Capital One Airport Lounges: Experience Strategy
Digital experience strategy for Capital One's airport lounges, from getting a pass to food ordering and entry. Parts informed the launched lounges.
Result: Parts of our strategy informed the design of Capital One's airport lounges, which have since launched and continue to expand to new locations.
Problem: Capital One was building a newsworthy, digitally forward, brand-defining airport lounge experience. The company needed a vision for how digital could shape the customer journey at lounges such as DFW and IAD, before the physical spaces were finalized.
Role: Design Director. I led the design phase and team at the Capital One Lab, running discovery and exploration and presenting the opportunity space and solutions to leadership in a strategic pitch.
Approach:
Mapped the end-to-end journey for two types of Capital One customers who love to travel.
Focused on three key moments: discovering the lounge and getting a pass, ordering and picking up food, and entering the lounge.
Used design research to identify opportunities, then illustrated viable concepts that would delight and celebrate customers.
Skills shown: Experience strategy, journey mapping, phygital service design, executive storytelling.
We envision a check-in experience where customers can just walk into the Capital One lounge without the hassle of pulling out documents or event their mobile device.
I led my team to develop two scenarios to flesh out the journey pain points and opportunities to delight when booking a flight with a Venture card and through the Capital One Travel Portal.
I developed this framework of common use cases to highlight how early in the journey we can help our customers discover the lounge. The way they book their travel will provide unique opportunities of when and where to contact them.
In collaboration with tech partners we identified multiple opportunities that could leverage NFC and beacon technology (already embedded in their phones) that could trigger access points.
Anne's scenario: Anne uses her Venture card to book a flight from IAD on the Capital One Travel Portal. The confirmation email she receives after booking lets her know that she has free access to the new Capital One lounge at Dulles Airport!
Anne's scenario: 24 hours before her flight, Anne receives a push notification reminding her about the lounge, with a deep-link into the EASE lounge experience where she can see her lounge pass.
Anne's scenario: On the day of her flight, she arrives at the airport. While waiting in airport security, Anne explores the lounge amenities in the app, sees the lounge is not very busy (30% capacity), and is able to reserve a massage within minutes of arriving to the lounge.
Anne's scenario: As she approaches the lounge entrance, she walks through the gate-less turnstiles, hears a satisfying 'ping!', and receives a warm welcome from a host inside.
Anne's scenario: Once inside the Lounge, she receives an Eno message asking her if she'd like to order a premium drink. The app uses her Venture card as the default card-on-file and allows her to add a tip.
Jamie's scenario: Jamie is a Capital One customer, but he used his Citi Advantage card to book his flight on the American Airlines website.
Jamie's scenario: During his layover at Dulles, Jamie uses his Capital One Venture card to buy a magazine at the Hudson News store. His purchase triggers a push notification letting him know that there is a Capital One lounge nearby. Tapping on the notification deep-links him into the EASE lounge experience to get a free pass, food, and other amenities.
He sees an option to order a free packaged meal to-go-perfect since he is running a little short on time. All he has to do is select a meal and then enter his flight information to complete his order.
The confirmation screen includes pickup instructions and an option to view directions. He follows the directions to the Lounge.