Then, last year, there were significant indications of things to come with Malaysia Airlines allowing customers to sit next to their Facebook friends. However, a couple of months ago KLM announced that they would launch the first “truly” social seating system for airlines matching customer’s social profiles with those having similar profiles or interests.

So far, given the lack of details about how the system would exactly work, the announcement was both welcomed as well as met with trepidation by the online community. Some claimed they’d love to try this new system, saying that it would spare them long hours of boredom on their flights, to  the outraged reactions of people who thought it would be an unjustifiable invasion of privacy and could lead to in-flight harassment to unwilling seat-mates.

Today’s the real deal!  At KLM`s headquarters in Amsterdam, the world will witness the announcement of something different, radically innovative but also, controversial: allowing passengers to choose seat mates based on information about their shared interest taken from their Facebook profiles!

Let’s move on now to what’s really happening at Amsterdam.

Click here to view the embedded video.

KLM’s Meet and Seat – Live!

Follow the live-blog below to get blow-by-blow updates as the new product is unveiled (the blog will be updated as soon as the press conference starts)

Photo credit: @polledemaagt

[1.30pm] Social Seating will be launched on flights between Amsterdam and San Francisco, Sao Paolo and New York City.

[1.40 pm] We’ve learnt that passengers will be able to share information from their Facebook or LinkedIn account and will be to see who else is traveling on a particular flight and has shared relevant data. Everyone can decide which data they want to link with their flight. This information can be used by passengers to choose a seat-mate.

[1.45 pm] KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and it’s latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect.

[1.50 pm] Meet & Seat will be can be reserved 90 days to 48 hours before departure on all intercontinental KLM flights via ‘Manage My Booking’.

[2.00 pm] We’ve managed to secure the very first look of what Meet and Seat will be like.

[2.15 pm] Essentially, after booking your KLM flight, choose what Facebook or LinkedIn profile details you want to share. Subsequently, view the profile details of fellow-passengers to find like-minded people or business partners. After evaluating such details you can choose to sit beside a person whose profile you find interesting. Of course, once you’re tuned into the social seating game, the potential is limitless as you could later choose to have a coffee at the airport or even share a taxi with the person you sit next to.

• 5 Ways to Incorporate Social Media Into the Flying Experience, and leverage on your “followers”
• How an intelligent seating system can bring ancillary revenues, and is great for the airline brand
• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines

The benefits of crowdsourcing, and its effectiveness for problem solving, are well-known. The power of the social web is being harnessed by airlines more than ever (in fact, a cargo-carrier has recently got into the game as well). Crowdsourcing initiatives are now being used not  just to engage customers but also to find ways to improve their product and services, as well as at the same time building their brands. Hence, “crowdbranding”.

With today’s Top 10 case-pack we would like to highlight some of the best examples of airline crowdsourcing. At the same time, we also invite our readers to have a look beyond the surface and into the deeper strategic goals that drive each of these strategies. In some cases it will be clear that the end game was indeed solving a problem or finding an innovative way of addressing existing issues, but in others it will also be clear that the stated goal of the crowdsourcing campaign wasn’t the only goal.

Most of the airline examples included in this Top 10 used crowdsourcing to solve problems related to visible parts of their product such as in-flight meals or routes, and did so in very “socially active” ways, using their social media pages and often creating dedicated websites where participants could interact.

Looking deeper into the reasons that drove these airlines to choose crowdsourcing, we found that the most common goals were:

1. Solving a particular problem
2. Reducing costs
3. Associating their brands with a specific concept (for example: quality or low prices)
4. Obtaining first hand-data from their community of users
5. Promoting a new feature/product/route

With this teaser, we’ll leave you to discover how some of the best airlines in the world harnessed the power of the web in the most tantalizing and innovative ways possible.

