How is your airport driving results from the connected traveller of today? Are you driving non-aeronautical revenues from them? Or real-time customer service? The opportunities are endless. But maybe you need some guidance.

During my first 2 months with SimpliFlying, I’ve had the pleasure to speak with many airports at various conferences, airport visits or Skype calls. Airports that are prominent have already recognised the contribution that a good social strategy has to the business, meaning passengers travelling through their airport now have intentional, measured and thoughtful experiences at every touch point – even before they reach the airport.

Our ‘Digital Strategy Checklist for Airports’ has been designed to assist the hundreds of airports who are seeking direction.

What does the ‘Digital Strategy Checklist’ cover?

• Social customer service
• Brand and destination awareness
• Crisis management
• Non aeronautical revenue

If your airport understands the benefit of learning more about today’s Connected Traveller and this rapidly changing customer environment, but feel like you’re shooting blind – this is for you!

Download the checklist and gather your senior marketing & communications team today for your chance to invite SimpliFlying into your discussions. We are offering to conduct a ‘social assessment’ for a small number of airports, to help you identify your next steps in social customer engagement.

We’ll offer our deep understanding of the new marketing methodologies for the aviation industry and you will gain valuable insight into:

• Customer Engagement Strategy
• ‘Social’ Customer Service
• Non-aeronautical revenue Strategy
• Crisis Management for the Connected Traveller

Download the document now for the chance to invite SimpliFlying into your next (or first) social strategy discussion!

Featured Image: PassengerTerminalToday.com

The post The SimpliFlying ‘Digital Strategy Checklist for Airports’ appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

David McMullen

VP, Airports at SimpliFlying

David McMullen leads global airport engagement projects for SimpliFlying as VP, Airports. Following 5 successful years leading the award winning Routesonline platform, working with airports of all sizes in route development strategy and marketing communications, he joined SimpliFlying at the beginning of 2013. Assisting hundreds of airports to develop their online presence, David's career has taken him all over the world and he has been lucky enough to meet some of the most amazing people and work in some of the most inspiring places. He has a real enthusiasm for social networking/social media, plus all things digital. His passion for sport, travel and learning about new cultures has enabled him to practice snowboarding throughout Europe and qualify as an advanced scuba diver on the Great Barrier Reef. You can connect with David on Twitter, @SimpliMcMullen, or on LinkedIn.

Twitter

A couple of months ago, we released a short infographic accompanied by a premium report that elaborated on the results of an extensive survey we did with over 50 airports that are socially-savvy and are actively engaging today’s Connected Travelers with an eye on driving business goals such as customer service, crisis management and revenue. The issues explored ranged from budgets to ROI to staffing and more! Now, in a similar mould as our airline videographic, we’ve gone a step further and created a short videographic that summarises the findings of our airports survey in a videographic that is sure to inform and entertain you. 

In less than 3 minutes you will get to know the key trends and insights that we have gleaned from some of the best airports on social media. Watch the video to know why your airport needs to step up its efforts to engage the Connected Traveler in 2013 and what are the benchmark numbers that you need to keep in mind during your strategy planning sessions this year! Excited already? Click below to watch the video!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We hope you enjoyed the video. Click here to view the infographic that has a quick overview of our findings. Or you can also download the premium report that contains the detailed findings of our extensive survey along with our analyses and strategy recommendations.  

BONUS: You can download this video on your mobile devices as well – click directly on the iPad version, iPhone version, other mobile phones to view/download this videographic.

[Write to us at engage@simpliflying.com if you wish to learn more about how your airport can profitably engage the Connected Traveler in 2013.]

The post [Videographic] Airports and the Connected Traveler: SimpliFlying Social Media Outlook for 2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

LinkedIn

The end of a faceless airport brand

How often is it that you write to an airline or an airport, and get a reply with no signature, or one which says “this is a computer generated message, and no signature is required”? That has been the case with most airline and airport brands, because it’s just convenient.

It’s easy to not show your face to the customer and hide behind a policy or a rule. It’s easy to lay the blame on the process, rather than thinking creatively to resolve a situation. It’s easy to take your own sweet time to reply to feedback, since no one can pin it down to a specific person anyway. Gatwick Airport is trying to change that.

