New Trends Report: Social Media Customer Service Strategies for Travel Brands
Skift Take
Today we are launching the latest report in our Skift Trends Reports service, Social Media Customer Service Strategies for Travel Brands 2015.
Not long ago, a customer frustrated with the service at a hotel or airline would take their complaint to a check-in desk or toll-free number. The issue could be resolved with no one but the brand and the individual knowing about it. If the issue wasn’t fixed, the biggest risk to the brand was the loss of a customer, and perhaps the handful of people who the customer told about his or her negative experience.
Those seem like the good old days from the perspective of today’s marketers. In 2015, social media has transformed the relationship of customer and hospitality brand, raising the stakes in a number of ways. Customers now live tweet their flight delays or post photos on Instagram of maintenance issues at their hotels and instantly reach thousands of people. Bad word of mouth can spread faster and farther than ever before.
As social media has moved customer service into the public eye, travelers’ expectations have risen as well, as they come to expect personal assistance from airlines and hotels more quickly than ever. The volume of social media interactions has also escalated. In Q2 of 2015 alone, airlines received more than 357,000 questions via Twitter and almost 85,000 questions via Facebook, according to Socialbakers.
In this report we speak with social media and customer service experts from Hyatt, Southwest, Carlson Resider, KLM, and more in order to discover what makes successful brands work and what challenges they are getting prepared to face.
NOTE: We have moved away from the PDF format for reports; now you can read them in the new, online HTML5 responsive-design format. Check out an example here.
About These Reports
This is the latest 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. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.
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