• Loyalty 2.0 | The Top 10 Social Loyalty Initiatives by Airlines
• The Top 10 Twitter Initiatives by Airlines
• The Top 10 Viral Videos by Airlines (plus bonus videos)
• Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines: Reinventing the booking cycle to drive revenue (from #eftamerica)
• Mobile 2.0 – The Top 10 Mobile Apps by Airlines

After all, those were the good old days when, if one passenger had a bad experience he would tell his friends and family who may or may not have told a slightly distorted version of the story to their friends and family members… and the story would pretty much have ended there.

However, in the age of Twitter, Facebook and instant 24/7 global communication, the story doesn’t quite end there anymore. Even one annoyed passenger out of a whole planeload has the power to share his experience not only with his friends and family but also with millions of complete strangers who may in turn share it with a million others.  And this time the story does NOT end there.

Moreover, according to recent research, 25% of social media users expect a response within an hour and 6% expect something within 10 mins!

Time to start thinking about social customer service!

Unfortunately, only a handful of airlines and airport seem to have noticed this change, and even fewer have realized that an annoyed passenger could easily be turned into an happy one, as well as a brand advocate, who rather than venting his anger at a million strangers will praise the airline’s excellent customer service response.

There are a number of reasons why offering customer service through social media is an attractive option for both customers and airlines:

1. Customers no longer have to go through the trouble of waiting on the phone (forget the irritating wait-tune) to reach customer-service executives.
2. Being an “open” forum mostly, complaints and resolutions can be seen publicly. This can help a) reassure customers that the airline is serious about customer service; b) help create brand-advocates who can spread the word among their networks about a great customer service experience.
3. The responsive, interactive and open nature of social media helps customers feel more comfortable with asking more questions and getting all their doubts cleared which might not always be possible through the phone. On the flip side, the airline can also understand better what exactly are the most common issues worrying customers and how their service can be improved.
4. Apart from the benefits social media undeniably provides, customers now expect most brands to respond to them on social media, which is an almost equally compelling reason for airlines to have social media customer service initiatives anyway.
5. The internet and social media are absolutely unmatched in providing speedy and latest information especially in times of crises.

In this Top 10 we have selected ten great examples (as well as 2 bonus ones) of companies that have gone out on a limb to offer customer service through social media, thereby making their customers very happy indeed. We hope you enjoy the case-studies.

• Southwest Airlines, the Most Remarkably Kind Flight Attendant and the Art of Customer Service
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• United Airlines brand may go for a spin as customer feedback line is terminated
• Five steps to Customer Service Excellence for United Airlines (with real-life case study)

The future is mobile

Given the rapidly changing interactional/behavioural habits of the traveler, it has become important for airlines to target them where they can be found. Close your eyes and think for a moment about what the word mobile phone means to you: I’m quite certain that most of the readers here will at once think of an iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or a similar device. It seems that the growth of social media – Facebook and Twitter primarily – as a valuable engagement tool to drive business goals has only helped create a more complex landscape. The growth of iOS and Android (especially iOS which is not just available on phones but on iPods and iPads as well), coupled with the ability to create custom apps to target customers and offer them value-added services right on their cellphones has changed the way airlines are thinking about customer engagement and driving revenue, customer service etc. In the past we’ve illustrated how mobile has been an important part of various airline initiatives in the social era: travel distribution, social loyalty and location-based-service initiatives. However, this case-pack deals purely with how airlines have specifically created mobile apps (in particular, on the iPhone and iPad) to engage customers while driving revenue and customer service as well.

Before we move on to the case-pack, here is a checklist of ways in which airlines have tried to differentiate their apps while offering value to their customers:

1. Booking: Some airlines, such as Turkish Airlines, have made it ridiculously easy to book tickets from within the apps in a crazily small amount of time. Customers love it of course: the easier and quicker you make the booking process, the more likelihood that the sale will be completed.
2. Convenience: British Airways allows boarding by flashing the QR code powered boarding passes that can be shown directly from an iPhone. Way to go paperless!
3. Travel inspiration: Lufthansa and KLM have created apps that are excellent at making the users of their apps drool at the prospect of travelling to delicious destinations on these airlines.
4. Complimentary travel services: A number of airline apps now allow customers to rent a car, know the weather and do more at their destination that is not strictly airline-related.
5. Augmented reality: A new player but one with huge scope for engaging the customers who’re usually more than happy (and mostly fascinated) to use the service for things such as navigating an airport or finding places to redeem loyalty points (Qantas).