Meet-the-CEO, on Twitter

Already the winner of our Best Airport in Social Media award in 2011, and a runner up in 2012, Gatwick Airport recently held the third of it’s Q&A session on Twitter. Its 46,000 followers had the opportunity to ask the CEO, Stewart Wingate, any questions they may have had regarding the airport. Most airlines and airports wouldn’t dare to venture close to a free-for-all like this in public.

The Gatwick session ran for one hour from the @gatwick_airport Twitter feed, giving both the media and public an exclusive chance to ask Mr Wingate about what’s coming up for Gatwick in 2013 and beyond . Participants were also able to share their thoughts and experiences about the airport to date, straight to the CEO. 32 questions were answered in all, which is one ever two minutes!

Looks like the #askGatwick twitter session with Stewart Wingate CEO at @Gatwick_Airport is a success! Well done! #Aviation

January 11, 2013 1:12 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@CarlHogan

Carl Hogan

.@KarlT82 we’ve have had great feedback on our new toilets in South Terminal, we wouldn’t swap them for any of their loos! #askgatwick

January 11, 2013 1:13 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Gatwick_Airport

Gatwick Airport LGW

@Gatwick_Airport question do you have anything at your airport to help nervous passengers #askgatwick

January 11, 2013 12:12 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@00FireBladeRR

The Blade Rider

@Gatwick_Airport #askgatwick What are your initiatives to attract more long haul flights?

January 11, 2013 12:00 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@7griffinjack

Jack Griffin

@7griffinjack We are always on the road to talk to airlines to bring in new services such as Air China and Vietnam Airlines #askgatwick

January 11, 2013 12:10 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Gatwick_Airport

Gatwick Airport LGW

As you can see, participants asked all kinds of questions, and Mr Wingate answered most of them swiftly. The 140 char limit meant that questions were concise and answers crisp. Anyone could follow the Live discussion using the #askgatwick tag on Twitter. Moreover, a full transcript of the Q&A session has been available at www.gatwickairport.tumblr.com. A previous session had been hosted by Paul Fitch, Head of Terminal Operations, who discussed Gatwick’s services for passengers with reduced mobility.

Being an open brand… 

The post Gatwick Airport CEO Stewart Wingate adds a face to the brand, answering questions Live on Twitter #askGatwick appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shashank Nigam

CEO at SimpliFlying

Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying and a globally sought-after consultant, speaker and thought-leader on airline branding and customer engagement strategy. He is also the youngest winner of the Global Brand Leadership Award and has addressed senior aviation executives globally, from Chile to Canada and from Sydney to San Francisco.

Shashank's perspectives have found their way into major media outlets, including CNN Travel, CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg UTV, Mashable and in leading publications like Airline Business, ATW, Aviation Week, and others.

Shashank studied Information Systems Management and Business Management at Singapore Management University and Carnegie Mellon University. Hailing from India, he splits his time between Singapore and Vancouver, among other cities.

TwitterLinkedIn

As we enter 2013, the expectations from airlines and airports to live up to the new realities of an increasingly connected world are ever more. Passengers are more vocal and connected to their friends and family. They have higher expectations in terms of online engagement and interaction, and are not hesitant to instantly share a negative opinion online when displeased. On the other hand, rapidly evolving social technologies are enabling airlines and airports to reach and engage their customers in more innovative ways than before. As such, the potential for better customer service, speedier crisis management, building loyal online brand advocates and driving revenues has increased manifold.

Hence, while planning your social engagement strategy for 2013, you need a head-start. The 25 resources presented below, categorized for your easy reference, will give you ample inspiration and information to start swimming from the deep end of the pool itself! 

Engagement

• What your audience expects and what you should be doing to engage them. Or risk falling behind your competition (read here).
• Creating an immersive brand experience for your airline (read here).
• How airlines and aiports can use Pinterest to engage customers through visual cues (read here).
• How COPA Airlines drove 50x ROI via a Facebook app (read here).

Strategy Planning and Research Reports

• Presentation – Driving results from Customer Engagement. The road ahead for airlines on social media (get the presentation here).
• Airline Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey conducted with the 30 most social-savvy airlines on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (get the report here).
• Monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports – Produced every month by SimpliFlying in partnership with airlinetrends.com, this report has 15 fresh case-studies covering the most innovative marketing campaigns by airlines across the world (get the latest report here).

