2014 Air Transport IT Summit, The Highlights - Shashank Nigam, CEO, SimpliFlying on why social media is no longer an afterthought. It’s integral to the airline business in this age of connected and empowered travellers.

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The 2014 Air Transport IT Summit | The Highlights
“ YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU
MEASURE. ONLY THEN CAN YOU
BENCHMARK YOURSELF AGAINST
OTHER AIRLINES.”
SHASHANK NIGAM
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SIMPLIFLYING
So when can
we have the
first airline
empowering
employees to
answer any
questions from
the customer?
AGE OF CONNECTIONS
“Today’s travelers are empowered and we have to deal with
them differently. Social media is no longer an afterthought. It’s
integral to the airline business. This is the age of connected and
empowered travelers.
“How do you satisfy these customers? As an airline, are you
ready to deal with these guys? This is not tomorrow. This is the
day before yesterday. And, they are the travelers of today. There
are several business functions that social media deeply impacts
other than marketing.
“Critically, the new terminal at GRU
REAL-TIME CUSTOMERS
“The first is real-time customer service. It’s not 24 hours later.
It’s not, “We’ll reply within 14 days.” It’s real-time. And it makes
a difference. KLM, one of the best airlines using social media in
the world, handles 30,000 passenger queries a week through
Twitter and Facebook. Of that, 2,000 are replies to passengers
who are either traveling or who have a PNR number. The world’s
largest social media staff is with KLM: they have 132 people
dedicated to social media, including two full-time staff to focus
on passengers on the ground at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport or
in a plane Facebooking or Tweeting.
“Real-time customer service is key. Airlines are doing it today.
Customers’ expectations are being set not by you, but by those
airlines that are replying to every single thing within minutes.
They’re defining expectations. The merged US Airways and
American have 100,000 employees. I bet at least 10% of those
have deep knowledge about issues impacting the customer. So
when can we have the first airline empowering employees to
answer any questions from the customer? In fact, it seems that
Finnair is going in this direction. It will be good to see when they
go live and what comes out of it.”
BE CRISIS-READY
“Second thing is be crisis-ready. That’s the one thing you ought
to get right. I’ll share a very quick example which was rather
famous. Krista is a Google employee who became famous after
taking a photo of an aircraft and tweeting it just 28 seconds after
the aircraft crashed on landing in San Francisco.
“Within minutes, she was inundated with requests from
journalists from all over the world. Trouble is, she got the facts
wrong and said the flight was from Taipei. In the next 24 hours,
she had 4,450 mainstream media mentions. The airline produced
a press release eight hours after the incident, the first update on
Twitter or Facebook six and a half hours after the incident.
“But San Francisco Airport was on the ball. They were updating
not just passengers, but other airlines and keeping everyone up
to date. You’ve got to be like San Francisco. You don’t start digging
the well when you’re thirsty; you‘ve got to prepare right now.”
RETURN ON SPEND
“Third, know the metrics. What gets measured gets done.
“On the first of April every year, WestJet in Canada have a video
that goes crazily viral. Those who watched last year’s video to
the end were given a coupon code that led them to the airline’s
website to book a ticket. Over the first 24 hours the video
resulted in 6,000 flyers and 4,000 bookings.
“Or take KLM again. For every euro they spend on social media,
they make 1.2 euro in direct sales and 2.8 euro in indirect sales.
“So you need to think hard about how can you provide real-time
customer service and how close you are, because it’s not
something that’s appearing out of nowhere. The trends have
been set for two years now. Social media goes way beyond
marketing: it’s not just an afterthought.”