My main theme was around the connected traveler – who has access to the internet throughout every single phase of travel – from the taxi he takes to the airport, to the airport lounge and duty-free areas, to in-flight wifi. And how this changes the dynamics of customer engagement for airlines and airport retailers and revenue opportunities. Below, I share the presentation for your viewing pleasure and would love to hear your comments on it too!

• Driving revenues and engaging customers in-flight – presentation from Airline Retail Conference #arc2012
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Airlines in social media – the road ahead. Keynote presentation from #APEX2011
• Why the in-flight wi-fi business model needs a re-think (Hint: airlines can learn from airports)
• [Video] Two Paradigm Shifts in Travel and Three Ways Airlines Can Drive Engagement – Presentation from Aviation Outlook Africa Summit

She’s little, she’s a miss, and she’s red… care to guess who she is?

She’s Lil’ Miss Red, and she’s Air Asia’s Customer Service “ambassador” as well as the core element of the AskAirAsia customer service website.  From now on she will also increasingly become the Air Asia customer service agent as the airline has announced that it will close two of its customer service hotlines in a move towards what it calls its “on-going mission… to utilize technology and practice cost efficiency as well as promoting full automation and self service via the airline’s online channels”.

Although it might seem as just another cost-cutting measure, the shift from a telephone-based to a social media and internet-based model will most likely be an inevitable one for most airlines (and even airports). The speed and extent to which airlines will embrace the new model will obviously vary depending on business models, but a deep rooted shift in customer expectations is undoubtedly underway, and it all began with…

Eyjafjallajökull, of course!

If there ever was a perfect wake up call for airlines to engage in social media the ash-filled roar of the famous (and unpronounceable) Icelandic volcano was it, at least for Europe. The disruption caused by airspace closures and its unpredictable behavior proved to both airline and airports that traditional channels were simply unfit to handle large crises in an increasingly social world.

It became evident that, while traditional call centers were collapsed, users on Twitter and Facebook were helping each other and the European Air Traffic Control Agency (Eurocontrol) was providing them with up to date information in an efficient and relatively effortless manner.

New Rules of Engagement

As our CEO Shashank Nigam noted in a recent webinar, with the rise of social media, consumers now expect to receive answers and immediate attention 24/7 on their online platform of choice. In this new environment social media is becoming a must for airlines, and while some are still struggling, others, like Delta, are already managing to answer over 4000 queries a month with an average response times of as little as 11 minutes.

Furthermore, as our latest SimpliFlying Hero explained, airlines have found out that by using social media for customer service they not only gain in terms of response speed and customer engagement, but they are also able to listen to what is being said about them, and react accordingly.

Not only airlines

According to data from an infographic that SimpliFlying developed with ACI Europe a staggering 77% of all passengers that travelled through Europe did so in a “social media enabled” airport, a clear sign that airlines are not the only ones engaging in social customer service.

This was also confirmed during the research for our crisis management top 10 where we found several cases of airports taking a hands-on approach on social media to assist passengers during a crisis.

Given how travelers increasingly go online to seek solutions to their problems, it’s only fair that airlines and airports live up to their expectations. If expectations from travelers aren’t enough incentive, competitors should be sufficient reason to sit up and take note. There’s no looking back now!

Are you an airline or airport wondering how you can keep up with competitors and offer 24×7 customer-service on social media? SimpliFlying, along with its partner InterGlobe Technologies, offers scalable social customer-service solutions that will take care of all your concerns. Get in touch with us at engage@simpliflying.com to learn more!

• Is your Airport Customer Services Delivery Under Pressure?
• Top 10 Crisis Management Case Studies: How Social Media Can Help Airlines Deal With Their Worst Nightmares
• [Presentation] How airports can use social media to drive retail
• [Infographic] Airports in social media – ACI Europe Study reveals startling data
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement

The theme of the panel session was on Passenger Tracking and how new technologies are providing benefits to airport operators, concessions operators and passengers. I shared the panel with Kristin Shaw of SITA, Inc. and Faith Varwig, of the Faith Group, LLC, who spoke of some of the ways in which technology is being used to implement passenger “flow management” in airports.

Beyond these emerging technologies, I shared in the presentation that it is also important to remember that there are many (free) ways that airports can also begin to track passengers through social media tools and airport website booking engines. By working these tools into a strategy and using what we have at our “social fingertips” airports can begin to get a feel for passenger behaviors and patterns. Pairing these social tools with the mobile and GPS/Bluetooth technologies that are up and coming can help airports to get the most out of new technologies.