Case-Studies

• Top 30 Airline Social Media Case-Studies featured on SimpliFlying in 2012 (read here).
• Re-branding Royal Brunei Airlines – the journey behind-the-scenes (read here).
• Ryanair learns the power of social media. Profits dip 29% despite a 600% increase in marketing budget (read here)!
• Local pages and hyper-localization on Facebook (read here).

Social Customer Service

• Q and A – How brands can perform real time customer-service on social media (read here).
• Lessons from customer service in social media (read here).
• Statistics and Charts – How US Airlines are providing customer support on Facebook (read here).
• Two tales of customer experience – AirAsia X vs Kingfisher Airlines (read here).

Crisis Management and Handling Bloopers

• Why Korean Air’s #primitiveenergy campaign angered Africans and how they could have managed the crisis better (read here).
• How Royal Brunei Airlines handled the emergency landing of their plane superbly on social media (read here).
• Southwest Airlines finds out whether a campaign can be too successful for its own good  - A cautionary tale for those looking to run competitions (read here).

Social Loyalty

• A New Era in Airline Loyalty – The Rise of Social Loyalty Programs and Social Advocacy (read here).
• Free eBook – How Airlines Can Drive Loyalty on Social Media (read here).

Expert Insights

• Interview – Jonathan Pierce, Director of Social Communications at American Airlines sheds light on how social media drives results for American Airlines (read here).
• Interview – Azran Osma-Rani, CEO of AirAsiaX talks about how the low-cost, long-haul modeal can be made to work in Asia Pacific (read here).
• Podcast – Mary Kirby, Editor-in-Chief of APEX Magazine sheds light on a industry in flux (click here).
• Interview – Heidi Brauer, Kulula’s Marketing Head tells us why Kulula is the world’s funniest airline (read here).
• Interview – Gary Wicks of Boeing shares how Boeing’s commercial airplanes division takes the social media bull by the horns (read here).
  

Revenue

• Mango Airlines CEO attributes 50% growth in revenues to social media (read here).

Airports

• Airport Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey with over 50 of the most social-savvy airports on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (read more).
• Presentation – How Airports can Engage the Connected Traveler (read here).
• A 4-part special series on how Airports are engaging the Connected Traveler in a number of ways – from crowdsourcing to social customer service (read here).
• The Road Ahead for Airports in 2013: Why Real-time customer service and non-aeronautical revenues will be the keys to success (read here).

[Write to us at engage@simpliflying.com if you wish to learn more about how your airline can profitably engage the Connected Traveler in 2013.]

The post 30 Essential Resources for Airlines and Airports to Effectively Engage the Connected Traveler and Drive Results in 2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

LinkedIn

Welcome to a new year – a year full of hope, new beginnings and not least of all, free of Mayan predictions. At SimpliFlying, we’re excited to be back after a short break and kick off with something that will interest and enlighten our readers.

A couple of months ago, we released a short infographic accompanied by a premium report that elaborated on the results of an extensive survey we did with about 30 airlines that have been extremely successful in engaging today’s Connected Travelers profitably. The issues explored ranged from budgets to ROI to staffing and more! In the new year, we’ve gone a step further and created a short videographic that summarises the findings of our survey in a highly engaging and entertaining format. 

In just around 3 minutes you will get to know the key trends and insights that we have gleaned from the best airlines on social media. In short, this video and the numbers within will inspire, inform and get you ready for your planning, brainstorming and strategy sessions for 2013! Excited? Sit back and click below to watch!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We hope you enjoyed the video. Click here to view the infographic that has a quick overview of our findings. Or you can also download the premium report that contains the detailed findings of our extensive survey along with our analyses and strategy recommendations. (For additional reference, you could watch the previous year’s videographic to appreciate how quickly social technologies are being adopted by airlines. And seriously at that!)

BONUS: You can download this video on your mobile devices as well – click directly on the iPad version, iPhone version, other mobile phones to view/download this videographic.

[Write to us at engage@simpliflying.com if you wish to learn more about how your airline can profitably engage the Connected Traveler in 2013.]