That’s it, for now! Enjoy the case-studies!

Do let us know what you think of this Top 10 case-pack. Comments, suggestions, brickbats are all welcome in the comments section below. Alternately, you can tweet us @simpliflying.

• Top 10 Travel Distribution Initiatives by Airlines: Reinventing the booking cycle to drive revenue (from #eftamerica)
• The Always Connected Traveler – how mobile will transform the future of travel [Infographic]
• The Top 10 Viral Videos by Airlines (plus bonus videos)
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)
• Customer Service 2.0: Top 10 Airlines and Airports performing Customer Service through Social Media

With about a day still to go for voting (and trust us, a lot of votes come in on the last day), the total number of votes has already crossed 30,000. Moreover, votes have come in from 4500+ cities across the world. How incredibly awesome is that?

1. Freshness and innovativeness are the keywords you need to keep in mind if you wish to drive a really successful social media campaign.
2. If you’re able to engage the interest of the customer, it’s possible to overcome certain price-point barriers. e.g. KLM’s new Economy Comfort option was a hit due to the viral video of a levitating magician.
3. People are looking for instant engagement online – if you’re looking to provide customer service online, don’t do it half-heartedly. Throw everything you’ve got into it and your customers will appreciate you for it. eg. AirAsia’s AskAirAsia.
4. To a certain extent, building emotional bonds with customers will drive long-term loyalty and revenue. eg. KLM Surprises and JetBlue’s glass half-full video.
5. Being “controversial” or disruptive is also a great way of driving buzz, receiving eyeballs and getting new customers as long as it is done right. eg. Air New Zealand have been brilliant in their “provocative” social media endeavours such as “Nothing to hide” etc.
6. Leverage the latest technology as and when it becomes available to engage more customers and to appear to be at the cutting-edge of innovativeness. eg. the Chrome web app by Virgin America, Groupon route-launches etc.

With that said, here’s the case-pack. We hope you enjoy going through it!

• The Best Airlines Driving Revenue Through Social Media – Introducing the Top 5 nominees for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

Yes, imagine dance beats pumping through the aircraft PA system, mojitos being served to all passengers, as flight attendants dance down the aisle. It might sound like I’m joking, but it’s really a flight that I’m on! And it’s the result of a bet between a Dutch DJ and KLM, that the airline would fly a party plane down to Miami if the DJ could fill up up! You can read the whole back-story here (super cool!)

Not only are the 150 people selected by the DJs on-board this flight, KLM also held an online competition, where anyone could submit a photo of their summer party, and they’d stand a chance to go to Miami on this flight too! And I’m going to be rubbing shoulders with these folks on the flight too!

I’m sure the next few days are going to be lots of fun, and I’m excited to be part of this first flight! Great to see KLM bring the fun back to flying!

You can follow all the tweets, photos and videos from the trip right here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• How can airlines optimize social media content for maximum conversion? [keynote presentation]
• Angry Birds to fly Finnair from Helsinki to Singapore – innovative route launch marketing!
• For leading KLM into social media, Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011
• [Video] The best holiday greetings from airlines this season
• How can an airline create a viral video? Learn the power of surprise from TAP Portugal’s Christmas dance at Lisbon airport

The volcanic explosion that led to explosive growth

The ashcloud crises about a year ago was a catalyst for many airlines, especially in Europe, to start engaging their customers through means they were familiar with – often tools like Facebook and Twitter (click here to see case studies). It was also then, that social media tools became the necessity for airlines to communicate during crises with their customers.