A question came up during the session, which we hear often from airport clients: “Do I need a mobile app if I have a mobile friendly website?” The answer really comes down to, “what are you going to DO with that mobile app? What do you want it to do for you….” A mobile app that is used to communicate with the passenger while also rewarding them for repeat visits and for shared content can help an airport to take emerging technologies (GPS and Bluetooth tracking) and integrate them into an existing marketing and social strategy. Social loyalty programs, like the one we’ve helped Estonian Air build, can be a great way to really tap into their audiences and maximize the addition of tracking technologies and the use of mobile apps.

These ideas and more, discussed in the presentation below (click here if you can’t see it).

• Thirty questions airline brands and airports must answer to build a strong social media strategy
• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Passenger Experience, Satisfaction & Concessions @ PTExpo11
• Driving social media ROI for airlines, airports and travel businesses – Keynote presentation from #SMtravel11
• 4 (fun) ways airports can drive passenger engagement through the use of Foursquare

So, if you had one tenth the resources that KLM has and no budget, what can you learn from them to drive insane engagement? Play destination hangman with your Facebook fans! It’s similar to what you played as a kid in school, just featuring your airline’s destinations. Simple!

We had recently shared that one of the best Facebook Engagement strategies is “Fill in the blank”. Destination hangman is like putting this strategy on steroids!

How does it work? Let’s see how KLM does it. It’s a simple three step process:

1. Put up a nice photo of one of your destinations on your Facebook wall
2. In the caption, ask people to guess the city
3. Fill in the blanks every 1000 fans you gain!

Simple. KLM has been doing it on their Facebook page for some time, and they’re getting tremendous amount of engagement through it. See it for yourself in the screenshots below!

So, your airline or airport is on Facebook and Twitter too? But just when you got comfortable with conversations on Twitter and Facebook, along come a few new kids to the social media block – welcome FourSquare, Pinterest and Google+, to name a few. What are they and how can you use them to engage, expand reach and add value to the conversation? Also, are you under pressure to justify your social media efforts or need data to expand into these new channels? SimpliFlying can help! Just like how we’ve helped over 25 airlines and airports around the world drive results by engaging customers. Just drop us a note at engage@simpliflying.com.

• The most successful engagement strategy on Facebook is _____.
• American Airlines’ AAdvantage Facebook Fans grow 84 fold in 54 hours. The most successful campaign ever by an airline?
• How COPA Airlines drove 50X return on investment from a Facebook app
• Top 10 Route Launches: How Airlines and Airports engage customers in new destinations through social media
• How BMI SimpliEngaged Customers with a Pinterest Visual Lottery

When I entered the offices of PEAK Games in Istanbul a couple of weeks back, here’s what I saw:

Instead of being greeted by a receptionist asking who I was there to meet, a huge Ogre-like creature was asking me to start playing. I dumped my laptop bag and immediately immersed myself into the game, in which the Ogre on the screen followed my motions and I had to keep him flying higher by collecting coins. A game so simple that a little kid would get it, and yet here I was, completely engrossed in it. Though I was at Peak’s offices for less than an hour, I probably played the game three to four times!

And I didn’t need to ask anyone what the company did. They obviously create very engaging games for people of all ages! And very good ones at that, given they’re one of the top gaming companies in the world.

Being part of such an immersive experience got me thinking – what can airlines do to immerse their passengers in a unique experience? On the ground and in the air?

Airlines with an immersive experience

An immersive experience is that which allows an airline to differentiate itself from competition, and something that leaves a lasting memory in the passengers’ minds. So which airlines are doing it well? Something that appeals to multiple human senses. Here are some I’ve personally experienced.

1. Singapore Airlines – the Singapore Girl taking care of you throughout the journey still brings back the romance to travel. Few other airlines have been able to match that level of service. Did you know that Singapore Airlines also has patented the scent their flight attendants wear?
2. Turkish Airlines – from possibly the best Star Alliance lounge there is, to the in-flight chef personally serving you food in Business Class. The Turkish Airlines experience has been one of my most memorable in recent times. The last time I flew them to Canada, I only ate for two hours – no movie, no reading, just eating!
3. Midwest Airlines/Frontier – The Midwest Cookie, which was freshly baked in-flight created an irresistible aroma, which has unfortunately been discontinued.
4. Southwest Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Kulula: Would you ever forget a safety demonstration by a rapping flight attendant, those dancing on Lady Gaga’s latest hits, or those that announce you’ve landed in Zimbabwe instead of South Africa? Nope. Never. And these three airline brands in three continents have a lot of fun with their passengers, which creates an immersive experience.
5. Virgin America – their mood lighting and beautifully designed cabins make for a comfortable and memorable flight!

