TravelInkd Webinar Slides - Managing Customer Relationships Using Social Media

Managing Customer Expectations Using Social Media

IAG and ATWJune 16, 2010

www.travelinkd.com

Managing Customer Relations Using Social

Media

Presented by Vanessa Horwell Chief Visibility Officer, TravelInk’d

June 16, 2010

www.travelinkd.com

How did we get here?

It’s all Social Media, all the time

Let’s look at some numbers…

www.travelinkd.com

It took just 68seconds to add

473 new

members to

Facebook . . .

In 2009, this is

what was

happening with

social media. . .

www.travelinkd.com

Last week, this is

what happened

online in 69seconds. . .

Almost 200 more

new Facebook

users per minute

Almost 1000x more Tweets

www.travelinkd.com

11,000 global Good Mornings tweeted in a 24 hour period

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media has

overtaken porn as the

#1 activity on the Web

www.travelinkd.com

Years to reach 50 million users…

Radio – 38 years

TV - 13 years

Internet – 4 years

iPod – 3 years

added more than 100 MILLION users in 9 MONTHS

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media In The USA

125,560,420 Facebook users

15 to 30 million blogs

26.3 million Twitter accounts

259,561,000 People online

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media in El Mundo…

1,802,330,457 People online

465,562,540 Facebook users

105,779,710 Twitter accounts

70,000,000 Blogs

288 Social networks

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s

3rd largest

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

Facebook has more users than the ENTIRE

population of

www.travelinkd.com

United States of Facebook

www.travelinkd.com

80% of Twitter usage is on

mobile devices, anywhere and

everywhere

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media Marketing spend to hit $3.1 Billion by

2014

$716m spent on medium in 2009

Bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

What Does This Mean?

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.comwww.travelinkd.com

It means that Social Media

is in our DNA


78% of people trust peer recommendations

Only 14% trust advertisements

www.travelinkd.com

Time spent by consumers on social media in a WEEK?

www.travelinkd.com

Less than 1 hour 17.89%

1 to 5 hours 36.84%

5 to 10 hours 24.56%

MORE THAN 10 HOURS 20.70%

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media Marketing spend to

hit 3.1 Billion by 2014

$716m spent on medium in 2009

Bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile

www.travelinkd.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

IS EVERYWHERE

www.travelinkd.com

Social Media isn’t a fad,it’s a fundamental shift in the

way we COMMUNICATE

Source: Socialnomics

www.travelinkd.com

www.travelinkd.com

What Is YOUR Brand Doing With Social Media?

www.travelinkd.com


The rise of social media sites has

supercharged the ability of consumers to

influence a company's brand and image.

Your brand This upsurge in consumer power is both a challenge and opportunity for companies,

especially those in the travel sector -- airlines and air travel partners -- and it’s spurring

airline brands to find ways - BETTER WAYS - to respond.


It’s time to manage customer relations using

social media…


JetBlue, the low cost carrier, has one of

the BIGGEST footprints on social media sites among U.S airlines.

The airline uses Twitter to receive and respond to customer comments, leveraging the feed’s

instant communications to provide a real-time environment for both conflict resolution and

information dissemination.


JetBlue’s Twitter Strategy# JetBlue Twitter followers: 1.6 million

# JetBlue Twitter feeds: 2

# JetBlue passengers in 2009: 22,450,000

# Twitter followers to passengers:

7.12 to 100

# Twitter followers to total

passengers for UAL: 0.10 to 100

JetBlue net income for 2009: $58

million, or $36.25 per follower


JetBlue is a great example of how best to engage in social media for enhanced customer service (and enhanced brand perception as a result).

The principle behind JetBlue’s Twitter strategy could be characterized as ‘responsive’; rather than pushing information out, JetBlue actively monitors the information it receives through its Twitter feed, and takes action based on that.

There’s also a separate Twitter feed @jetbluecheeps for general information including sales, fare changes, etc.


Hawaiian vs. Qantas – An Experiment in using Social Media to Manage Customer

Relations…


Say G’DAY to Vanessa!

She is currently looking for flights to Australia, for sometime in June or July. She came across a few special offers on Qantas Airlines but when she tried to purchase her ticket, those special offers

did not appear.