The post [Videographic] Airlines and the Connected Traveler: SimpliFlying Social Media Outlook for 2013 appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

LinkedIn

Editor’s Note: This article was featured in Airline Business (September Issue), contributed by CEO of SimpliFlying, Shashank Nigam. For a soft copy of the original article, please see here. 

Airlines that have innovated customer service though online media have elevated passenger expectations to a level that sets a high standard for others to follow, according to Shashank Nigram of SimpliFlying

Late last year a friend had a bad experience with Delta Air Lines during his honeymoon.

A number of things went wrong – from being assigned a seat away from his new bride, to the couple being ignored by flight attendants. When he called the customer service hotline he was put on hold for a long time and transferred from one department to another. In the end, his concerns were hardly addressed by Delta staff.

Frustrated, he blogged about his encounter with Delta and dropped me a note asking for help. I suggested he tweet to @Deltaassist. Much to his surprise, he received a reply on Twitter within 10min, saying Delta was looking into his case. Within 24 hours, he was given a $100 voucher for the inconvenience he suffered during his flight.

Some might claim this to be a one- off case but thanks to social media real- time customer service is coming of age in the airline industry.

Social media benchmarking company Unimetric.com says that if you send a tweet to Delta Air Lines, you are likely to get a reply within 11min, while if you tweet JetBlue with a problem, it will address it within 17min. Also, KLM will reply within an hour and Virgin America is known to solve passengers’ problems in-flight while they are connected to the internet at 35,000ft.

Through social media, airline customer service has become real-time and customers expect answers around the clock. In fact, travel social media company Eezeer says 71.4% of con- sumer tweets to airlines are customer- service-related. The growth of calls to customer service centres is projected to decline this year, with social conversation numbers occasionally equalling phone calls.

First and foremost, this is because customers no longer have to go through the hassle of holding on the phone to customer services and expect to get answers more easily, especially for queries that are not time sensitive.

The responsive, interactive and open nature of social media helps customers feel comfortable to ask more questions and get all doubts cleared – not always possible on the phone. The airline can understand better what the most worrying issues for customers are and how its service can be improved.

Apart from the undeniable benefits social media provides, customers now expect most brands to respond to them on social media, an almost equally compelling reason for airlines to have social media customer service initiatives. As seen in the case of the Royal Brunei Airlines emergency landing of flight BI098 in April this year, the internet and social media are unmatched in providing speedy information, especially in times of crisis.

Consumers are often pleased to receive acknowledgement, even if the resolution is not immediate. Hence, the key to success in customer service via social media lies in a quick response before reaching resolution. Several airlines are now innovating in this space.

What can you learn from the airlines that provide the best customer service on social media?

Share local knowledge and provide personal attention

One of the most innovative tools being used by Ireland’s CityJet is its Twitter concierge. The programme aims to provide personalised recommendations to travellers who request them. This helps drive their goals in engagement, customer service and revenue. Goals of social customer service programmes need to translate back to the core metrics of the brand and marketing.

Prepare to scale

KLM and Delta Air Lines have more than 30 people dedicated to providing customer service through social media. That sort of commitment is often needed because once you set the customers’ expectations that they can reach you online, that is the medium they prefer – especially when something goes wrong. That is when all these resources come in handy. Of course, if you are unable to dedicate such resources, you might want to work with a social media call-centre provider such as InterGlobe Technologies.

Be where you are needed

Delta was one of the first airlines to dedicate resources to social media, recognising the importance of acknowledgement and resolution. The need to give its customers what they want led to a guaranteed reply within 10min on Twitter, plus a dedicated social media customer service and support in Spanish and Portuguese.

The post Social Customer Service (Featured in Airline Business) appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Li Guen

Li Guen heads the communications and marketing functions at SimpliFlying where she drives corporate branding efforts and industry research initiatives. A PR enthusiast, Li Guen returned to SimpliFlying after a stint with Weber Shandwick working with clients including Rolls-Royce, Changi Airport Group and P&G. In her free time, Li Guen likes trekking mountains in Asia. You can tweet her at @SimpliGuen or email her at guen@simpliflying.com.

