Transforming Travel Experiences

In this edition of Seriously Curious, Chris Rockwell chats with Lizzy Martinez, General Manager of Consumer Research and Advisory at Delta Airlines, about how Delta uses customer insights to elevate travel experiences. From "revenge travel" trends to free in-flight Wi-Fi and biometrics, discover how Delta is creating premium journeys that begin before takeoff and continue beyond the destination.

Transcript

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Welcome back, everyone, to Seriously Curious, a podcast about all things UX, for research, strategy and design. My name is Chris Rockwell. I'm president and founder of Lextant. And, today I'm super happy to have with me Lizzy Martinez, who's general manager of consumer research and advisory at Delta Airlines. Lizzie, I always start with kind of, a little bit more about, you know, yourself and how you got to this point in your career. Sure. I'll start by really what I think about as my kind of personal career motto, which is all about really illuminating consumer insight to inspire brand action and the reason I started there is because it it kind of connects nicely to when I was really navigating what I wanted to do. The things I, I knew got me excited, was really having a deeper understanding for human beings. I've always just been fascinated by why people do the things they do when they do them. And I also wanted to always be able to link that to an action I went to graduate school. Got my masters in market research, getting to kind of both dive into the statistical techniques that can inform, consumer base decisions, but also the that, that rich qualitative and macro trend type of capabilities. So that's really what landed me in in the field that I've been in now for I think almost 13 years. That's amazing. So tell us a little bit about your role at Delta. Yeah. So, I lead a team of amazing people, amazing kind of in insight, folks who really support any need that Delta has when it comes to more deeply understanding a consumer or a customer. You know, one one mechanism that we regularly use is were super, bought into Net Promoter Score and really understanding how that can uncover, powerful insight around day of travel customer experience. But my team, in addition to looking at that, will also go a lot broader and will want to understand just general consumer trends and how that impacts our category, and also kind of broad flier behavior and what matters to them, how that's evolving. And any kind of custom work that the, the data of our that our NPS survey can't answer and that we need to kind of design something more specific to tackle that particular business. Problem. So so I noticed the advisory in your title. So tell us how you're using the insights to support the organization and decision making. Yeah. That really is a critical component of the team because in and it really goes back to kind of that that motto I even have for myself. Right. Like it's it's great to uncover human truths and more deeply understand why people do the things they do. But if at the end of the day, we aren't developing relationships with the people that will execute on that and get them on board and inspire them to want to actually make change in our experiences in the products we're delivering, then it's ultimately not a success. So I would say, you know, within our team, we spend almost an equal amount of time in executing on research, as we do on building those relationships, making sure we understand what is the real problem we have to solve, what is the decision that this research will actually drive action against? So it's almost you have to start there, and then you also have to get it right when you end, you know, how do you land the message in a way that resonates, that, people feel they know what to do with. And I think that is what makes for a real kind of successful project. Yeah. We use the pillars clarity, alignment in action. You know, it's sort of like how do you get clarity? What are the insights that are really the truth. So as you say, you know, and then how do you use that to align an organization. And then how do you activate the knowledge in the organization for better decision making? I think one of the things I love about customer experience or user experience is the at the heart of that is storytelling, right? You can tell stories of today, the experiences that people have today and the stories of tomorrow, the things that people wish for and that gets an organization excited, you know? No, I always say nobody, comes to work, you know, to design a product or service that, you know, customers hate and that is hard to use. Like nobody has that goal. So how do we equip and arm the organization, you know, with insights to to help them do their job better? Where does experience kind of fit in? In the core ethos, you know, of Delta, the in the role that you're doing about really intimately understanding your customers, where does that all fit? And, what do you think from a brand standpoint, Delta is trying to own? It's an interesting time at Delta, as it is for everyone. I think as we've come out of the global pandemic and, deal with kind of how that has disrupted our industry. So I would say if we win back to 2019, we were in this moment where experiences and just like the desire for experiences with travel being, you know, one great example of that was just taking off. It's been it's been, a place a lot of consumers are putting their money, and more of their money than they are in goods. And that's what we seeing kind of pre-pandemic. And we were feeling it. Right. Because we were having record level profits. So yeah, we were in this moment, it was all about the experience. And we wanted Delta to be part of that experience. And fast forward, you know, a few months from then and the pandemic came along, which essentially put the airline to sleep and kind of made us have to completely rethink what we needed to do to keep it afloat, to make our customers feel comfortable and safe and secure. And you know that that