Delta’s Bold Digital Ambition Takes Off

Schoenwaelder: Your role encompasses so many different areas of the traveler and employee experience. Within this broad scope, what are your priorities?

Phillips: First, we are focused on driving a premium, differentiated experience for customers. Whether they’re exploring travel options, buying tickets, or arriving at the airport, we’re looking for ways to deliver more convenient, rewarding interactions. We’re also making our free Wi-Fi available from gate to gate, so customers don’t experience any gap in connectivity.

Second, we’re committed to connecting and supporting airline operations. Weather, mechanical issues, and other disruptions can negatively impact a customer’s travel, so we’re looking at ways to improve the overall travel experience when those challenges happen. If customers miss connections due to flight delays, for example, we offer alternate flights that customers can confirm through the Fly Delta app—allowing them to make their selections in real time and avoid waiting in a line.

Finally, we are using digital solutions to empower our people. The interactions between our employees and customers are a big differentiator for us. If a customer comes to a gate agent asking to move to an earlier flight, for example, we can make that interaction smoother if we set up systems to provide relevant customer information more quickly. Rather than entering dozens of keystrokes to change an itinerary, we want employees to have the time to look customers in the eye and engage in conversation.

Digital is a connective thread that unites every function in the company.

— Eric Phillips, senior VP and chief digital officer at Delta Air Lines

At this year’s CES, Delta CEO Ed Bastian laid out a vision in which the airline orchestrates an ecosystem of digital services and experiences that provide travelers with highly individualized experiences. How is your team helping the company achieve that vision?

Delta Sync is a central part of Delta’s vision to create more personalized travel, and our team is one of many working to roll out the platform this summer. Available to loyalty members via their mobile devices, the platform will include content, access, and offers from our brand partners in mobility, entertainment, travel, and more. As we learn more from our customers about the experiences they value most, we will be able to drive even greater customization, including curated content recommendations, personalized rewards, and real-time flight notifications.

Before taking over the digital role, you most recently oversaw airport customer service, cargo operations, ground support equipment, and aircraft cleanliness. Given that background, what opportunities do you see for the digital organization to help improve the airport experience?

Beyond the airline boarding and in-flight experience, there are a lot of moving pieces on the day of travel. Customers must get to the airport, go through security, find their gate, maybe even take a train through the concourse from one terminal to another. This can present a lot of challenges and complications, and digital capabilities can make the experience more seamless. We’re also now able to offer digital meal or hotel vouchers to customers with an email or mobile number on file for a flight delay that was within Delta’s control. And in select cities, qualifying customers can check in for Delta flights via facial recognition technology, without having to display a physical ID. Choice is such an important part of the customer experience, and during your travels, it can often feel like you don’t have one. That’s a big opportunity for us.

How does your organization partner with other functions in the business, and particularly with marketing?

We work alongside virtually every division in the company, whether it’s commercial, pricing and revenue management, airport customer service, or in-flight service. They’re important customers of ours but also critical stakeholders in our enterprisewide effort to improve the overall travel experience. Because of digital’s role in enabling personalization, we work very closely with the marketing team. The more we understand customers’ backgrounds and preferences, the more we can meet them where they are. What’s the inspiration for the next trip? What travel experiences are most meaningful? By digging deeper into these questions and applying customer insights and preferences to tailor our communications, we can deliver much more relevant interactions that build long-term relationships. For example, we can offer tailored recommendations for travel depending on whether a customer typically travels with family or for business, or tends to select a premium-level ticket.

As a leader, what culture and values do you hope to instill? How do you inspire and empower your team?

Every initiative starts with our employees. They are the foundation of our culture, and as a leader, I try to build on that. We take care of our people, so they can take care of our customers, and the rest takes care of itself. Since stepping into this role, I’ve been focused on driving value not just in terms of financial performance, but in terms of improving the customer and employee experience. For example, we have an opportunity to create new career pathways in digital that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have a lot of employees who have joined the company over the past few years, and many of them have grown up with digital. Through a skills-based apprenticeship program Delta launched last year, someone could start out working in the airport, on board the aircraft, or in one of our maintenance facilities and move into a role in our corporate headquarters that leverages their digital skillset.

—by Jennifer D. Fisher, writer, Executive Perspectives in The Wall Street Journal, Deloitte Services LP

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