Twitter

The Helsinki Airport strives to bring to life the vibrancies of the city by incorporating local culture into the terminal but also brings to life the ideas and requests of its patrons. Our final segment of the Simpli-airports series is on Airport Passenger Crowdsourcing – a concept that was brought to life through the Finnair/Helsinki Airport.

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the city of Helsinki and spend some time enjoying culture, eclectic cuisine, and nightlife.  I also had a bit of time to peruse the airport and look more into the Quality Hunters initiative that the Helsinki Airport and airline partner, Finnair, put into place. My summer visit coincided with the launch of the first idea implemented through the initiative, the Helsinki Airport Book Swap.

Many airports strive to improve the quality of experience for their guests.  Today we are featuring a presentation put together by the Helsinki Airport on their efforts to not only improve the customer experience and service quality for passengers but to do so with the input of many of those same travelers.

The Helsinki Airport and Finnair wowed us from the beginning with this concept, but after the airport submitted the below presentation as an entry for the 2012 SimpliFlying Awards in the category of Best Airport in Social Media, we further began to see even more merit in the concept.  Today we want to share this enlightening case study on social crowdsourcing with our readers.

So what was Quality Hunters 2?

In what some considered to be the most coveted job of the year, 8 innovative, inspiring travelers were given the task of traveling around the world and developing the via Helsinki route between Asia and Europe and finding new ways to improve the overall travel experience along the way.

Simpli-Airports Series: Helsinki Airport and Quality Hunters 2

We are excited to share the Helsinki Airport presentation below, in hopes that their example can help other airports to find ways to crowd-source passengers and integrate the ideas of the traveling public into the customer touch-points at the airport.

Let’s face it; sending 8 “guests” off on a quality hunting mission may not be realistic to most airports out there. However, there are quite a few things that can be learned by all airports:

1. Your passengers/guests just may be your most valuable resource when it comes to developing new customer service amenities and touch-points.

2. Developing a channel to house customer suggestions and actually acting on those suggestions may be a way to enhance current relationships and build new ones.

Low Budget Social Crowdsourcing:

• A Pinterest Board dedicated to customer service ideas – allow passengers to comment on which ideas they like and implement one (financially feasible) top idea each quarter.
• A social lounge – a place where social advocates of the airport can come and hang out while flying through the airport.  By utilizing a sign up system similar to that of the Social Suite for the US Major League Baseball Team, the Cleveland Indians, airports can encourage advocates to share ideas while waiting for their flights and tweet, blog or post about the experience later.

In the earlier segments of this Simpli-Airports Series, we explored case studies around airports that are using social media to drive specific goals and looked at how they are allocating resources and budgets to these areas:

• Week 1: Social Customer Service 
• Week 2: Surprise and Delight through Inspiring Content
• Week 3: Social Interest and Photo-Sharing
• Week 4: Social Crowd Sourcing

Do you have an interesting airport case study that you would like us to share with our readers? Write us at: airports@simpliflying.com.

[Featured image: Collage of photos taken by @SimpliElizabeth while traveling through @HelsinkiAirport]

The post [Case Study] Social Crowd-Sourcing for Airports appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Elizabeth Cecconi

Head of Airport Engagement at SimpliFlying

Elizabeth Cecconi headed the airports practice at SimplFlying as the company's Airport Engagement Executive from January to November 2012. She has worked in the Aviation industry for over 8 years, most recently heading all marketing and air service efforts at the South Bend Airport, in Indiana, USA and, prior to that, as a member of the Akron-Canton Airport (Ohio) marketing team. When she is not leading global business development (airports) for SimpliFlying, she can often be found boating on Lake Ontario at her home in Western NY State, or off traveling and skiing.

You can find Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

Let me start with a screenshot that explains the premise for this article.

People wish to interact with people, not automated voice response systems

Look, I get all the excuses. I really do. 

The airline doesn’t have enough resources. The Marketing department already has enough to do. Corporate Communications can’t spare anyone. It’s impossible to monitor everything on Facebook and Twitter. It’s ridiculous to think that every query can be answered. In fact, most airlines reply to only 23% of their incoming tweets (see our research report). The list is endless, like all lists of excuses. 

At face-value, these seem like reasonable, even understandable reasons. 