was our world for a couple of years. Fast forward to now. Really, what's happened is we've seen those same trends that existed back in 2019 where people were just all about experiences and travel. They had to put all of that on hold. They had to go, you know, kind of lock themselves up in their homes and now they need it more than ever. You know, people and, you know, this term revenge travel has floated around, for the past several years. You know, people are just getting back to the thing they, they have so desired to do. And so the position that puts us in is an interesting one, because in one regard, it actually has made some of the functional promises become more important than ever. And by that I mean beyond just being able to deliver a really cool and what we hope to be a premium experience, we have to make sure we can get people where they want to go when they want to go there, which is really the foundation of, you know, what our category does because people have so much expectation and they're they're dreaming about getting, you know, back out there. So if we can't get that right, they don't want to pay attention, that, that's all we lose them at that point. Yeah. And so and so this idea of core value proposition and recovering, when we don't do it right, really, really well has become the backbone. And in the first step. But beyond that, it is also another opportunity for us to really dial up the experience. So when we get that right, knowing that we we don't only, we don't only want to be an airline, we want to be that best in class customer experience and premium airline. And so we know we have to go further. And I'd say the way we are really focused on doing that and the magic that we've always had, it goes back to where we put our dollars and our profits. It's our people, you know, we invest in the people we put in front of our customers and the training that they go through and during the pandemic, we actually used some of that time of, you know, having a bit more time on our hands in terms of not nearly as many passengers to really think what what are those emotions and those feelings We want our, our people to evoke to our customers? And so kind of getting tight on on what that is, what should represent our brand, and then standing up the trainings and giving them the tools to be able to deliver on that. Let's say that is kind of our secret sauce. And actually what we even call kind of the delta, the delta difference. Tell me more about revenge travel. So, well, one of the things we always talk about is that mobility is fundamentally about freedom and empowerment. I think, you know, when we look at the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, when it comes to mobility, you know, freedom and empowerment go where I want to go and go when I want to go there. And you mentioned point A to point B is sort of the ante, right? You have to do that. But you know, one of the things we've learned in our research and you've found as well, is that people don't want to just fly on planes, they want to have destination experiences. Right? And the experience is starting way before they are in the airport and way after they leave, you know, so when we think about that, that journey and what does it mean to have a premium experience and that awareness of that to elevate from a, a point A to point B experience to a true like destination experience? Tell me about some of the ways that you're thinking about the customer journey. Maybe beyond, you know, traditionally how we think about air travel. There's obviously a surge of stress in people's lives and this desire for well-being. And in a lot of ways, you know, stress certainly comes with air travel as well. So that's something we have to conquer and make sure we can mitigate as much as possible. But at the same time, one of the unique things that happens when you are on an airplane is you have a bit more. And we hear this from our customers, particularly kind of our high value customers that fly with us a lot is you. You have this unique ability to be cut, cut off from a lot of the distractions that are out there, and a lot of the things that can kind of induce stress and people feeling overwhelmed. And it's kind of this, you know, moment you have at 30,000ft in the air to disconnect and to reflect and to even kind of, you know, look at you're surrounded by clouds, right? I mean, it's and that way it can be a really special moment. And so we're also just thinking in how how do you lean into that. How do you help, help enable that me time in that that moment to de-stress that a lot of people are really yearning for right now? I'd say what we have seen in research we've done is revenge travel is a lot about unlocking the dream that people have just been sitting on, particularly in the last few years, and, you know, that's actually it's it's not even unique to leisure travel. So that's obviously a big piece of it is, you know, going on that amazing trip of a lifetime, which for me, by the way, is a safari in two weeks, which is very much me leaning into my own dreams. Okay, I have a I, I feel this personally, but it's also about people getting back, actually, to even a business trip. Right. And what's, what's and being able to connect with colleagues, you know, face to face. And not only that, but something else that we've seen really kind of fast forward and and continue to grow is this, this, this world of everything blending. So, you know, a leisure trip is to some extent, not only a leisure trip because we, we so often can bring our work with us. And, you know, in the same way, a business trip is not always only a business trip. And so and again, this was something that existed pre-pandemic, but the amount of individuals who now can fully work remotely, or just the fact that flex flexibility, has become much more commonplace at work, it's enabling this kind of blend moment within both leisure and business trips, which again, helps people in almost any occasion have the ability to kind of lean in on these dreams. And so that really it goes back