TravelInkd Webinar Slides: Managing Customer Relationships Using Social Media

1. Managing Customer Expectations
Using Social Media
IAG and ATW
June 16, 2010

2. Managing Customer
Relations Using Social
Media
Presented by Vanessa Horwell
Chief Visibility Officer, TravelInk’d
June 16, 2010
www.travelinkd.com

3. How did we get here?
It’s all Social Media, all
the time
Let’s look at some numbers…
www.travelinkd.com

4. In 2009, this is
what was
happening with
social media. . .
It took just 68
seconds to add
473 new
members to
Facebook . . .
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5. Last week, this is
what happened
online in 69
seconds. . .
Almost 200 more
new Facebook
users per minute
Almost 1000x
more Tweets
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6. 11,000 global Good Mornings tweeted in a 24 hour period
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7. Social Media has
overtaken porn as the
#1 activity on the Web
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8. 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
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9. 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
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10. 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
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11. If Facebook were a country, it
would be the world’s
3rd largest
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12. United States of Facebook
Facebook has
more users
than the
ENTIRE
population of
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13. 80% of Twitter usage is on
mobile devices, anywhere and
everywhere
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14. $716m spent on medium in 2009
Bigger marketing channel
than both email and mobile
Social Media Marketing spend
to hit $3.1 Billion by
2014
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15. What Does This Mean?
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16. It means that Social Media
is in our DNA
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17. 78% of people trust peer
recommendations
Only 14% trust advertisements
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18. Time spent by consumers on
social media in a WEEK?
Less than 1 hour 17.89%
1 to 5 hours 36.84%
5 to 10 hours 24.56%
MORE THAN 10 HOURS 20.70%
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19. SOCIAL MEDIA
$716m spent on medium in 2009
Bigger marketing channel than
both email and mobile
Social Media Marketing spend to
hit 3.1 Billion by 2014
IS EVERYWHERE
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20. Social Media isn’t a fad,
it’s a fundamental shift in the
way we COMMUNICATE
Source: Socialnomics
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21. What Is YOUR Brand Doing
With Social Media?
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22. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

23. It’s time to manage
customer relations using
social media…
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24. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

25. 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
www.travelinkd.com

26. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

27. Hawaiian vs. Qantas – An Experiment in
using Social Media to Manage Customer
Relations…
www.travelinkd.com

28. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

29. This built an EMOTIONAL RELATIONSHIP
between Vanessa and Qantas…
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 different
airline to Qantas?
www.travelinkd.com

30. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

31. 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.
www.travelinkd.com

32. 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:
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
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.
www.travelinkd.com

33. On June 4, 2010, MediaPost told us…
“One-Third of Americans Criticize or
Compliment Brands Online”
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34. On June 10, 2010, Travel Blogger
Christopher Elliot slams Mexicana…
“Mexicana makes passenger wait almost
two years for refund”
www.elliot.org
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35. 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….
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36. Share Control, Before Others Do!
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37. Social media is INFLUENTIAL…
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…
www.travelinkd.com

38. Remember the “United, You Lost My Guitar”
clip on YouTube?
8 million views later
“George s. Says: July 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
As 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
OUCH!
twice in the last three years !!
www.travelinkd.com

39. 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?
www.travelinkd.com

40. Thanks so much for listening!
To discuss the contents of this presentation,
please feel free to contact me at:
Vanessa Horwell
Chief Visibility Officer, TravelInk’d
www.travelinkd.com
vanessa@travelinkd.com
+1.305.749.5342 x232
www.travelinkd.com