But then you come to the real clincher: “We are not comfortable / we do not have a policy (or a similar variation) to engage with customers directly. We have contact-centers for that which follow protocol.” 

This is, if you think about it, rather silly. 

Why are you here?

Here’s the thing. You might have even heard of this aphorism: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”. Well, guess what: you can’t be on social media and not engage your audience. You think the job’s done when you (or your agency) create that Facebook page with a fancy cover photo or even a Twitter profile to put up a show of being social-savvy. It’s not. 

Once you take the leap, your audience – customers and potential customers – come to you. They come to you thinking you know the basics already. That you know social media is designed for conversations, not mindless advertisements and “closed” Facebook walls/timelines. 

But you do the opposite. You’re still following the traditional advertising ethos of the Stone Age. You still think your brand is owned by you. That the customer should have no say in your brand and that you can feed him advertisements day after day in the hope that he/she generously channels some of his/her hard-earned money towards you. 

Guess what? Times have changed. 

Play according to the rules. Or lose.

You might think I’m complaining too much so let me set out some basic rules of being on social media. 

• If you’re on social media and have a Facebook or a Twitter page, your audience already expects you to engage with them. If you’re not prepared for a two-way conversation, don’t come here. You won’t be welcome. 
• Creating a Facebook page and stocking it with a million fans, but closing the wall to fan posts is like releasing a movie in a theater and selling tickets to it but not letting people in for the show. Guess what your audience feels like? 
• You cannot control social media. Do not waste your time trying to. Most audiences appreciate a brand that is attentive to its audiences on social media. Blocking negative sentiment doesn’t create positive sentiment for you. A genuine effort to engage your audience will take you places. 
• We know you cannot reply to everyone and everything. We don’t expect you to. But the least you can do is listen. Don’t have a “dead” Facebook page that is full of only push marketing materials. Make us feel that there are humans running the brand. 
• Don’t ignore the flares that could become conflagrations. Information – especially of the negative sort – spreads very quickly on social media. Be nimble, be transparent, be aware. 
• Last and most obvious, if you care only about fan numbers and not your fans, you will end up with a pile of wasted time and resources. Social media – even the fun and games part of it – can be leveraged to drive very specific goals: revenue, loyalty, customer service, crisis management and more. Build a strategy around them. 

The post What your Audience on Social Media Expects and What You Should Be Doing to Retain their Attention appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Shubhodeep Pal

Head of Operations and Innnovation at SimpliFlying

Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying and has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Tnooz, Airlinetrends and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well. His wide range of interests include startups, programming, economics, geopolitics, film-direction/criticism and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released in 2009. He can be reached at shubhodeep@simpliflying.com.

LinkedIn

Customer service, guest relations, passenger experience; No matter what your specific airport calls it, it is a major component of airport operations. This segment of this Simpli-Airports Series focuses on Customer Service and how your airport can benchmark against what others are doing in the social space and use that information as a guidepost for future social growth.

While more than half of the airports surveyed for the recent SimpliFlying Social Media Outlook Report are unsure about the specific return from their social media investment, most airports have mapped the value of their social media performance to business goals. The top goals were Brand Engagement, Customer Service and Revenue. 

92.7% of the airports surveyed noted that Customer service is a prominent business driver when it comes to social media. 

The biggest challenge faced by airports surveyed for in the afore mentioned study is the insufficient allocation of resources to social media. The next biggest challenge is the lack of budget, which often go hand-in-hand.  So how does an airport that is aiming to increase customer service through social media obtain that goal when resources are seemingly lacking? 

Resource Identification + Allocation = Social Customer Service  

Some of the airports that are currently dedicating resources to social media with a focus on customer service include the Portland International Airport (PDX, Portland, OR) and the Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ, Toronto, ON). Both have taken customer service and social media to a new level with call centers and guest service stations filled with trained and dedicated ”Tweeters.” These airports are working to train (current) guest relations and call center staff to respond real-time to customer service issues that come in through the Twitter channel, just as they would to a call from a guest on the phone. These two airports represent a sampling of ways in which social customer service is finding its way into airports of all sizes and how airport are using existing resources to meet these social customer service needs and goals. 