One of the airlines that transformed its customer interaction methods after the ashcloud crisis was KLM – and Lonneke Verbiezen was in the center of all the action. And the impact of her team’s work is truly felt today. In the last year, KLM has come up with various innovative campaigns like KLM Surprises (see video below), Fly2Miami – where the first flight to Miami will transformed into a party flight on the request of a Dutch DJ, and even an application where travelers can create free, personalized luggage tags!

A clear business-oriented customer engagement strategy

The numbers speak for themselves – KLM today has over a hundred thousand Facebook fans, and Twitter followers approaching the six figure mark! The best part is that Lonneke did not achieve this as a fluke – there has been a clear business strategy too.

Lonneke won the mandate to scale her team, and KLM now has a team of 16 people dedicated to social media, where 11 members of the team focus on customer service, and another five are dedicated to eCommerce and commercial side of things. More importantly, every customer is treated like a VIP and through various campaigns, they’re heard, their problems solved and their questions answered.

Here is Lonneke’s interview. And we congratulate her and her team for their exemplary efforts once again (click here if you can’t view the video).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s what the KLM Surprises campaign was about, as I shared my opening keynote in San Francisco recently.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

• Crises Management for airlines and airports in the age of social media- Presentation from ACI Europe
• Karlis Smiltens – the man behind airBaltic’s rise in social media is the SimpliFlying Hero for August 2010
• Greg Hounslow is the SimpliFlying Hero for April leading WestJet into the new age of social media
• For giving us funny safety videos and bringing us Rico, Megan Matthews from Air New Zealand is the SimpliFlying Hero for March 2011
• For getting AirAsia a million fans on Facebook and making it the leading social airline brand, Karen Chan is the SimpliFlying Hero for June 2011

Spanair delights holiday travelers

Just around when thousands were stranded at London’s Heathrow Airport and missing Christmas gatherings, Spanair had delightful surprise in store for their customers.

On Dec 24, Spanair’s flight from Barcelon to Las Palmas arrived close to midnight. And when the passengers reached the baggage belt upon landing, they were surprised to see that instead of their luggage, out came beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts, each specially packed for each passenger and tagged individually too. Now, wouldn’t you be delighted if this happened to you? Just see the reaction of the passengers in the video below, and you’ll see what I mean.

KLM Suprises digital travelers

By now, you must have heard of the KLM Surprises campaign. Here’s how it worked: KLM started delighting digital customers at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam before they boarded their flight.

After travelers announced their presence  on Foursquare or Twitter, KLM staff contacted online them to learn of their departure gate and time (1st surprise). Then, after doing some online research about the person, they got a very small gift for the passenger (2nd surprise). A NYC city guide with sports bars highlighted, for a soccer fan. A glass of champagne for someone who had his 18th birthday on that day.

And the campaign worked wonders – receiving accolades from experts around the world, getting a ton of press mentions and of course, social sharing love from the travelers themselves . See the video below and you’ll see what I mean

Surprises as airline brand strategy?

Just last week, as I enthusiastically shared the KLM and Spanair adventures with a senior airline executive in Miami, he asked me a question about the applicability of such ideas to overall brand strategy. And I thought that was a very good question, which I should address here.

Think about scalability…

To create a memorable brand experience, airlines need to go above and beyond what’s expected. And a surprise delivers the punch. Remember the rapping flight attendant at Southwest Airlines? Or the dancing flight attendants on Cebu Pacific? Those were all surprises that the passengers didn’t expect – but are they scalable? Can they be repeated again and again? Consistently across the network? Scalability is the key to using “surprises” as a brand strategy for airlines.

Start small and make sense of the data…

These days, airlines have a data overload – they know a lot about their customers, though all data may not be at one place. The key is then to start small and try something fresh. And see whether it works. Measure and monitor the response. If passengers liked it, then try it again.

