Blog 
Jenn Seeley is a Community Engagement Specialist at Radian6 in the worlds of travel & aviation. She loves take-offs, landings and in-flight snacks. You can tweet with her @jenn_seeley as she welcomes sharing and engaging.
Many airlines have boarded the social media plane for managing customer service – some are just taking off at greater speeds than others. What can you do to ensure your airline is soaring higher than ever and delivering the service your customers dream of? Let’s break it down in five easy steps!
Always begin with a plan!
So, you can see your customers from time to time talking about you online. You hear them loud and clear. However, projects without a strategy can be a waste of efforts, energy and resources. Sure, you are going to want to reach out and fix every issue you find immediately when you begin to listen, but a well thought out and developed plan is going to take you the extra mile.
A plan starts out simply with knowing what tools you will work with, what training you will need to use those tools properly and who is going to be behind them. Will you have a team of many? Or just one pilot to steer the plane? This previous Simplifying infographic on Integrated vs Dedicated social media teams is a great review if you are at the planning stage. Know what your end goal is and begin to piece together what the entire project looks like.
Your plan should involve a playbook. How will you respond to a complaint? What will the process be for escalated issues? Should you respond to every single mention of your airline? These are only a few of the questions you should be asking as you work out the master plan. You can take a look at the playbook Radian6 uses, but please do not feel as though it’s a perfect fit for YOUR team and instead use it as a guide to get your creative juices flowing.
Do what feels right for your goals, just make sure you document it and everyone involved follows the rules. This will enable you to be consistent, as you will have a specific plan in place for various scenarios you may encounter in the world of customer service. Consider your playbook a living document and make changes as needed – just ensure the whole team has access to every update and acts accordingly.
By now you should be feeling fired up! You’ve found your customers and your playbook is tucked neatly under your arm on your iPad. So now what?
Finding your customers
Sure, they’re in line at the gate waiting to board your newest Boeing 787. They’re probably killing time checking in to Foursquare, sending out one last Tweet about their upcoming vacation or emailing a lead to a colleague back at the office. You could always walk up to them and say hello, but with social media and smart technology, you don’t need to. In fact, the best place to reach out and say ‘hey’ is right where they are active and that is what you need to learn first.
Customer service is more than just waiting for someone to tell you directly that they are upset with you or that they need something more out of a relationship with you. Customer service – no, make that GOOD customer service – stems from having a mutual respect and understanding for one another, allowing you to exceed the expectations of the customers. Knowing where you’re being talked about and in what context helps you immensely.
Identifying where your customers are talking is key. Simply knowing a few popular social media sites is a great start, but take this knowledge a step further and really dig into the kinds of conversations being had in each of these online outlets. In this case, popularity contests matter – because the popular online ‘hang out’ is where you will want to invest some time connecting and understanding your customers.
Using the right key words in a social media monitoring platform to better understand where your customers ‘hang out’ online, will give you better ideas of where to be listening. In the example below you will see ‘where’ people are talking about WestJet Airlines over the last two weeks online. As micromedia is primarily Twitter, you can see that Twitter is where most of the conversation about this airline is happening. It would make the most sense, then, to start with Twitter if you have not already taken to tweeting. (image via Radian6)
Be friendly, be real and be available.
A smile – whether literal or virtual – can set the friendly tone, so practice conveying those ‘smiles’ and showing off your friendly face to your customers via social media. Social media has a fantastic ability to reach the masses, but it can be a balancing act to be succinct and deliver a helpful response in 140 characters or less while ensuring the right tone is felt by the reader. Remember, you may be hidden behind a laptop in a command room of some sort but your customers want to feel as though you are that smiling, helpful face behind the ticket counter in the airport.
Speaking of behind the counter, there is very little in this world more aggravating than being next in line when someone places the “this wicket closed” sign up. If your social media team will only allow you certain hours to respond to customer concerns online, then be sure and broadcast that clearly on all social sites so your customer knows what to expect. There is no need to feel pressured to be always ‘on’, just identify what you can handle via your social channels and when.
For example, the following three airlines all have a different schedule or approach to interacting with their customers on Twitter. KLM has a 24/7 strategy, British Airways has team hours posted and JetBlue lets you know up front that there’s a link they’d prefer you to use for customer complaints. Whatever your plan, make it known and stick to it. Upset customers are especially grateful that you care to listen at all, so make it count.
Know your customers
How is knowing your customers different from finding them? Finding someone at a party and smiling across the room does not mean you know them. Being personable and friendly and even lending an ear while they share their most recent troubles with you is a step in the right direction – but still does not earn you BFF status alone.
Your customers have put themselves out there on the social web and are allowing you many opportunities to know them better. You can easily impress your customers by adding a personal touch to your response. Some social media monitoring tools will also enable you a look into what other topics are of interest to your customers. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of knowing your customers is the KLM Surprises campaign. Maybe one day your airline will knock them off of top spot for that honor!
Finally – Engage!
The actual act of interacting with your customers and providing the service you so desperately want to provide comes last on this list of five. Why? Because your engagement will be more successful if you first know a little bit about your customers, where they are at and you have your winning smile and helpful voice at the ready.
This is also the place where your playbook is especially important. Follow the guidelines you have created for your team to help deliver consistent customer service across the board. Your customers are watching and yes, they are even judging you. Now is your chance to make a stellar impression! Stick to your plan.
Remember, they’re steps. Take them one at a time. Though there may be turbulent skies as you soar into your social media customer service model, having a plan of attack will ensure smoother flights ahead.