Are traditional airport call centers becoming a need of the past?  As more and more travelers begin to Tweet, Facebook, and post recommendations and questions on social channels, more and more airports are beginning to take up the responsibility of responding to Tweets just as they would to phone calls.  In this Simpli-Airports segment, we will be exploring a case study specific to the Port of Portland/Portland International Airport. 

Simpli-Airports Series: PDX Social Customer Service

After working with a few airports on integrating social media (namely Twitter) into their customer service response plans, I was quite intrigued to hear Donna Prigmore from the Port of Portland and PDX Airport speak at the recent AAAE Social Media Summit. 

Donna Prigmore shared how the Portland International Airport launched an airport Twitter program after hearing of the affects of the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Tornado. In the midst of this crisis, Lambert-St. Louis’s airport Twitter handle grew by over 4000 followers in just one hour.  Mobile phones were the only way for people to communicate with the airport, and many travelers and loved ones went right to Twitter.  This prompted Prigmore and her team to work develop a system and program for a fully functioning “Tweeting Call Center.” 

Since that time, Donna and her staff have turned a 14 member customer relations department into a “Tweeting call center” with real-time coverage from 6am-11:30pm daily.   The attached case study showcases the way in which they have structured and defined how and when Twitter is used within their organizational structure and what the protocols are for responses. 

With the implementation of Twitter assessment tests, she was able to both train and test all of her staff for Twitter competency and know-how (as well as interest).  Ten of the 14 call center staff members Tweet, with shifts set up to include one Twitter “Lead” and one “backup” to monitor and respond to customer service tweets as they come in. This team setup has Donna’s team Tweeting with the expectation that the typical airport Tweeter is expecting an immediate response.  The team has a goal of 5-10 minute response times. 

We are delighted to share Donna’s presentation below, in hopes that more airports will see the possibilities that can come from training current support staff to help with real-time social customer service. 

Other great examples of Real-time customer service in airports include: 

 London Gatwick Airport

• Live twitter screens within the airport to display an ongoing and current Twitter feed.
• Integrated Twitter presence in that not only the airport is responding to passenger questions, but passengers and guests also answer one another’s tweets. (Crowdsourcing customer service efforts 

Mumbai International Airport

• The airport has programed a tool to pick up on keywords such as: toilets, bags and delays so that tweets are monitored regularly, and response time is down to minutes. 

In the remainder of this Simpli-Airports Series, we will continue to explore case studies around airports that are using social media to drive specific goals and also take a look at how they are allocating resources and budgets to these areas: 

• Week 2: Surprise and Delight
• Week 3: Social Interest and Photo-Sharing
• Week 4: Social Crowd Sourcing

We look forward to conversing with you on how you can improve your airport social media program in each of these focus areas. 

Join us next week for the second segment of this Simpli-Airports series when we take a deeper look at a case study put together by Ryan Hollingsworth, Communications and Social Media Manager at the Akron Canton Airport (CAK). Ryan will be sharing some CAK insight  with us on Surprising & Delighting fans by creating social media content that is meant to entertain and inspire.

Do you have an interesting airport case study that you would like us to share with our readers? Write us at: airports@simpliflying.com.

Featured image: Courtesy of the Port of Portland

The post [Case Study] How Social Media is Enhancing Airport Customer Service appeared first on SimpliFlying.

Author information

Elizabeth Cecconi

Head of Airport Engagement at SimpliFlying

Elizabeth Cecconi headed the airports practice at SimplFlying as the company's Airport Engagement Executive from January to November 2012. She has worked in the Aviation industry for over 8 years, most recently heading all marketing and air service efforts at the South Bend Airport, in Indiana, USA and, prior to that, as a member of the Akron-Canton Airport (Ohio) marketing team. When she is not leading global business development (airports) for SimpliFlying, she can often be found boating on Lake Ontario at her home in Western NY State, or off traveling and skiing.

You can find Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

Editor’s Note: About 18 months ago, I had the opportunity to visit Virgin America’s HQ in San Francisco and got the whim that they were evaluating Salesforce.com as their CRM system. Then last year, I saw the same system in action at KLM, being used to manage social media relationships. 