I’ll give you an example. If I’m sitting in the boarding lounge before my next flight, and I tweet that I feel like an orange juice, imagine my delight if I actually get an orange juice upon boarding? Or if I’ve been inconvenienced on an earlier flight, what if I get a business class meal during the next leg of my flight? Airlines already have this data, and someone just needs to make sense of it.

But then of course, there’s the concern that if they do it too often, people come to expect it, and when it’s not delivered, the effect is reversed.

So, what do you think about airlines surprising passengers? Is it a sustainable strategy, or just a gimmick? I’d love to hear your thoughts, over in the comments or on Twitter (@simpliflying)

• Next time you’re at an airport, don’t be surprised if you’re surprised!
• Five airlines (and an airport) that surprised passengers this Christmas with Wow campaigns
• Three ways air ticket re-design can increase brand value
• Toronto Pearson Airport sings you a Christmas carol if someone tweets you’re flying out – and they sang one for me
• How can an airline create a viral video? Learn the power of surprise from TAP Portugal’s Christmas dance at Lisbon airport

Reading through my airline branding lense I could tell the confusion the event was causing among travelers, especially in this peak travel season. And this went through the roof when FAA/TSA came up with knee-jerk measures to beef-up security on US-bound flights.

It’s difficult for most passengers to distinguish whether the inconvenience they’re being put through is something the airline has initiated or is it something beyond their control. These are what I called Brand eXternalities in my 6X model – where the customer has the tendency of forming an impression about the brand, even when the events are beyond the airline’s jurisdiction. At this time, the airline needs to ensure that it nullifies any adverse impact on the brand. Here’s how.

Prepare for the confusion – It will arise, even for Finnair!

I was browsing through Airliners.net the day after the incident and chanced upon an interesting comment. Take a look:

When Finnaviation shared what FAA sent to Finnair, someone else thought that it was Finnair that was coming up with these measures and condemned the airline. This sort of confusion is very common – especially since the traveler is already anxious.

Airlines should be prepared for such happenings even if they’ve not been directly related to the incident. In this case, Finnair passengers flying to the US are just as much affected as those traveling on China Southern from Singapore to Los Angeles via Shanghai. The least the airline can do is to provide clarification.

Clarify, Clarify, Clarify

Following the news of the Northwest incident, KLM’s UK Twitter account was repeatedly calming nerves and clarifying that even though the Northwest flight was code-shared with KLM, it wasn’t a KLM plane that was involved in the incident.

When Delta, KLM, AirFrance and Northwest are all somehow involved, it is bound to cause confusion. And instead of just issuing press releases, it makes a lot of sense for airlines to update the customers through a medium they use!

KLM’s Twitter account is a great example. Similarly, such updates could have been sent out as an SMS to frequent fliers on the Amsterdam-Detroit route. If the airline has a Facebook page or YouTube presence, then similar messages can be released there too. The point is the ensure that there is as little confusion as possible, and the airline brand will not suffer as dramatically.

Don’t just impose – explain measures too

Recently, my Twitter friend Oussama Salah traveled to Detriot and was picked out for a thorough search, once again.  This is what Oussama shared in a recent blog post:

The TSA agent explained to that it was the airline that imposed this procedure on him, and in London, the security agent even joked about it. Similarly, the airline can also explain that some of the stringent security measures are beyond their control. And it’s not so difficult to do!

When I was once flying Singapore Airlines, I was requested not to use my headphones while landing because if there’s an emergency, I wouldn’t be able to hear the instructions. I could reason with that explanation and cooperated willingly. This is different from imposing orders on to passengers. Which brings me on to my last point.

Don’t lose the human in you

As opposed to being professional and aloof, the airline staff can also be trained to deal with passengers with warmth. What that means is to have a conversation, and treat the customer humanly, both in-person and through the media. For example, online, it is not just about just broadcast a message and issuing a press release. It is important to listen to customers’ concerns, and then respond.

