As consumers, when we think of petrol stations, we typically think of filling up our vehicles, picking up a snack, and whether or not we have a fuel discount offer to use. AA Smartfuel was keen to understand their customer base, what they valued and what they found difficult to use within their current app. By understanding their current customer needs and usage, the AA Smartfuel team was able to future proof the app for innovative offers and enhancements to their loyalty programme.
Loyalty programmes have notoriously high levels of inactive members. A key rationale to redesign the app was to make the app more attractive to inactive members, as well as support future loyalty programme developments for active members. Industry trends towards low and zero carbon mobility options were also a consideration for the AA Smartfuel team – how could they maintain relevance in a rapidly changing environment? How could AA Smartfuel evolve their offering to be part of every customer journey, no matter how the customer chooses to travel? Non-fuel redemption offers will certainly be part of the future of the programme too.
Rather than leaping straight into a build-test phase for the app, based purely on AA Smartfuel’s strategic objectives, the team were intent on undertaking a UX Discovery and UX Design phase to ensure that the app design allowed for future loyalty developments. The design would need to allow for the redemption of points for more than just fuel (credit or vouchers for other redemption partners, and other types of discounts). The app design also needed to be flexible enough to enable rapid scalability to bring new partners on board to the programmes – both at the front and back end of the product.