In this guest post, airlinetrends.com Founder, Raymond Kollau, delves deep into what the system offers and how it taps on the “walled garden” effect. Raymond spends his day monitoring the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing consumer behaviour. Airlinetrends.com also partners with SimpliFlying to produce a monthly airline marketing benchmark report.

How it works

Virgin America, probably the most tech-savvy airline in the industry, plans to revolutionise its approach to customer service. A Salesforce.com-based CRM dashboard provides Virgin America customer service agents with information about each customer’s last three interactions on social media and their flight history, which allows them to send a targeted message.

For example, a customer tweeting about being worried about missing a flight will be served up a response via Chatter on the screen in front of their seat with information on how they can make their next connection. Customer service personnel on the ground could also take pro-active action to alert a passenger to a potential problem, such as a bag not having made it on the flight, through a pop-up alert on the screen.

Passengers, meanwhile, will find a personalized environment on their IFE system. For example, Virgin America is looking to not just give passengers details about their frequent flyer points, but also suggest entertainment and food & beverage choices on what they have watched before or eaten on previous trips, as well as airport maps of where they go to make connecting flights. The system also gives all passengers brief profiles on other passengers as a conversation starter for the seat-to-seat chat function.

Furthermore, passengers can contact Virgin America’s customer service staff via the IFE system to ask if they have been upgraded on the next leg of their travel and get quick feedback. When watching a movie, the IFE screen will signal passengers that they have received a notification from the airline.

A video of the new Chatter features is available here, while this video (start at 6min45) includes a mockup of the seat-back app currently in development.

Abby Lunardini, the Head of Corporate Communications at Virgin America shared exclusively with SimpliFlying, “Chatter will be launched later this year as a teammate communications tool, which will help bring behind-the-scenes communication among our staff into real-time – ultimately resulting in a better experience for guests. For example our operations, social media, guest care and other staff – down to an airport guest service teammate at a particular gate, will be in faster contact about a particular situation or guest issue.  The video shown at Salesforce was conceptualizing how layering on CRM tools like Chatter through other mediums like Red could ultimately work — but right now that is still a ‘wish list’ and something in the early concept phase.”

Real-time customer service, up in the air

Virgin America calls its new Chatter functionality an example of contextual computing. The airline shows that it knows who passengers are, where they are seated, what they need right now and what they may need next.

The objective is to get customers more involved with the Virgin America brand through increased social activity and in the process change the nature of how customer service is delivered. Says CEO David Cush, “Before it was ‘this happened to me what are you going to do about it?’. Now it’s ‘this is happening to me, what are you going to do about it?’ These are real-time problems that need real-time answers. I will tell you the best way to get a response is through social media, not traditional customer service.”

Employee social network

Virgin America also wants to use Chatter to revolutionise internal communications as it looks to break down silos in what traditionally has been a hierarchical industry.

“Traditionally, airlines have been egalitarian, chain-of-command environments,” said Cush. “Running an airline is a logistical nightmare where about 20 steps have to go right to get a passenger and their bag to the final destination, and better collaboration might allow workers to bypass some of those steps when necessary and jump straight to a solution.”

For example, customer service agents, recognizing that a high-value customer might be in danger of missing a tight connection, relay an alert ahead to airport staff with a custom map showing the passenger exactly how to get most efficiently from his arrival gate to the departure gate. A gate agent could then be holding up an iPad displaying that that map, with the customer’s face on it, as he walked off the plane, to point him in the right direction.

Says Cush, “Ninety percent of the people that work for our airline never sit down at a desk, and never sit down at a pc. The way they communicate is mobile phone, with a tablet, when someone is waiting on a crew bus. Or waiting on the train.” […] “Linear communication that you used to have no longer exists.”

In the words of CEO, David Cush

Click here to view the embedded video.

The original article appeared on Airlinetrends.com here.

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SimpliFlying

At SimpliFlying, in everything we do, we believe in thinking differently about aviation marketing. Having worked with over 30 airlines and airports across 5 continents, we understand the intersection of aviation and marketing better than anyone else. We have the most experience. The most clients. The most success.

SimpliFlying.com is one of the Top 2 blogs on aviation, and the Twitter handle (@simpliflying) is one of the Top 5 most influential on airlines, with over 12,000 followers. If you're keen to tap our expertise, email us at helpmesoar@simpliflying.com

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