Social Customer Service for the Airline Industry

Social Customer Service for the Airline Industry

Contents 01 Social Customer Service for the Airline Industry: Performance Report 02 Airline and Individual Continent Analysis 03 European and North American Comparison 04 Recommendations 2

Section 01 Social Customer Service for the Airline Industry: Performance Report

01 The Continued Importance of Social Customer Service: One of the fundamentals of good social customer service is to respond in a timely manner, answering customers questions and queries. Social customer service has now reached a level of maturity where it is common for consumers to vent their frustration over social, before turning to more traditional channels. The airline industry is no exception in this area, but it is a unique one. When you tweet a retailer, a hotel, or your insurance provider, fast responses are important, but necessarily not to the minute. For the airline industry, however, real-time service is a must. It is now common practice to tweet the airline carrier in question if your flight is late, you have limited legroom, or your bag goes missing. This becomes even more critical when you consider that as far back as 2011, 81.8% of all tweets from passengers to airlines were regarding a customer service issue. Airlines that fail to offer real-time service can face serious repercussions and online dissatisfaction from an alienated customer base. Even those that offer partial 9-to-5 service, but not 24 hours a day/7 days a week, risk these consequences from customers flying outside these hours of operation. There are additional factors that make it even more important for airlines to be proactive over social rather than reactive, especially when considering disruptions to travel. By reaching out to customers that indirectly mention you, or by responding to a customer based on a certain keyword, you have the ability to proactively engage. In fact, one of the best examples of social customer service, by KLM, was born out of a crisis with proactive engagement. January s Worldwide Travel Disruption: Post Christmas has been one of the worst in recent memory for travel disruption, with many airline providers experiencing these unforeseen circumstances. In fact, the weather conditions have been the worst on record for 25 years, resulting in a wrath of the angry commuters as snow hit North America causing travel disruption worldwide. In an overcrowded marketplace full of many airline providers vying for market dominance, the implications of poor service are real and need to be faced head on. After all, a satisfied customer is a frequent one. 4

01 Methodology: In all cases we used the Twitter Search API to find all mentions of @ mentions (up to the first 2,001). We then gathered the replies that the brand Twitter handle made, we automatically matched replies to mentions to calculate the time taken in each case. The slowest 5% of tweets (were excluded to ensure that results were not disproportionately affected). With this in mind, we took a look at the performance of 20 leading airlines providers from Europe and North America, analyzing one weeks worth of social interactions over Twitter. Using our Twitter Performance Tracker, we looked closely at two important metrics: issue response time and that of social responsiveness. The airlines were then ranked according to the criteria below: Responsiveness: 60%+: Very Responsive 20-59.9%: Responsive 5.01%-19.9%: Somewhat Responsive 0.01%-5%: Not Very Responsive 0%: Unresponsive Response speed: Very Fast: Under 30 Minutes Fast: Under 1 hour Average: Under 4 hours Below Average: Under 24 hours Slow: Over 24 hours 5

Section 02 Airline and Individual Continent Analysis

02 European Airlines @Iberia Responsiveness: Responsive @Iberia replied to 41.4% of all mentions @Iberia made 4.1 replies per hour Mean response time: Average On average, @Iberia took 1 hr 31 mins to respond 7.6 77.3% 28 secs 2 days 8 hrs Responsiveness: Responsive @British_Airways replied to 20.1% of all mentions @British_Airways made 3.3 replies per hour @British_Airways Mean response time: Below Average On average, @British_Airways took 4 hrs to respond 16.3 41.8% 2 mins 13s 1 day 14 hrs 7

02 Responsiveness: Somewhat Responsive @airberlin replied to 16.2% of all mentions @airberlin made 0.2 replies per hour @airberlin Mean response time: Average On average, @airberlin took 3 hrs 47 mins to respond 1.5 51.1% 1 min 30 s 3 days @easyjet Responsiveness: Responsive @easyjet replied to 28.0% of all mentions @easyjet made 2.5 replies per hour Mean response time: Fast On average, @easyjet took 47 mins 26s to respond 7.6 83.7% 50secs 14 hrs 1 min 8