to why, first and foremost, we got to get them to their dream. But then what's even more important and kind of the ideal state is how do we become part of that dream. Right. So those are the things we want to do. Like you don't have to wait to land at your destination to start. Our aspiration is we are we are part of the journey that you're enjoying. Yeah. And so that's that's the real challenge. I mean, that's both the challenge and what makes it really fun. And, we've even done work with you all. With some of our kind of ultra high value customers. And, you know, we know things like the the Sky club experience, right? Like, that's in the middle of the journey. But that's like a moment of calm. That is that is a moment that makes waiting not feel like waiting. Yeah. And so how do we unlock those moments for our customers? As soon as they step into the airport, maybe even before. We find that consumers don't expect, brands to be perfect. They just expect them to be responsive when things don't go well. And that can be a huge challenge for, you know, the airline when you have like, you know, impossible logistics sometimes. Right. But so tell me a little bit about like that service empowerment idea because I think it's so key to, that idea of recovery and that idea of that extra, that extra sense of, luxury and service in the experience. You know, tell me a little bit about how that's working. Yeah, it is definitely something we're thinking a lot about. And focusing a lot of time to, to try and get it right. And I'd say, you know, one thing that we really have work that can really work well for us and that we are also highly concentrated on, is the role that digital and kind of self service can play when it comes to any kind of service failure moment. Versus going back to that secret sauce that we believe is the delta difference through our people and how we use them. And so I'd say, you know, we spend a lot of time understanding and continuing to think about what are the expectations and the needs of our customers based on different types of ways. We, you know, we might not meet their expectations. And really, you know, going back to that point about flexibility, it's not necessarily a digital versus human. It's how have we set up the right processes and procedures and infrastructure. So both exist. So you can have the tools or the human beings that are needed for whatever that for that customer in that moment in time. And so that is that is a lot of what, you know. And one thing we also know is it's about communication. And we gotta we got to try to be transparent and to regularly help. The worst thing for a customer is just not knowing what's happening, right? And that's part. Yeah, that's one of the things that's just so challenging about our category in general is, you know, there's a lot of potential loss of control moments. And so when you layer on a service failure to that, that's an additional moment of loss of control. And so again it's just what are the different ways we can help mitigate that as quickly as possible. And hopefully in an experience that doesn't make it feel as painful. Right, Right. I love the idea of, control because that's part of being relaxed, right? You mentioned, and in our discussion the other day about going beyond journey to Joy, like, you know, you know, if you're if you're having an out of control moment in your travel experience, you're not experiencing joy, especially when you have, you know, kids and all this stuff that you know, can come up with travel. So the, you mentioned two things. I talk a lot about ambiguity and unpredictability being the like universal destroyers of experience, you know, when I don't know what's going on and I can't really figure it out. Or the process seems random, like two things are happening that seem the same, but I'm getting a different reaction from the system. You know, the experience that I'm having, ambiguity and unpredictability being like, just the antithesis of a great experience sometimes when it comes to travel, one of the things we found is that it's hard thing for people to understand because they don't understand the, all the mechanisms behind all the magic, right? Everything that's working. So, how do we kind of demystify and help people understand what's happening and why it's happening? Like you say, communication is a is a key, whether that be in a self-service touchpoint or whether it's a human touchpoint. But being able to clarify that it's kind of a mystery, like, what are my options? And like, you know, how do I maximize my experience? And there's this sense, I think sometimes in travel that people feel like they're a leaf in the wind. You know, they kind of like they don't really they don't have any control over what's happening to them. So I love that idea of empowerment, like consumer empowerment through associate empowerment, you know, to serve and to help people understand and create clarity and experience. It's a great I think, you know, I really like where Delta is headed with this idea of premium and experience, the coupling of those two things, because I think you're doing some amazing, work, even down to the little stuff. Tell us about, like, the in-plane experience. I think you mentioned, like, Wi-Fi the other day. And, it's such an expectation now, everywhere we go, you expect to have Wi-Fi. So when you get on a plane and it's like, you know, you can't connect, you know, you kind of feel, again, out of control or untethered. Yeah. So Wi-Fi is a funny one because just as you mentioned, it's certainly, you know, people expect free and fast Wi-Fi kind of wherever they go, whenever they need it. And that isn't necessarily the experience a lot of people get when they're flying on an airplane, because as you can imagine, it's a bit more challenging when you're trying to provide that, you know, in a metal tube, right? Forty thousand feet in the, in the sky. But it is something that Ed Bastian, our CEO, a few years back felt passionate that we needed to do because he recognized that this is a growing expectation