Jeannie Walters: 0:10

It's the Experience Action Podcast and it's my favorite episode of the month. It is time for CX Pulse Check. For this CX Pulse Check, we are in the middle of the summer, a lot of things are heating up and I cannot wait to talk about it with our special co -host. It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you all to Marcus Story from Delaware North. Marcus, thank you so much for being here and I would love for our audience to know a little bit about you.

Marcus Story: 0:38

Well, first and foremost, thank you, Jeannie, for having me here. As you said, my name is Marcus Story. I am the Corporate Director of Customer Experience and Social Customer Care for Delaware North. My team really focuses on helping the company to create and then implement their CX strategy across our different business lines as well as we are the voice of the organization across our different social platforms across the globe.

Marcus Story: 1:04

So get to dilly and dally into a lot of different businesses.

Jeannie Walters: 1:15

And I bet that a lot of people may not know what Delaware North does. So I would love for you to share a little bit about that, because I think it's one of those names that doesn't really describe who you all are.

Marcus Story: 1:22

Yeah, you know that's a question that comes up all the time, even with my friends. I typically tell people you may not know who Delaware North is, but chances are you've done business with us. We serve roughly a half billion customers a year across North America, some locations down in APAC and then the UK, but some of our most notable clients would be Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex down in Florida, maybe your local baseball team, maybe one of those restaurants or retail stores that you picked up something on through your journey through the airport, but whether it's here, there or even Disney, we're typically there taking care of you.

Jeannie Walters: 2:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a very interesting model. We've had the pleasure of working together for a little while now and I think what's so fascinating about it is you're like you mentioned. It could be in a baseball stadium, you could be at an airport, and it's all about really serving the people who are coming through those retail stores, coming through certain fast, casual restaurants, different places like that, and it's really about delivering on the experience. So it's a tall order, but you do it well. And I think you have the perfect name, too, for what you do with your last name Story, because a lot of it is really.

Jeannie Walters: 2:40

We want to understand the story of our customers. We want to make sure we're using storytelling effectively as customer experience leaders and all of those things. So I know I've asked you to do this for a while. It took us a while to get scheduled, so I'm thrilled that you're here with me, Marcus, and I can't wait to hear what you have to say about some of the things I picked out, because we talk a lot about travel and hospitality and all of those things and right now we're in July of 2025 now and travel is hot topic again because there are things happening with weather. They're also expecting peak numbers even for some of the upcoming weeks ahead of us and I know that my experience traveling there's just been a lot lately and you travel a lot too, so I know you can relate to this.

Marcus Story: 3:30

It's not a pleasant experience some days.

Jeannie Walters: 3:32

It's not. It's not, and I think that part of what I'm seeing and we'll talk about this too but part of what I'm seeing is that there's kind of this rush around automation, like we all want to use automation in all the different ways we can, and I mean I'm saying this and as a business owner, I've said those words.

Jeannie Walters: 3:49

I've said like, oh, we need to automate more and get all excited about it, but when you are stuck as a traveler, that is like the last thing you want.

Marcus Story: 3:58

You want to talk to a person.

Jeannie Walters: 4:00

You want to talk to a person, and I think that part of what is so challenging about all of this is we create these experiences around kind of the ideal experience, and then stuff happens, like weather happens or whatever, and it's not that simple you have to, just recently, I ended up, instead of flying from Phoenix to California, I had to go to Seattle to California and then on the way home, the same thing happened with my connection, and so I ended up taking a two hour Uber to San Francisco and flying home that way. So that's not something you can just put into a chat, right. And I also think that there's this big move around customer experience, specifically for airlines. Like we've heard a lot around, Delta, United has announced that they're starting to go towards free Wi-Fi and some of those things.

Jeannie Walters: 4:51

And then the first story I wanted to talk about with you today was about American Airlines, who just announced some new members of what they're calling the new customer experience advisory board, but really it's an extension of their operations excellence board. So the headline is American Airlines names members of new customer experience advisory board. This was in the news, but I actually pulled this from the American site, their newsroom, to make sure I got that right. And a couple of things stood out to me about this. One is, again, it's an extension of something that's really about internal operations, and they invited some experts, but they're people who are former CEOs of a resort organization. There is somebody around the Walt Disney Company, folks like that but I didn't see any mention of listening to customers. I didn't see any mention of bringing customers in, and that really struck me. So I'm just curious what do you think about this from your position?

