Marriott Future Travel

Marriott asked to understand, blueprint, envision and service their business of the future traveler. This was immediately prior to the acquisition of SPG.

The Ask.

Define the future-state “north-star” internal agent experience to advance customer service initiatives and deliver pragmatic design for first phase release. Integrate reservations, customer care and loyalty into a single cohesive experience.

TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE LIVE

Technology has integrated into every aspect of our lives - work, play, learn, and even how we interact with one another. As a result, our expectations and even behaviors have changed in ways that we never could have imagined only ten years ago. And it shows no sign of slowing down.

The Challenge.

Agents are using several legacy (14 year old) systems with complex linear process constraints and legacy system APIs and content management. Reservations, customer care and loyalty applications did not integrate and needed a unified experience to improve training from eight weeks to under two. In addition, IT needed to expedite support and iterative releases by a third.

Understand it.

Gather insights about the Next Generation Traveler Guest and generate themes that will help define the opportunities that bring Touch & Tech together
Blueprint it.

Create a customer journey/blueprint that identifies specific pain points in the guest and employee journey that result from the Touch & Tech disconnect
Envision it.

Deliver a customer (and provider) centric vision and key opportunity concepts for Touch & Tech that demonstrate what a seamless guest experience could look like
Service it.

Create a high-level business case that demonstrates the value of a Service Design Language for Marriott with future-state growth opportunities

Research Approach

Interviews conducted with stakeholders from across the organization including Touch, Digital, Brand, and Operations
Digital Ethnographies of Marriott guests from across the country partaking in ‘missions’ and recording their experiences
Shadowing, interviews, and a workshop with Marriott Touch Agents in Omaha, Nebraska as they handled real phone, email and chat requests
Desktop research consisting of internal and external sources of information, data and respected opinions
Team member observations captured as we travelled staying in Marriott and competitor properties