and that it's something if we're going to be a leading airline, we need to deliver on. And so we, actually have become the first of kind of those key legacy US carriers to offer fast free Wi-Fi on our planes, which has been an incredible effort that took a lot of hard work. And we've been really excited about it. So that is something that, you know, as long as you sign up to be a member of our kind of loyalty program called SkyMiles, then you have access to free fast Wi-Fi when, you're on board with us. And I think what where the true innovation comes. So that's kind of innovative within the space of air travel. But what we have really seek to do is take that a bit further. So, you know, once you are connected and you're connected through your membership with Delta, we set up something that we're calling Delta Sync. And what Delta Sync does is it kind of syncs you up to other benefits that can be enjoyed once you're connected and those are things like just important flight information. So again, since we know who you are, we can help you understand and communicate with communicate with you about important points of your travel journey with us, which is something we actually know our customers are very interested in being able to do. And also we have partners that we're actually kind of standing up new, new offers with the new experiences with that are free for our customers. So an example of this is you. If you've logged on to our Wi-Fi, you can have access to Paramount Plus and all of its content. While you're on board with us, regardless if you have a membership. There are a number of other examples, but it is. It's kind of this cool space of how do we supercharge this moment of free connectivity to have incremental experiences that are relevant for our customers while you're onboard. Right? Yeah. So again, getting beyond the travel to the destination experience or to wellness and entertainment or, you know, whatever it is that people want to do to heighten the the, you know, the trip itself, you're giving them the option to do that. And Wi-Fi is the means to an end, right? It is the expectation. But so I think that's a great example of a technology, not for just technology sake, but a technology that delivers value, functional or emotional value. Tell me a little bit about, your team and some of the ways that you're approaching research, insights, like we've talked a lot today about the journey and the moments of truth in the journey, but how are you really dialing in on that? I mean, you mentioned Net Promoter Score, which I think is a great, sort of post experience assessment tool, but how are you understanding the experience for kind of in situ or how it comes to life? I always love geeking out about good research techniques. So thank you for asking the question. One that is always a fun one to talk about is about that journey. And it's also about the stress that we talked about earlier. And so what we wanted to do is and we did this actually a couple in a couple phases, but starting with some customers who had upcoming travel with us, we got them set up with a Fitbit so we could kind of understand their biometric data, and also an ethnographic app. So a way for them while they were going through that travel experience to answer some some questions, take some videos of how they were feeling and really contextualize a lot of the data we are capturing. And so what that enabled us to be able to do is find these peaks and pits along the travel journey. Yeah. And what was interesting and what we uncovered is a lot of those high stress moments actually happen before people get on the airplane. So kind of unfortunately, to some degree, some of the moments that are less in our control. However, for the fortunate side of that is the the very highest peak happens at boarding, which is in our gate house and is certainly something that we can control. And the lowest peak happens immediately following that, in what I call kind of the "woosah" moment of when that customer finally gets to sit down in their seat, put their bag up in the place that they want to put it, and then kind of exhale and start enjoying their journey. And so it was a really powerful study for us because it helps us understand where to prioritize with the layer of understanding of awesome, like where we have control. And we followed that research by actually then doing it with our employees. So what that then enabled us to do is okay, well, where are the moments of intersection? Because I'd say particularly in our category where the our people are such a huge part of our products, you know, we have to understand their mindset and how they feel as well if we really want to be successful. And so, interestingly enough, when we did that research, then with our employees, they too find boarding to be the most stressful part of the journey. So that's probably, you know, somewhat because customers are stressed and they feel that, you know, they also know that, you know, we are an on time airline that are looking to get, you know, folks in their seat and into the air. So there's there's a couple of reasons that are kind of going on in their mind, but obviously that makes boarding a real opportunity for us to solve. And actually something we've just rolled out kind of some new boarding capabilities to hopefully make it more intuitive and easy for our customers to understand. So it's constantly something we're thinking about for this very reason. But then additionally, you know, taking advantage of that, woosah moment is really key. And in a good example of, something we did that really capitalized on that insight is we didn't used to have our in-flight entertainment, which is the the seatback screen. Once you sit down, we used to wait until we until takeoff for that to be accessible. Now, people can enjoy it as soon as they sit down. Yeah. And that really kind of came from this insight of like they've exhaled, they're ready to get their journey. And you know that joy going. And why not, you know, enable that through all this great entertainment