Marcus Story: 5:51

Yeah, we clearly think alike. Because when I was reading through the article, I think I've told you in the past I did some work for a period of time with a power company and even at the work that we do at Delaware North, like it's very, very important to talk to your customers. So when I first read it my mind immediately went oh great, American has set up a customer advisory board. And then I went back and read I said wait, wait, this is a customer experience advisory board for the operators. So you know, kudos to them.

Marcus Story: 6:25

I think anyone who, as you said, you travel a lot, I travel a lot, I'm a United guy, just put that out there. But you know I'm also a bit of an aviation geek. So I read a lot of the news and American has consistently kind of fallen to the bottom of the top three airlines Delta, United and American and they need to focus on the experience if they want to win back those corporate travelers, which is a lot of their bread and butter. So kudos for moving in the right direction. But I think if they're really interested in understanding what needs to be done to improve the product, improve the service, then you need to bring some customers into that board so that you can hear what are they liking, what are they disliking, what are the pain points? As you said, we've worked together on a couple of journey mapping projects and in many ways that might be some of the exercises they need to do. So American reach out to Jeannie.

Jeannie Walters: 7:23

I love it, I love it.

Jeannie Walters: 7:24

Yeah, and I actually have been an American frequent flyer for the last several years, and part of it was because when I started really flying more than a decade ago regularly, United was kind of losing a step back then and so I went to American, because I'm based in Chicago and they both have big hubs there, and now I feel like I'm kind of looking over at Terminal One and you know I'm participating in their little status match challenge.

Jeannie Walters: 7:56

So I'm actually flying United a few times just to kind of see and compare the experience and to see what they offer, and I will say like there is a difference in the planes. It feels like the planes are more modern and newer and things like that, at least from my experience so far, and there are a few other differences that I think are interesting. So I will be watching this carefully because I'm really, for the first time in a long time, I'm kind of actively shopping as an airline passenger, because once you get into, like you said, oh, I'm a United guy, because once you're in it that's kind of just.

Marcus Story: 8:30

It's hard to get out.

Jeannie Walters: 8:32

It's the knee jerk right, like you're just like, okay, well, that's what I'm booking.

Jeannie Walters: 8:35

And then it becomes this whole cycle of well, I need to do this for my miles and my loyalty points and all that stuff. So I think that there are some really interesting things happening in the space right now. But I agree, American has to step up a little bit here. They have to really figure out what can they do to attract those business, those corporate flyers, as well as just build that reputation again. Really, I think it's about credibility and reputation as well. So I'll be watching this but I agree well.

Marcus Story: 9:12

I think one of the most interesting things about United's turnaround that many people don't recognize is their CEO, Scott Kirby, was the number two at American. He left American to go to United and the first thing he did if you go back and look at some of his old articles was he said we're putting the customer first. So I think that's an interesting tidbit between the two.

Jeannie Walters: 9:31

It is. Well, and I think everybody's been watching too, the big changes that Ed Bastian at Delta has made, because he was really one of the first ones to say you know what, some of this just doesn't make sense for the customer, so let's stop doing it. Like the free Wi-Fi thing I mean that was revolutionary at the time because they make so much off those fees that everybody thought he was crazy. But when he did it he also did that to build their loyalty program and it worked. And so United it looks like United is about to take that step as well and do it in a very similar way. So I think that they're all watching each other, but for some reason I feel like American is like running a little behind, like keeping up with them.

Marcus Story: 10:16

They'll get there. They don't have a choice to. But no, you're right, Ed at Delta, I read, I shared it with some leaders too, an article on him, on how he turned Delta around and his meticulous focus on some of the most probably from if you're in finance and probably mundane tasks like baggage delivery, because, like before, we give people access to a baggage tracker, we have to make sure that every bag is scanned and delivered within 20 minutes and work meticulously at some of the smallest details. But the devil's in the details, yeah, at least for your customer, the devil's in the details. If the bag doesn't show up, you've ruined my entire journey.