Airlines that create an immersive experience also succeed in creating an emotional bond with the customers. And that creates affinity towards the brand, not just loyalty. Which ultimately keeps them coming back, by choice.

Those I’ve mentioned here are just some of those that do a good job of creating an immersive experience. Do you know of others? Please do share in Comments and over on Twitter

P.S: Special thanks to Kasim Zorlu to make the trip to Peak games possible!

• The Midwest Airlines cookie crumbles in the hands of Frontier – the loss of a brand icon
• Creating the best food in Economy Class: Turkish Airlines Do&Co take us behind the scenes
• Cartoon of the day and more airline humor
• Turkish Airlines – The atypical Middle Eastern airline brand. CEO Dr Temel Kotil outlines global dreams in interview
• Are the Beijing Olympics a lost opportunity for airlines?

This is not an imaginary seven star hotel, but the new Turkish Airlines International CIP Lounge in Istanbul that I’m talking about. And I lived every moment described above during my first visit there, as you can see from the photos shared below. You’ll also realize that these are amateur photos, taken by my point-and-shoot digital camera.

A complete transformation

I’ve been to Istanbul twice before, and both the times used the Turkish Airlines lounge, which is also open to Star Alliance Gold and Business Class travelers of other airlines in the alliance. It seemed large, yet congested and it was yet another “waiting hall” – just with nicer sofas and better food than what was available outside the lounge. Pretty much the same as most other Business lounges at airports around the world. Basically, nothing much to talk about.

This new lounge, which opened in mid-2011 has replaced to old one and comes complete with a theatre, a kid-zone (Curio City), PlayStation consoles, Study areas, library, pool table, Live flight tracking, showers and lots of food zones. The food is freshly cooked by Do&Co, the famous Austrian gourmet company that we have featured before, showcasing their in-flight catering skills.

All this, in the same space as the old lounge! And that’s the beauty of it all.

“It’s like a walk in the Apple store”

Imagine if Apple designed an airport lounge. That’s how being in the new Turkish Airlines lounge feels. The design is contemporary-chic with lots of white and glass everywhere. The curves of the walls hide very well any corners or right-angles and you feel very relaxed. Even the luggage-deposit area seems like a Gucci store! In the words of the gentleman I played pool for an hour with, “It’s like a walk in the Apple store.”

Just one thing that could have been improved – as an aviation geek, I couldn’t just sit in the lounge and watch planes. In fact, the lounge overlooks the carpark on one side and the entrance to the airport on the other – so the plane spotter in you might be a little disappointed.

But then, there are enough distractions to keep you busy – from a game of pool, to reading Ottoman empire’s history! All while you wait for the boarding announcement

All said and done, the new Turkish Airlines CIP lounge in Istanbul is by far the best Star Alliance lounge I’ve been in, ahead of the Singapore Airlines Silverkris lounge in Singapore, and the Continental Airlines lounge in Houston. In fact, I might even pay a premium to fly Turkish Airlines in order to visit the lounge again. Who wouldn’t?

• Creating the best food in Economy Class: Turkish Airlines Do&Co take us behind the scenes
• Is Qatar Airways really the five star experience in the sky? A brand analysis
• Are you creating an immersive brand experience for your airline?
• Will a bloated Star Alliance result in a branding nightmare?
• Turkish Airlines – The atypical Middle Eastern airline brand. CEO Dr Temel Kotil outlines global dreams in interview

Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue's social media efforts

JetBlue’s first jump into social media was after the ice-storm of February 2007 when they needed to address their customers to talk to them about lessons learned from an operational failure. They made the decision to address customers directly through YouTube and learned very quickly that establishing a direct relationship with customers through these channels was appreciated – and also provided an invaluable resource to learn more.

On the road to greatness

When Twitter began to gain additional prominence in March, JetBlue recognised the opportunity of the real-time nature of the medium. Because users were posting their experiences as they happened, the airline could talk with them as they were travelling. This offered amazing customer recovery opportunities

Morgan admits that while he loves the communities they’ve built, and the audience they’ve developed, the best aspect of their social strategy has nothing to with their accounts. The most important thing JetBlue did was use the networks to listen to what their customers were saying about them, and using that information to affect change internally.