that they have at their fingertips? Yeah, I love that idea. I love, how you're using biometrics as a way. Yeah. I mean, and biometrics are great when combined with other kinds of methods. I find, you know, because we're all alone, it's hard to know where the increased heart rate or when the galvanic skin response thing, you know, why? Why it's elevated or why it's different. So I love combining that with like, your self documentation or, you've described something that in systems engineering would be like work sampling or experience sampling, like, okay, you know, at this point in time, how are you feeling? What you know, what do you what do you wish for? You know what's in the way? I kind of thing, I think it's a great way to do journey modeling. And I also like the idea of combining it with other service design elements, like your own people. Right. Because you can find out sort of their individual paths and where they converge. And what happens in those moments of truth, you know, what makes them really work? I think it's brilliant. The other day you talked about, the idea of satisfaction being the difference between experience and expectation. Right? If I have no expectation for an experience and it's amazing, I basically have a huge lift in in brand satisfaction. And when I have a high degree of expectation and just a modest experience, I get kind of a negative, right? It's kind of like a letdown. So the more that we can take those zero expectation moments and, but important moments and push them over the top, I think you get a huge brand lift. So tell me a little bit more about your sort of what you're doing in your organization is doing to sort of strive. You said you mentioned you're striving to be that customer experience brand. You mentioned the biometrics and some unique methods. What are other things that you're or challenges that your team faces in trying to really activate, knowledge or what kind of, you know, things are you equipping your team with to be more successful in this role of insights for Delta? Yeah. It's an interesting moment in time, which, again, I probably have to hearken back to the pandemic having something to do with this. But it does seem in the last couple of years, being able to capture your audience's attention has become more and more challenging. And I think that has to do with this acceleration of digital adoption that has happened and fragmentation of what people are paying attention to in those moments. I mean, I'm not even talking about kind of personal applications and things that you're doing. It's also even like I feel it in the work environment. Right? Like how many different ways can colleagues and peers access you, at any given time? And so it just makes the ability to break through and cut through and kind of resonate in a meaningful way that much more important. And so it seems like our job as researchers now have become just as much about the research as it is about delivering and communicating the insights at the end. And so, you know, things we really are focused on has to do honestly a lot with simplicity and focus. But also how do we engage in kind of creative, kind of more beautiful, more interactive ways. Something we've also thought about doing that is related to this is this idea of kind of insight soundbites. And so, you know, we actually we did this with you all actually at the end of one of our projects, we had you all kind of co-create with us. Let's pull together like, yes, we have a beautiful PowerPoint deck that will live on and we will present, but for moments where our people can't be presenting this information, or people just don't have the time to read through a more comprehensive document. Let's put together like a three minute video, you know, just with the highlights. And that way that can get to a lot more people quickly and easily. And hopefully, you know, something that they'll watch the whole they'll watch the whole thing. Right. We won't. We've only asked them for three minutes of their time. So these are all a little things we've been we've been trialing to just get the insight out there and go back to that kind of motto of inspiring action, within the organization. And I like the idea of being really, conscious and considered about insight translation like, it's it's not enough just to have the insights about how you communicate and what makes it actionable. We talked about storytelling before. Nobody has more attention span, you know, than they used to. Like every, you know, the reason that YouTube shorts are so popular, right, is because it's like ten second soundbites and it seems like, sometimes it's the only, time you're going to get from decision makers or, or the like. So how do we combine great insight, visualization, great storytelling, like you say, multimedia, like using video or interactive ways in order to communicate messages quickly. I love it. We we, we sometimes we talk about eight hot pages. If you can't communicate your results in eight, you know, like eight pages from what you did and what the big ideas were then keep trying, you know, because it's not enough. Lizzie, thanks so much for the time today. And I really appreciate I know you're super busy, so thanks for taking time out of your day to to help the folks who are listening, kind of, you know, advance their career in UX. So really appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you for having me, Chris. And thanks, everyone for joining us on Seriously Curious Again, a podcast for all things business strategy and design. I look forward to having you back. Next time, we'll be continuing our discussion on advanced artificial intelligent Intelligence and AI, and we'll continue to explore topics in future mobility, including some new ways that we can be testing new products and services in this age of advanced, connected, autonomous and battery electrified kinds of future. So thanks so much for joining us. And, join us next time you can reach Lizzie, through LinkedIn, if desired. And, see lextant.com for more details on Seriously Curious. Thanks.