how american airlines uses social crm for customer engagement

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Jon BirdAA Social Media

How American Airlines uses Social CRM for Customer

Engagement

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Social CRM @AmericanAir• Complex, volatile industry

• Our transactions are significant investments, significant events

• We’ve had some successes

• We know we have a lot of work ahead of us

• Opportunity to be transparent, and to have a conversation

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Numbers

Approximate # of people we fly daily

250,000

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Numbers

Social Media Mentions Weekly

35,000

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Delaynotifi-cation

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ted

/C

on

tro

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dA

A I

nit

iate

d/

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ntr

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ed

AAadvert-ising/mktg

Pricing & fees

Confirmstandby

Check baggage

Upgrades

Gate info

On-timedeparture

Delaymgmt.

Flightcancelled/oversold

Boarding

Carry-onbags

& gate check

Boarding

Findspace forcarry-on

Findseat

EvaluateAircraft

SelectF&Bsvc.

Take-offannounce-

ments

UseIFE

Useonboard

amenities

Reserveseats

Select channel

Selectticket

Checkflightinfo

Navigateairport

Obtainboarding

pass

Securitywait

VisitAdmirals

club

Findgate

Check baggage

Purchaseticket

Changeticket

Waitat gate

Dutyfree sales

Landingprep.

Pre-takeoff svcs. Complaint

Baggageresolution

Exitairport

Transferto gate

Customs/Immigration

Collectbags

Deplane

Awardticket

Admiralsclub

Rebookmissedflights

Cabininteriors

Pre-takeoff svcx.

F&Bquantity

F&Bquality/variety

IFE options

IFEequip.

Landinginfo

On-timearrival

Taxiing& jet

-bridge

Deplaning

Connec-tions

Baggagedelivery

Complaintresolution

Baggageresolution

Customer travel experience

Customer Touchpoints

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Approach

• Challenge = Opportunity

• Every touchpoint is an opportunity

• Service failure is an opportunity

• Creating advocates

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/AA

@AmericanAir

/AmericanAirlines

Frequent Flyer Forums

Core Communities

AAdvantage Admirals Club Global Markets

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How do we listen?

Community Management• Employees personally read through

public comments on channels

Technology & Monitoring Tools• Alerts

• Moderation

Global, moving toward 24/7 model

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• Establish basic parameters

• Let them know how you’ll help

• Give them a place to send praise/concerns

Community Guidelines

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• Monitoring Tools– Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Radian6, Tweetreach, Facebook platform

(Context Optional)

• Common sense can’t be replaced• Red Flags:

– Lots of comments from other fans/followers– Coming from someone with a high number of followers or influence– Issue has come up several times before– Consumer is angry, threatening to contact media, has a health-related

or topical issue

How do we listen?

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CompassionAuthority

How do we respond?Responsiveness

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CRM @ AA “Before”Core Team

Proactive

CustomerResponse

CR

Reservations

Social Marketing

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CRM @ AA “Now”

Core Team

CRReservations

CustomerResponse

Social Marketing

Proactive

Integrated with Core Team

Real Time

Allows for more fun stuff

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• Receive issue tweet, respond initially

• Assign to customer relations or reservations

• Use direct message to collect private information

• Create CR file

• Resolve issue via private message or a personal phone call

• Record data (screenshots, etc.)

How do we respond?

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How do we respond?

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Charles Wade - employee of Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s sister 1,883 Twitter followers

Traveling from LAX to JFK for a musical performance

Forced to wait to check his bags while four staff helped someone repack their overstuffed luggage Had only 20 minutes to get through security and onto the plane before it departed. Made his flight, but was treated rudely throughout his ordeal and blamed by staff for being late

Social Defense team apologized on Twitter and called Charles directly to listen to his concerns and apologize

The team also credited Charles AAdvantage miles for his trouble. Charles then tweeted positively about our efforts to assist.

How do we respond?

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Meg Nesterov - mother, publicist and blogger with 3,307 followers

Travelling Chicago to London

Did not receive her stroller at Heathrow airport - Meg tweeted her frustration September 18

Social team responds, apologizes, credits bonus miles

How do we respond?

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Michael Hyatt (+100,000 followers)

AA Concierge Key member

San Francisco to Nashville via DFW

Nashville flight cancelled, he tweets:

CR Surprise & Delight

AA Social Media responds immediately via Twitter to offer support

In the meantime, Michael’s flight is still en route from SFO

AA personally met Michael at his gate

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Social CRM and Crisis

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Types of Crises

• Operational Crisis

• PR Crisis

• Customer Crisis

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Domestic & Global Crises

• American Airlines Flight 331

• Haiti Earthquake

• American Airlines Flight 24

• Snowmageddon

• Jack the Cat

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• Constantly monitoring for issues negatively

impacting brand reputation• When an issue arises, monitor site traffic for spikes

driven from a single message or topic• Each issue is unique, requiring a response plan

for a variety of social groundswells• Have a single point of contact to report issues• Reporting for post-event conversation, improve• Fact-checking is out the window - Speed trumps

accuracy (Twitter “blocked” on AA)

Identifying Crises

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• American Airlines Flight 24 bound from SFO-JFK on August 19, 2010

• Someone phones in bomb threat

• Passenger begins posting tweets + photos from her phone

• CNN’s Rick Sanchez begins reporting based on tweets received from passengers

• American Airlines tweets passenger:

1.3 millionTwitter followers

American Airlines Flight 24

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Proactive Social CRM

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• EARNED

• Can be earned in the positive handling of a negative experience

• Will come to your defense publicly

• Will become brand content extenders and even creators

• Critical relationship to be cultivated

Advocates

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Boeing Delivers American Airlines First 737-800 with Blue Sky Interior

Bloggers and AA Social

advocatesInvited to fly in inaugural flight of the 737-800

SEA-DFW

30 blog posts including Simpliflying.com,

AirlineReporter.com & AIRTiculate.com

More than 2 million potential impressions

on Twitter

39 consumer and media mentions on Facebook, totaling nearly 27,000

impressions

Immeasurable positive perception of American and profuse thanks from social

media advocates

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Facebook

The NBA Finals with American AirlinesOfficial Facebook Channel & Mobile

Mobile

BUILTWITH

Works on..

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• Winners received 10-50% off flights

• Users choose what city should win discount

• 145,000 shots taken

• 7,397 sweepstakes entries

• Revenue generation for AA

The NBA Finals with American AirlinesOfficial Facebook Channel & Mobile

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What Social CRM has done for us

• Know our customers better

• Build advocates

• Become more agile

• Go back internally with all of this instant feedback and make changes and improvements

• Make our business better

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Words we try to live by• Service is now expected in Social Media

• Every customer touchpoint is an opportunity, no matter how challenging

• Know your communities

• Be vigilant

• Build advocates

• Deliver real value

• Constantly evaluate how to improve

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Jon BirdAA Social Media

How American Airlines uses Social CRM for Customer

Engagement