While JetBlue doesn’t release information specifically on the revenue generated from social media activities, there are a number of metrics they watch regularly to measure success. One metric that they spend a great deal of time on is the engagement and sentiment of their customer base. NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a core metric at JetBlue and “the ability to refine what we know about our service through surveys, emails, and social media monitoring is incredible. Particular to social, our ability to track how online sentiment and knowledge is changed depending on our ability to communicate with the online audience is incredibly useful.”

Social Media and the Art of Crisis Management

When asked about the recent crisis with the indisposed pilot, Morgan says that like any carrier, JetBlue has plans developed for any number of situations. However, the specifics around the diversion of flight 191 to Amarillo, TX was a new and unexpected scenario for them.

It’s interesting to note that the first indication that this wasn’t a standard medical diversion came from a customer’s Tweet from the plane when it landed. Many of JetBlue’s plans anticipate customers tweeting from the scene, and they plan the scale of public responses as needed.

“Suffice it to say, there was a lot of interest about what happened to Captain Osbon, so we knew we needed to move fast. However, while we needed to move fast, we also take the responsibility of reporting only verified information very seriously, and also need to respect the privacy of our crewmembers and customers.”

A JetBlue pilot captain Clayton Osbon, is removed from the plane after erratic behavior forced the crew to land in Amarillo, Texas. Source: WINA.com

Their initial blog post – and the subsequent updates were all done with a desire to balance the established goal of transparency, and the customers’ desire for information, with the responsibility to be sensitive and accurate with information. As Morgan says, “… trust we have built over the years went a long way to make our customers more understanding of the situation.”

As for internal policies regarding what employees can utter online, Morgan says that JetBlue asks their crewmembers to be responsible with their communications online, be transparent about their affiliation, and put disclaimers where needed, and above all make it clear they’re accountable for what they say, and the promises they might make to customers in online spaces. “Past that, our social network policy boils down to, “don’t be stupid.” – and we’ve had pretty good success with that to date.”

Building a co-ordinated, responsive team

JetBlue’s Social Media team is lead by representatives from their internal teams representing Marketing, Corporate Communications, and Customer Commitment. They all work together on initiatives. As the advertising team works with their ad agency on campaigns, they also work to incorporate the social components of those into their strategy.

A distributed team handles their social media strategy. The front line of their monitoring and engagement is the Real Time Recovery team. This team consists of 21 part time crewmembers based within their Customer Commitment team in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. The team has responsibility over a number of things within their operation including answering customer emails, working with operations on real time customer recovery, working with special needs customers preparing for flights, and the 24/7 monitoring and customer engagement through social media.

The Real Time Recovery team is augmented by the Corporate Communications and Marketing teams that jump in when larger issues present themselves, or when particular messages need to be presented to customers. These three teams work together with equal authority over our strategy, keeping proper checks and balances in place.

JetBlue was one of the first companies to start actively using CoTweet when it came onto the scene, and have enjoyed being part of their evolution into SocialEngage. Morgan says that the integration of Twitter and Facebook into a dashboard that allows tracking, assigning, tagging of customer comments, and tracking of effectiveness of posts is perfect for their multi-unit social team. For Facebook, they also use Buddy Media and other third party app developers where appropriate.

The importance of experimenting, adapting and talking to customers

Social media is all about the conversation. Pitches and promotions, give-aways or contests, Morgans says, are all fun, but they can be done anywhere and they’re not necessarily social. The real advantage of social media is the ability to talk with your customers, learn from them and earn their trust by showcasing your employees’ humanity.

That trust is the real opportunity. It builds the good will you may need one day, and it builds the advocates and evangelists that will fight on your behalf and share your messages to their audiences.

“We made the mistake of pitching without first earning the trust, and our messages fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t until we asked our customers what they wanted of us, that we started building the relationship that would be the foundation of our social strategy.”

As for those looking to build their own social initiatives, Morgan has some handy tips. Collaborate with your customers to come up with the product that’s right for everyone. You have ideas of what you’d like to see for goals, and they’ll most certainly have ideas on what they’d like to see. Talk it out, experiment, adapt, and never get too attached to any one particular “right answer,” it may change overnight.

Well said, Morgan! We can’t wait to see more from JetBlue this year!

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and fill up the SimpliFlying Heroes nomination form. By filling out the nomination form, you bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of April 2012: bmibaby vs JetBlue vs Virgin Atlantic
• Five ways airlines can tame Twitter – Jesse Engle of CoTweet shares his expertise
• How does JetBlue build a strong digital airline brand?
• Getting up, close and personal with the customer – three airline case studies
• Perfect storm: JetBlue versus Southwest on Twitter – real incident

Fill In the Blank is a common content tactic that many big brands are utilizing to drive engagement (comments) with fans, on Facebook. If your brand is experimenting with this tactic, analyzing it against other content types is an effective way to measure performance and determine if FITB should be incorporated into your content strategy.