02 @Ryanair Responsiveness: Somewhat Responsive @Ryanair replied to 14.6% of all mentions @Ryanair made 1.7 replies per hour Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @Ryanair took 24 mins 14s to respond 11.7 87.6% 33 s 3 days 4 hrs Responsiveness: Somewhat Responsive @lufthansa replied to 19.5% of all mentions @lufthansa made 0.9 replies per hour @Lufthansa Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @lufthansa took 15 mins 37s to respond 4.4 96.3% 3 mins 13 s 2 hrs 28 mins 9

02 Responsiveness: Somewhat Responsive @SAS replied to 15.1% of all mentions @SAS made 0.2 replies per hour @SAS Mean response time: Average On average, @SAS took 1 hr 45 mins to respond 1.5 65.9% 1 min 17 hrs 26 mins @Fly_Norwegian Responsiveness: Not Very Responsive @Fly_Norwegian replied to 2.5% of all mentions @Fly_Norwegian made 0.0 replies per hour Mean response time: Below Average On average, @Fly_Norwegian took 4 hrs 34 mins to respond 1.7 55.6% 4 mins 47 s 17 hrs 50 mins 10

02 @aeroflot Responsiveness: Responsive @aeroflot replied to 21.0% of all mentions @aeroflot made 1.0 replies per hour Mean response time: Average On average, @aeroflot took 1 hr 28 mins to respond 4.5 72.2% 54 secs 1 day 18 hrs Responsiveness: Somewhat Responsive @Alitalia replied to 9.6% of all mentions @Alitalia made 0.1 replies per hour @Alitalia Mean response time: Average On average, @Alitalia took 2 hrs 14 mins to respond 1.3 54.2% 1 min 40 s 19 hrs 58 mins 11

02 Overview of European Airline Analysis: -@Iberia was the most responsive European Airlines on Twitter, replying to 41.4% of all mentions -@Iberia once more stood out with the fastest response time, responding to one social question in just 28 seconds -@Lufthansa had the best average response time answering questions over social in 15m and 37s on average -40% of European airlines are considered responsive to brand mentions on Twitter 12

02 North American Airlines Responsiveness: Very Responsive @AmericanAir replied to 65.6% of all mentions @AmericanAir made 31.4 replies per hour @AmericanAir Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @AmericanAir took 4 mins 2s to respond 47.7 100% 23 secs 23 mins 41 s @united Responsiveness: Responsive @united replied to 51.6% of all mentions @united made 24.4 replies per hour Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @united took 27 mins 23s to respond 46.3 85.4% 2 min 3 s 15 hrs 42 mins 13

02 Responsiveness: Responsive @JetBlue replied to 39.2% of all mentions @JetBlue made 6.1 replies per hour @JetBlue Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @JetBlue took 8 mins 27s to respond 15.2 99.5% 36 secs 1 hr 22 mins @DeltaAssist Responsiveness: Responsive @DeltaAssist replied to 51.8% of all mentions @DeltaAssist made 9.5 replies per hour Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @DeltaAssist took 7 mins 59s to respond 15.1 96.5% 8 secs 7 hrs 32 mins 14

02 Responsiveness: Responsive @VirginAmerica replied to 23.0% of all mentions @VirginAmerica made 2.4 replies per hour @VirginAmerica Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @VirginAmerica took 28 mins 7s to respond 10.2 84.8% 1 min 1 day 7 hrs Responsiveness: Not Very Responsive @SouthwestAir replied to 1.7% of all mentions @SouthwestAir made 0.3 replies per hour @SouthwestAir Mean response time: Fast On average, @SouthwestAir took 40 mins 59s to respond 17.4 74.3% 1 min 2 s 15 hrs 29 mins 15