After the Northwest incident, there were lots of myths flying around the media – security in Europe is lax, why was the person allowed on-board, why couldn’t the security system detect the explosive, and many others. And it wasn’t an airline, but a good friend of mine, Steve Frishling who came up with an article that aimed to distinguish the myths from the facts. This is an article that should be placed prominently on the websites of Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines and KLM-AirFrance, since they all had an active flight number relating to the incident. And it addresses the concerns of a lot of their passengers.

These are just some of the steps airlines can take to ensure that externalities like heightened security measures do not deteriorate the brand itself. What else do you think an airline can do in times like these to calm nerves? Have you had an experience where an airline dealt with this brilliantly? Please do share with us in the comments and on Twitter.

• Surprise Dance on Finnair Flight to celebrate India’s Republic Day – it’s better than a flashmob!
• Angry Birds to fly Finnair from Helsinki to Singapore – innovative route launch marketing!
• The importance of resilience: three airline case studies
• American Airlines rocks on Twitter during the AA24 security threat, while passengers tweet from the plane
• Singapore Airlines, still a great way to fly? A brand analysis

But it’s important for airlines to differentiate their efforts so that they’re not creating yet another Dopplr (which I think is a great community for travelers). So, what are some of the things that airlines can do to ensure that their online forays help enhance the brand overall?

How to “control” the brand online?

Don’t even try! Since it’s the world of user generated content, user opinions often matter more than what the “corporate speak” is. As Michael D’Esopo from Lippincott shared in his interview, there is a need to allow free discourse to take place online. The airline should really just act as a moderator. This way, they will also discover and learn more about their customers’ changing tastes in these economic times.

The other dilemma airlines face is how tightly to couple the online community with the brand. I think there are two ways of doing this. If a community is being built around a specific airline, like Virgin Atlantic’s initiative, it should clearly project the brand promise and align its efforts with its real brand. It’s like a brand extension, just online.

Though, if an airline is targeting the general traveler, I think it’s important to de-couple the brand from the airline, and offer a platform for online interactions between travelers for it to bloom. Furthermore, this forum can be a treasure trove of insights for market research in the future!

Integrate and interact, but do not interrupt

Traditional marketing has sought to interrupt a target customer to seek his attention, for example through an advertisement during a TV show. But new technologies allow companies to interact with their customers without interrupting their lifestyle. Social networks are the “in-thing” at the moment, but it’s important for airlines to go where their target market is, rather than expecting them to come to them.

As Allen Adamson [watch interview] states in his book BrandDigital, it’s important to “identify where people are hanging out and what they’re doing”. A great example of this is Virgin Atlantic’s Facebook page, which has over 7000 “fans” and allows the airline to interact with its potential youth customers in a way they are comfortable with. Similarly, social networks like Bluenity and GenFly Lounge will do well by offering good integration with leading networks like Facebook and MySpace, as well as LinkedIn (and it’s not that difficult!). This way, the barrier to “sign-up” can be significantly reduced and usage is likely to increase too.

To sell or not to sell? Have a measure for ROI

Often, a return on investment (ROI) from marketing efforts is linked to revenues generated from those initiatives. But having an online social network for travelers from “all airlines” and then trying to sell them tickets on your own airline doesn’t sound right. Hence, it’s important to have a measure of success of the online initiative, other than just the revenue it brings in.

For example, I’m sure in addition to sale of special recommended fares on Virgin Atlantic, the creators of the page also probably had a target of 5000 “fans” in 2 months. Bluenity probably measures success monitoring the amount of “buzz” created by people sharing travel tips and connecting with other travelers. Such “ROI” measures are also likely to help sell the project internally in the airline.

What do you think? What are some of the other things airlines should consider when building online communities? Which other airlines are doing a good job with this? Let’s hear it in the comments section.

Up next…an exclusive interview with VP of Sales & Marketing at Jet Airways USA. Remember to watch it on Wed, 19 Nov.

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