Ryanair has unveiled its new-look website, the primary in a chain of improvements to Ryanair.com because the budget airline continues with plans to shake off its reputation for poor customer support.
The new-look website offers a less cluttered homepage and simpler booking process, scaling down the collection of clicks essential to book a flight from 17 to five. Ryanair has already removed features which includes Recaptcha and is planning further updates including a passenger registration service and fare finder feature because it looks to make it easier and faster for patrons to finish bookings.
Ryanair says: “We’re happy to unveil our new look home page, the primary in loads of significant improvements to the Ryanair.com website which we’ll be rolling out over the arrival months as we continue to enhance our customer support and passenger experience.”
This is simply the newest move from Ryanair to enhance its brand reputation within the face of growing criticism from both customers and shareholders over its poor customer support. The airline currently languishes on the bottom of just about every metric for airlines on YouGov’s BrandIndex, from reputation and satisfaction through to impression and quality.
Previously this criticism hadn’t worried the firm as a result of its strong growth. However, Ryanair recently issued its second profit warning of the year, cutting its forecast for the year to March from €570m to €510m, below the €569m it made last year.
The airline also predicted there’ll be a “pause” in traffic growth over the following year.
Changes already announced include a cut in fees and a shift to totally allocated seating. Ryanair is additionally overhauling its digital business plan, with the airline investing more in mobile and social media and is currently trying to hire its first marketing director.