Air travel is one of the most desired forms of transportation in the 21st century, but you got to admit that waiting to board the aircraft and completing the check-in formalities is something that we all hate.
Airlines say they have privilege measures to help frequent flyers avoid check-in delays courtesy of loyalty points and cards. But in a digitally connected world as we have today, is it only necessary to treat frequent flyers with some extra cheese? There are people out there who can change the fortunes of an entire airline with a single tweet about their customer treatment.
Imagine if Shakira or Cristiano Ronaldo sends out a tweet about having a very unpleasant check-in experience with a particular airline. The tweets get retweeted a hundred thousand times by their fans in a matter of minutes and before the airline can do something about it, they become the most hated carrier on the internet. Let’s keep celebrities and sportstars out of the equation. Social media doesn’t revolve just over what they say. Today most people have something we like to call the Digitwin. They might just be a normal folk out in the real world, but might be a superstar on the internet. With 1000’s of followers, every word they speak evokes sentiments online and they are the ones who make the most viral posts on social media.
The current scenario
So shouldn’t airlines be paying attention to social superstars? Yes they should. Unfortunately there has been no significant approach made by any airline to incorporate a loyalty program that considers a passenger’s social index as much as the miles he has already flown with the airline.
Customer Social Identities – Is it that difficult to obtain?
While booking a ticket, every customer willfully supplies his email id and most of the time it is the same id that they would use for their social media accounts. Alternatively, the registration could be completed via a social media integrated sign-up form. So getting the social media identities of customers is not a big deal for airline customer relationship teams.
What’s the next step after information acquisition?
The airline staff in the check-in counter should have access to a comprehensive check-in portal that presents before them the social media ratings of ticket owners along with other details when it is boarding time. Preferential clearances and faster check-ins could be offered to people with higher social rankings as with the current scenario of offering privileges to frequent flyers.
What’s the end result?
When such folks get better services, then you bet, they will share their experiences on their social profiles and a huge share of internet love comes to your brand ultimately. There may be flip sides to this approach but it all depends on how you set preferences for customer treatment at check-in counters. Getting the right balance on frequent flying points and social rankings will yield the best results in terms of customer satisfaction.
The way you plan your approach in integrating this metric into your CRM portal is what decides your ultimate success in this front. So what do you need to do to make this a real success? Get in touch with us to know how we can help you solve this problem. Visit our website to know more.
