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Project Overview
David Lloyd has 450,000 members who make over 6,000,000 class, court or course bookings every year. A programme of investment in our clubs and our products provided the perfect opportunity to build a world class mobile app to change the way our members manage their relationship with the club and take pressure away from receptionists who, at peak times, were fielding call after call from members trying to book their favourite classes.
Organisation
Team
The project team was built around David Lloyd's internal product owners, analysts and project managers working very closely with two agencies:
Maido, the design/UI/UX agency, provided a head of design, a senior designer and a project manager.
Softwire, the technology and development team, provided a flexible team of 6 to 8 multi skilled engineers, covering API, database, back end and UI development and testing.
Our stakeholders, a combination of product teams and the David Lloyd board members, set the target of increasing the number of online bookings from below 50% to 80% and increase our member satisfaction by replacing a 1 star App with a 5 star experience.
Project Brief
Imagine taking over 6,000,000 bookings a year from 450,000 members but no mobile App? After completing the roll out of a responsive website and booking system, our members were crying out for a simple, elegant and quick way to book their classes.
2015 became the year of 'Book anything, anywhere, any time!'. Prime focus was member experience with a mobile first mindset and design and UX as priority one.
The two key business drivers:
1) Replace the existing 1 star App, responding to the very clear AppStore feedback - "the App needs to let me book my classes and courts"
2) Facilitate the core business strategy to focus on our 'member experience' by freeing up receptionist time in clubs, allowing them to greet our members and provide a premium experience in the club. In January last year, over 50% of bookings were made at reception. Since launching the App, we currently stand at only 23% of bookings now made at reception, with a target to reduce this to 15% as the App is rolled out further.
Project Need
Our clubs are much more than gyms and tennis courts - they are an experience for the whole family and our App needed to reflect the brand. No one else in our industry has an App which provides such a simple, elegant and design led booking journey, enabling members to book their exercise classes, parents to book kids into the kids sessions and tennis fans to book courts with their playing partners and opponents.
With design and UX at the core of the project, the technical implementation built APIs on top of our existing booking system to provide a PhoneGap platform with the business rules and data needed to satisfy the user journeys, interfaces and experiences we had mapped out.
User Experience
After logging in (once only), our members enter the world of a David Lloyd Club. Greeted by one of 5 hero images, the member is reminded of the premium brand they have joined. Options to find a class, book a court or view the timetable are immediately presented. From here, the journey to complete a booking is made so simple it feels like the first step towards the satisfaction you feel when you have finished your workout or game.
We knew we were on to a winner when, during UX testing with our members, the transition used to confirm the booking never failed to raise a smile and an audible gasp of delight. A constant cycle of design, prototype, test and feedback was used before any real development started. This was then repeated during the build process and continues today as the team look to constantly improve the member experience and build new features.
Project Marketing
Our marketing strategy has been simple. We were confident that the demand for the App and the quality of what had been delivered would mean when one member knew about it, all would follow. We provided our clubs with some printed materials, promoted the App on our website and social media sites, emailed our member database and told our club teams to show members how great it is. Two weeks later we have 25,000 downloads, 30,000 bookings, great retention and member feedback.
Project Privacy
The mobile App uses secure APIs for authentication and transfer of member data. We limit member data returned in the APIs and no sensitive data is either captured or stored in the App. All data exchanges use secure http.
Our members can also determine whether their name can be searched/found in the App (in order for other players to add them to their bookings). Members can opt out and remain private.
Entertainment & Leisure
Apps have overtaken entertainment & leisure. They influence what and how we watch or listen to, where and how we eat, dine and play, how we book and how we interact before during and after entertainment events. We're looking for apps that make entertainment even more entertaining.
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