Jeannie Walters: 11:00

Well and I think that's a great point that sometimes we want to offer the bells and whistles first, but if we do that without actually just making sure that the stuff works the way people expect it to work, like that doesn't do anybody any good. So making sure that you are really understanding what is happening for the customer, what is their perception? How do they actually get through it. It's just so easy not to do that. It's so easy to sit in our processes and our procedures and our assumptions and then say, well, no, look, we've got the shiny new app, but you need to get the stuff right first. So that's a really good point.

Jeannie Walters: 11:38

And so this next one is really more about hospitality, but I think it applies across the board to a lot of different industries right now. I feel like we cannot have a conversation about customer experience without saying AI within 30 minutes, because some alarm goes off or something. But this is from Hotel Dive and it's an opinion piece, but the headline is how AI powered CX strategies can better meet guest expectations, and it's really about how hospitality brands are leaning into using AI. And again, you travel a lot, but you also have a lot of expertise in hospitality just based on what you do. So what were some of the things that stood out to you, or some of the questions you have about this?

Marcus Story: 12:23

Yeah, so I think you know I started my career in the hotel business, so running some different properties here and there. I really there's two things I really appreciated about the article. A: I think he's spot on about personalization. Like that is, that is where the experience has moved to. That is what our customers expect is they want something that's unique and personal to them. So we should be able to leverage AI. I mean, at least I'm on my phone all the time, so if it's my birthday and I fly you every week or I go buy a coffee, you know at least send me a happy birthday notification. But it's also taking it to that next step and recognizing and I think this is, as he was kind of I think, leaning towards is where AI is going to go. But if you're a business traveler and you stay in the same hotel every week and back in the day it was the front desk agent knew that you liked room 201 at the end of the hall away from the elevator, but the AI could be mining that data and say, hey, let's automatically put him in 201 every time he books, if it's available, or if you only sit in the window seat, but when you go book your ticket, a window seat isn't available. How do we move Jeannie to that window seat so that you know, as long as she's not traveling with someone else, she's in that space that she likes?

Marcus Story: 13:42

The second most important thing and I preach this at work, I think I just preach this in my life in general is that in the hospitality industry we're delivering service and service still requires that human connection. And I know people are like oh well, people love doing things on their own, they love doing simple tasks on their own, but at the end of the day, they still want to be cared for and we can't lose the human touch, that human connection in the hospitality business. So I think, like you said, leverage AI where it makes sense. Leverage AI where it can empower our team members to deliver great service. Leverage AI to remove some of those mundane tasks so that you can focus on the guests in front of you, but you have to keep the human connection in the business.

Jeannie Walters: 14:34

Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree and it's also, I think you know there are all these studies coming out right now about how, because people are getting more isolated in their kind of daily lives, we actually need to see strangers sometimes, we need to interact. There was a grocery store, and I believe it was in the Netherlands, and they were trying to speed up everything all the time, right, like self-service, and making sure people were very efficient and their cashiers were very efficient, and they had some mostly elderly customers who would show up and want to chat with the cashier and they would annoy the rest of the people in line, but that was like a really meaningful moment in their day. So this grocery store actually created a line just for that, for like, hey, if you want a conversation, stand in this line and people do it and they are loyal about it. And so I also wonder about that, because sometimes you have those long travel days and sometimes it's really nice just to have somebody say, hey, welcome, right, like those little moments. I don't think we should overlook those as part of the experience, because, yes, it's easy to check in on your app and use your digital key and not talk to anybody, but I think that there's something really valuable about making sure even if somebody's doing that, if they're walking in and we know they're walking in because AI is telling us that is there a way that we can say like, hey, we're glad you're here, or here's that snack that you like, or whatever.