So she contacted Qantas on Twitter…

Within minutes, she received a tweet and an email from Qantas asking for a

good time to chat. And then a few minutes later, she had the same person that manages the Twitter account on the phone with her. A very personable,

friendly lady who not only helped Vanessa find the offers she was looking for, but also spent time with her talking about several must-see places on her

trip. The airline’s response to Vanessa’s issue was RIGHT on TARGET.


Now Vanessa can now put a voice, personality, and a name to the person behind the Twitter account.

Vanessa knows that if she has any issues, she will get help quickly.

So when it comes time for Vanessa to purchase tickets to anywhere near Australia or New Zealand, why would she choose a differentairline to Qantas?

This built an EMOTIONAL RELATIONSHIP between Vanessa and Qantas…


ALOHA… Vanessa also booked a last minute flight to Hawaii which

was leaving in a few hours. She spent some time looking at flights on various sites; and finally decided to reach out to Hawaiian Air on Twitter.

She was already on the purchase page for Hotwire and was ready to click the “pay” button but wanted to check if Hawaiian Air had some sort of specials on last minute deals.

She sent out the tweet and waited a few minutes but received no response and booked the flight via Hotwire. Shortly after she purchased the ticket, Hawaiian got in touch with her to get more information…

But alas, the ticket had already been purchased - they were just not fast enough.


ALOHA… Vanessa also booked a last minute flight to Hawaii which was leaving in a few hours.

She spent some time looking at flights on various sites; she was already on the purchase page for Hotwire and was ready to click the “pay” button but wanted to check if Hawaiian Air had any last minute deals. So she reached out to Hawaiian Air on Twitter…

She sent out the tweet and waited a few minutes but received no response and ended up booking the flight via Hotwire. Shortly after she purchased the ticket, Hawaiian got in touch with her to get more information.

But alas, Vanessa had already bought the ticket. The airline was just not fast enough.


What Did We Learn?Here are two airlines with two very different responses, one of those airlines got Vanessa’s business, the other did not. Qantas solved her customer expectations of:

As an informed traveler and consumer, the gap between what I expected and what Qantas offered was small, the gap between what I expected and what Hawaiian offered was much larger.

Sometimes it only takes one transaction to help close the gap between what a company offers and what a customer wants, case in point being Qantas.

Prompt resolution –had someone on the phone within minutes

Two-way communication - on twitter, email, and the phone

Collaborative relationships - helped me select destinations

Feeling of importance


On June 4, 2010, MediaPost told us…

“One-Third of Americans Criticize or Compliment Brands Online”


On June 10, 2010, Travel Blogger Christopher Elliot slams Mexicana…

“Mexicana makes passenger wait almost two years for refund”

www.elliot.org


Imagine the number of consumers who have responded to Elliot’s post, sharing their experiences with the Mexicana brand -- good and bad.

Hundreds, thousands?

YOUR brand could be next….


Share Control, Before Others Do!


Whether travelers are tweeting about a delayed flight, poor service or lost luggage,

these consumers wield lots of influence. Their comments can linger in perpetuity, get

amplified and take on a life of their own…

Social media is INFLUENTIAL…


“George s. Says: July 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pmAs most frequent travelers know all too well - United has the

worst customer service of any US airline. Try talking to a

wall, and you’ll get a better response than the programmed

morons they use. I have instructed my travel dept. to use

United only as a last resort. That means I’ve flown United

twice in the last three years !!

Remember the “United, You Lost My Guitar” clip on YouTube?

8 million views later

OUCH!


The Last Word in Social Media…

As we have seen today, Social Media has a substantial impact on peoples’ perceptions of brands, products and companies.

And its influence on how consumers perceive brands is only going to become stronger.

Are you going to USE IT or LOSE IT?


Thanks so much for listening!

To discuss the contents of this presentation, please feel free to contact me at:

Vanessa HorwellChief Visibility Officer, TravelInk’[email protected]+1.305.749.5342 x232

http://www.travelinkd.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

TravelInkd Webinar Slides - Managing Customer Relationships Using Social Media