Patrick

If you look at a site like Skytrax, you will find that the vast majority of reviews for most US carriers are incredibly poor and that those for the likes of Singapore and Cathay are 99% favorable. In other words the social media input is generally a reflection of the overall corporate performance and it is rooted in the alignment of expectations and performance. People expect a lot from Singapore and generally they get it while the expectations of American, for instance, are much lower and yet they still fail to perform in many cases.

Social media can report on reality, sometimes accurately, sometimes not, but it has done little to change the reality on which it reports. That is a function of management, staff attitude and corporate culture–internal stuff. Good companies of any sort will use the input of customers to revise and refine rough edges on the product. Being a part of the social media scene is the easy part but the real benefit comes from the wise and measured use of that information. Most airlines fail in the application aspect, especially those who need the improvement the most. Check out the newly released J.D. Power study on North American airlines to see how poorly most of those carriers have done in using customer data for improvement.

While I have long advocated the idea that airlines need to pay attention to what is being said about them, few if any are equipped to deal with a widely disseminated comment on Skytrax that begins “I am a premium member and…” Until carriers figure out how to deal with the ire of their best customers, they have little excuse to chase a possible future client.

Two other things. While substantial, the number of people actually using social media remains a small subset of the population and if efforts are skewed in that direction, most passengers will remain unattended to. Secondly, the investment in efforts to gain new passengers and to right real or perceived wrongs needs to be backed by programs and staff that can actually deliver on the promise–probably a much more substantial investment and one in which most carriers are already performing at substandard levels.

Good interview but I suspect that his airline would fare no better than all the rest in the current environment.

You’re also very proficient at filming and editing YouTube. I’ll need to take a lesson from or two from you. Great job!

Regards, Ron Callari
http://twitter.com/roncallari
http://twitter.com/INNsocialmedia

Hence, as ex-RyanAir Chairman Patrick Murphy told a hall full of airline executives yesterday in Maimi, “If you don’t get social media, social media will come and get you.” And I’d take his word on that.

While I have long advocated the idea that airlines need to pay attention to what is being said about them, few if any are equipped to deal with a widely disseminated comment on Skytrax that begins “I am a premium member and…” Until carriers figure out how to deal with the ire of their best customers, they have little excuse to chase a possible future client.

Two other things. While substantial, the number of people actually using social media remains a small subset of the population and if efforts are skewed in that direction, most passengers will remain unattended to. Secondly, the investment in efforts to gain new passengers and to right real or perceived wrongs needs to be backed by programs and staff that can actually deliver on the promise–probably a much more substantial investment and one in which most carriers are already performing at substandard levels.

Good interview but I suspect that his airline would fare no better than all the rest in the current environment.