Jeannie Walters: 16:07

Years and years and years ago, I used to have this horrible trip where I went to a small town in Kansas and then I would have to drive at like 11 o'clock at night and get to Tulsa and I always stayed at the Doubletree and there were, You know, there was no room service or anything, and there was no Uber Eats back then. So but the guy there, after I went a couple months, he would start saving me one of their cookies. Very small thing, but it meant so much because I would show up at like one o'clock in the morning, exhausted, and he would say, oh, I saved this for you, and it's just those little moments I'm talking about that, you know, 15 years later or whatever. So I think that that's another thing that we have to look at as the balance between, yes, we can automate, we can use AI, and AI, I think, can sometimes provide that empathy and compassion when it's done the right way. But that human connection is not just about when things go wrong. It's about those moments that we have that are just meaningful and help us feel human in that moment as well. So it's all interesting. Who knows what's going to happen when we check into a hotel in like five years?

Marcus Story: 17:13

I hope there's still some. I think you should have the option, if you want, to just grab your app and go. But one of the things that we teach a lot of our team members is that and there's a lot of research on it, but humans like to hear their name. And I don't know if AI is ever going to be able to replace the soul and warmth of a human, using that DoubleT ree example, where you go every week or every couple of weeks and it's you know. Hey, Jeannie, welcome back. I have this cookie for you. Those are the moments that build loyalty. There's a gazillion DoubleTrees you could go stay at.

Jeannie Walters: 17:48

Yeah, it's so, so true. And I think the other thing that we know is that people want to feel remembered and acknowledged and all those things, and there are so many ways that I think AI and automation could help people remember other people. Like it's so when, the birthday example right, like knowing that it's your birthday and somebody saying that that's meaningful, even if the machine told them to say that.

Marcus Story: 18:18

So it's only some of us who know behind the curtain.

Jeannie Walters: 18:23

Right, exactly, and it's still, it's still fun, you know, to hear that, so I get it. Okay, so we've got another airline one. I guess there's a theme here. This one's a little different, but the I've noticed I'm sure you've noticed that it used to be a lot easier to get to the airport and just check in and get on with your day. You could do that with less time.

Jeannie Walters: 18:49

I feel like the more experienced of a traveler I've become, the more paranoid I've become about the time, because you've seen things go wrong in all these different ways, right? So it used to be that you could literally walk in and kind of approach the gate and as long as you were like 10 minutes before you could get on the plane. But now they're asking you to board earlier and earlier and earlier, and so it was kind of becoming 30 minutes was the standard. United actually just announced in June this year that they were going to 45 minutes, and what struck me about this was they're extending the kind of time. They're extending the time in the airport, they're extending the time on the plane, and some of this was in reaction to what they're calling a viral kind of TikTok trend. I had never heard of it because apparently I'm 100 years old, but the whole idea of you have 20 minutes basically in the airport when you get there and you get straight to your flight. Now I love that idea and I used to be one of those travelers who did not, especially at my home airport.

Jeannie Walters: 20:00

I had this game I would play where I'm like I'm not going to sit down, I'm going to give myself just enough time, where I'm going to get through security, and then I'm going to get to the gate and then it will be almost time to board, right, like that was my game. But then you start seeing things you see, like, oh my gosh, why is TSA Pre out the door this random Tuesday? Or why did they pull me aside four times as the random security check? Right, like there's always something. So yeah, now that they're asking people to kind of get there earlier and earlier, I'm just wondering, like, what impact will this have on the experience? How will people actually feel about the journey of flying if we start getting them earlier and earlier to the airport? Is that going to have a negative impact, or what do you think?

Marcus Story: 20:48

I really think it just depends on the traveler. I really think it just depends on the traveler and I will say my kind of thoughts around it are influenced by some research that we conducted maybe about two years ago and really kind of identified traveler persona so you can kind of see which person needs to be there earlier, which person is probably like that TikTok trend, cutting it to the very last moment.