Using JetBlue as an example of a successful FITB posting strategy, we’ll break down how you can test and measure it as part of your ongoing content analysis.

JetBlue Baseline

JetBlue is one brand that has effectively incorporated FITB into their content strategy. Over the past six weeks, they have included FITB in a post approximately every 7 to 10 days.

Fill In The Blank Drives _______:

We analyzed JetBlue’s Facebook content performance over the 6 week period mentioned above. From this sample, we compared JetBlue’s Fill in the Blank posts against all other types of content posted on their Facebook Fan Page. Our analysis showed the following results:

We can see that Fill in the Blank has been quite successful at driving comments for JetBlue. It should also be noted that while FITB drives likes and shares, it is not at the same level as comments. In terms of driving these other engagement types, posts with Links are the top performers for JetBlue.

What Does it Mean to You?

Fill in the Blank can be effective at driving engagement. JetBlue is a great example of a brand that is seeing positive results from incorporating this tactic into their overall strategy. However, not all audiences are going to react the same. As you experiment, content analysisand comparison amongst post types can help determine if this is a smart option for your page. You can also use this type of analysis to track the type of content your competitors post and see what is driving engagement with their audience.

Read the original post here.

• How to drive Facebook engagement like KLM? Start playing “destination hangman”!
• [INFOGRAPHIC] How Airlines Use Twitter – customer engagement done right, or gone wrong?
• Here is why JetBlue is the most loved airline brand on Twitter
• How airlines and airports can dramatically increase engagement on their Facebook Pages through one simple action
• Three reasons why JetBlue’s eBay store is a genius move and why other airlines will follow

With these words Vueling’s CEO, Alex Cruz, responded to a question on the Spanish airline’s future social marketing strategy during this month’s Simplifying Podcast that featured him as a guest.

In keeping with our usual format, the podcast is composed of a 10 min introductory section where we take a look at  the latest trends in aviation followed by a 25 min interview with our guest, Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz.

In today’s introductory section we review the importance of response times in social media and the ongoing debate over in-flight Wi-Fi and its different business model. During the interview with Alex we analyzed the following subjects:

• Critical factors behind Vueling’s success (11:30)
• Spanish market : The collapse of Spanair, high speed railways and Iberia’s new low cost subsidiary (13:40)
• Vueling’s Spanglish advertising and its cloud (22:00)
• Strategy: Hybrid, but only if cost leader (24:42)
• Vueling’s marketing channels (26:50)
• Alex Cruz’s view on social media (28:40)
• Social media ROI for Vueling (29:50)
• Rapid fire round (35:00)

(After you fill out the short form below, you will be taken to the podcast. If you wish to download it, please right-click on the player and chooose Save As/Save Link As)

 

• Episode 3 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Industry news roundup and exclusive interview with KLM’s VP for eCommerce
• CAPA’s Airlines in Transition conference, and what I learnt from five airline CEOs about the future
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Episode 4 of Simpliflying Podcasts: Exclusive insights into the world of airline loyalty & Interview with Gabi Kool, the CEO of Baltic Miles
• Vueling Business Class drives awareness creatively: The cloud that fell from the sky

ACI Europe conducted a thorough study recently of all its member airports on the continent and found that 77% of all passengers travelled through a social media enabled airport and there has been 800% annual growth for Airports in Central Eastern Europe using these mediums. For more startling facts and stats, enjoy the infographic SimpliFlying has produced in partnership with ACI Europe.

European Airports in social media

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<br /> <a href=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png”><img class=”size-full wp-image-7011 ” title=”Airports social media ” src=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” _mce_src=”http://simpliflying.com/wp-content/uploads/SimpliAirport_HD5.png” alt=”" width=”592″ height=”2659″ /></a><br /> Via <a href=”http://simpliflying.com” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com”>SimpliFlying</a>.<br />Grab your code <a href=”http://simpliflying.com/2012/infographic-airports-in-social-media-aci-europe-study/” _mce_href=”http://simpliflying.com/2012/infographic-airports-in-social-media-aci-europe-study/”>here.</a><br />

You can get more aviation infographics here.

• [Infographic] How travel marketers calculate ROI on social media and why the future is mobile
• [Infographic] How Airlines across the world are dedicating resources to Social Media
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)
• [Infographic] How travel brands are using social media to achieve ROI
• [Exclusive Videographic] How airlines dedicate resources to social media marketing