 15 years. Most emails were originally designed for use on web, and did not meet accessibility standards or new branding requirements.

Strategy & Planning

Our first task was to form a working group (project pod) in order to map, prioritise and schedule the deliverables.

  • Roles & Responsibilities
  • Capacity planning
  • Email categorisation
  • Workflow process
  • Ways of working

Project Objectives

Our first task was to examine the existing set of emails and the information they provide. Some important considerations were;

  • Migration to a new email service provider
  • Surface the right content, actions and information to the right customers at the right time
  • Make our emails responsive (or adaptive as necessary)
  • Ensure our emails are WCAG accessibility compliant
  • Provide legally required information (IATA Compliance, US Dept of Transport Compliance)
  • Ensure copy & Tone of Voice is consistent with the Aer Lingus brand and similar messaging we use on the website
  • Improve the availability of Support information for those who may need it – US/EU/UK Guests

Method

One of the first groups of Emails that were scheduled for improvement was the AerClub ‘Tier Move’ emails. AerClub is the loyalty program of Aer Lingus and this group of emails are sent to confirm a member’s progress up the member tier structure (there are 4 membership tiers). A detailed brief from Stakeholders outlined their goals and ambitions for the redesigned emails. From a UX point of view, we asked:

  • What job is this email trying to do?
  • Who are the audience?
  • What information is most important to the recipient of this email?
  • What is the information hierarchy?
  • Any other compliance or regulatory items?
  • Translations?

We researched competitors’ approach to loyalty program messaging – What are they doing well? What are they NOT doing well? We gathered any relative data on AerClub membership – demographic information, age, gender, location, their level of engagement with AerClub. How is similar information delivered on web & app? We looked at the AerClub brand position – is there any appetite for modernising the brand styling – which had not been reviewed in 7 years?

Design

Once a final scope had been defined and agreed, we were ready to evaluate and prioritise project tasks. The first step in the design cycle was to map-out the existing list of email variants. There are 4 membership Tiers and it is possible to be promoted to, demoted from and maintain each membership tier.