Marcus Story: 21:24

so I'll be like I'm usually at the gate probably an hour before boarding. I just I don't like being rushed, I don't like being stressed, especially if I'm going to miss my flight, because then you know, as you're talking again, that can turn into a whole oh, now you have to connect or now you have to do this. When I first read this article, I kind of again chuckle with anything that the airlines put out, because there's so many rules and regulations and legalese that, as you and I were talking about in another project recently, it just becomes wallpaper. So no one reads it. So I'm like you know you can tweet and text that all day long but people are still probably going to show up when they think they should show up.

Marcus Story: 22:04

Yep, I don't know. If anything, I think encouraging people to get there earlier will put them at greater ease, because you don't have to worry about the surprise TSA pre-check line or a system going down. Maybe you have time to grab a drink and sit down before you get on your plane, but them putting out a press release. I'd be shocked if I didn't know about it until you sent it to me. I fly them almost every other week.

Jeannie Walters: 22:30

There you go. They're probably like wait a minute, we know you're on our list.

Marcus Story: 22:35

Exactly.

Jeannie Walters: 22:37

Yeah, well, and we say this all the time like people don't read anymore. They just don't. And so we have to find different ways to communicate. If we really want them to care about what we're saying to customers, we have to find different ways to communicate, and communicate in a way that's like striking the balance, so that it's often enough where they're going to see it, but it's not overkill where then they're going to never want to hear from us again.

Jeannie Walters: 23:03

But I agree, I think this was more about. I always feel like maybe I'm cynical, but I'm like is this because they want more on time? Or or, like you know, is this about them more than the customer? And the other thing I wonder about, though, is people don't like sitting on planes on the ground. That's like I'm never claustrophobic, except the minute we land that plane, like I want out of that plane, and I think I'm not alone, like I think people just that feeling plane. So I do wonder if we're extending the boarding time and getting people on board earlier, is that actually making people kind of antsier throughout the flight, or all those things? So I don't know if I have any answers here, except I think you bring up a really good point about the messaging. Like who are we really messaging when we send out a press release about this and how are we really communicating this and really giving customers kind of the why behind it for them.

Marcus Story: 24:02

What does this mean?

Jeannie Walters: 24:03

Yeah, yeah,

Marcus Story: 24:04

What does this mean to your average customer? Because when you first read it it almost seems like so I have to be checked into the flight 45. Well, most people check in. I assume I could be very wrong, but I'm saying most people check in 24 hours in advance, right? So it's like the why behind it, the what it means to you, or else it's just meaningless communication.

Jeannie Walters: 24:25

Yeah exactly.

Marcus Story: 24:26

Save some of your marketing budget.

Jeannie Walters: 24:30

Put in some you know some, I don't know better snacks or something in the planes. But yeah, that's. I think it's a really good point. And I think the other thing that I see all the time is that we don't necessarily think of people who are like some people love to read, some people read everything. Some people will never read anything you send them. Some people love videos. Some people need to hear things and see things, like so, when we're in the actual airports, the way they announce the gate, the boarding numbers, it's like if you don't have a visual and something that people can hear, you're wasting time. So it's like, maybe there is more to this than just giving people a time, maybe it's really thinking about when is the right moment to give them the information they need and how can we make that easier and more convenient for them so that they will follow the rules, because they they won't feel like rules then they'll just feel like this is, this is what's in it for me. So, yeah, well, this was, this was fun. I'm so glad that you were able to join me after all these months of trying to schedule and everything. But is there anything that, you know, if people want to reach out to you, if they want to learn more about you or Delaware North or anything you do, what's the best way for them to do that?

Marcus Story: 25:48

You can reach out to me via LinkedIn. I will say my LinkedIn isn't updated, but it's probably the easiest way to get in touch with me, so this is a good reminder that I need to go update my LinkedIn.

Jeannie Walters: 25:59

There you go. It's a good reminder for everybody. Keep your LinkedIn updated. You never know. You never know when you'll be invited to a podcast. So well, thank you so much for joining me, thank you for the great discussion and I'm sure we will be talking soon. And thank you to everybody here who listens, who watches Experience Action. We are so thrilled that you do, and don't forget, you can always leave me a voicemail at askjeannievip and maybe I'll answer your question on the Experience Action podcast. Thanks for being here, everybody.