Skift Take

Social media has evolved to become another platform to provide customer service, but it needs to be well understood before brands dive in and start tweeting. Here's what they need to know.

Our twice-monthly Skift Trends Report series takes a deep dive into industry trends across various sectors of travel.

The latest report in the series, New Trends Report: Social Media Customer Service Strategies in the Travel Industry launches today.

Customer service is a race towards personalization. Since Facebook and Twitter launched in the mid-2000s, consumers and businesses have had two excellent tools to learn more about each other through online and offline behavior. Brands are doing the heavy lifting on their end to provide quality customer service that extends itself into a richer customer experience across these new platforms.

As technology and innovation progress, the needs of customers become greater and brands need to be present, responsive and consistent in new online communities. The days of three-person social media teams will be phased out.

The need to structure larger teams to prioritize engagement posts and deal with customer service inquiries has grown, and companies are looking for new ways to further differentiate themselves from the competition. Offering consumers a nearly one-on-one relationship online is supplemented by the visibility of large volumes of social conversations.

As consumers and businesses continue to interact, they are building relationships that are becoming mutually beneficial due both to the solutions provided to the customer and the public examples the brands leave behind on social media for future customers to see.

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About These Reports

This is the twenty-first in a series of twice-monthly trends reports that brief readers on a specific trend, providing insight into the current state of the market, the context around the trend, and where the industry is heading in the near future.

After you subscribe, you will receive two reports every month — 24 in a year — direct to your inbox. Reports are delivered as a downloadable PDF.

Or you can also download each report a la carte, at a higher price.

You can read more about the trend reports here.

Any and all feedback is welcome. Contact me at ra AT skift.com.

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Tags: american airlines, customer service, facebook, hilton, hyatt, starwood, twitter

Photo credit: Hotels and airlines have excellent opportunities to connect with existing and future customers on Twitter and Facebook. NEC Corporation

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