02 Responsiveness: Responsive @FrontierCare replied to 56.9% of all mentions @FrontierCare made 1.4 replies per hour @FrontierCare Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @FrontierCare took 8 mins 16s to respond 2.3 96.3% 1 min 38 s 14 hrs 23 mins Responsiveness: Responsive @AirCanada replied to 45.7% of all mentions @AirCanada made 5.1 replies per hour Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @AirCanada took 18 mins 7s to respond @AirCanada 10.5 89% 53 secs 8 hr 29 mins 16

02 @WestJet Responsiveness: Responsive @WestJet replied to 34.7% of all mentions @WestJet made 2.8 replies per hour Mean response time: Average On average, @WestJet took 3 hrs 14 mins to respond 7.6 57% 11 secs 21 hrs 11 mins @AlaskaAir Responsiveness: Responsive @AlaskaAir replied to 36.5% of all mentions @AlaskaAir made 2.7 replies per hour Mean response time: Very Fast On average, @AlaskaAir took 9 mins 23s to respond 6.5 92.3% 15 secs 9 hrs 39 mins 17

02 Overview of North American Airline Analysis: -@AmericanAir was the most responsive North American Airline on Twitter, replying to 65.6% of all mentions -@DeltaAssist impressed with the fastest response time, responding to one social question in just 8 seconds -@AmericanAir has the best average response time answering questions over social in 4m and 2s on average -90% of the North American airlines are considered to be responsive to brand mentions on Twitter, with the exception of Southwest Airlines who only responds to 1.7% of all mentions 18

Section 03 European and North Amercian Comparison

03 European and North American Comparison: Response Time Region Average Best Worst European 2 Hours, 5 Minutes 28 Seconds 2 Days, 8 Hours North American 34 Minutes, 40 Sec 8 Seconds 1 Day, 7 Hours Combined 1 Hour, 19 Minutes 8 Seconds 12 Days, 8 Hours Responsiveness European: The average responsiveness was 18.8% None of the analyzed European airlines responded to over 50% of @ mentions. North American: The average responsiveness was 40.8% American Air, Delta, Frontier and United responded to over 50% of @ mentions. Combined: The average responsiveness of all 20 analyzed brands was 29.8% Average Twitter Response Time Responsiveness Over Twitter 10% Very Fast 10 Airlines 5% Very Responsive 1 Airlines 30% Fast 2 Airlines 20% Responsive 12 Airlines 50% 10% Average 6 Airlines Below Average 2 Airlines 60% 5% Somewhat Responsive 4 Airlines Not Very Responsive 2 Airlines 20

03 North America Leads the Way: -Better Results: North America has a better average response time of 34m 40s compared to a European average response time of 2hrs 5mins. Backed up with 90% of North American airlines being considered responsive over social, compared to just 40% of European airlines. The best performing airline @AmericanAir is also North American. -Higher Volume: We can assume from the volume of @ mentions per hour that social customer service is more prolific as a service channel for customers travelling on North American airlines. Of the 237 direct @ mentions our airlines received, 76% were for North American airlines alone. -Separate Care Handles: Two of our North American airlines also use a dedicated social customer service Twitter handle @DeltaAssist and @FrontierCare with them both in the top performing airlines from the 20 analyzed. Brands are sometimes reluctant to separate customer service from their marketing Twitter handle. But in this case, having a dedicated handle has proven beneficial, both in terms of response times and responsiveness. -Meeting Customer Expectations: 9/10 of North American airlines compared to 3/10 of European had an average response time of under an hour. This is business critical when you consider the nature of the industry, where news and information is needed instantly. While the bulk of European airlines struggled to keep up with this expectation, we ve found that the majority of North American carriers fell within this expected time frame. However there is still room for improvement for all our analyzed airlines, with substantial gains to be made in both response times and responsiveness for some. For others it is a case of maintaining this performance, something that is harder said than done in the modern age of social service. 21

Section 04 Recommendations

04 Below are our top tips to help effectively utilize social as a customer service tool. Keep customer service in the call center There are a lot of opinions on who should own social customer service. In our experience we have found that customer service agents are in the best position to offer support due to their original skill set and availability of information systems/knowledge bases thus reducing average handling time and improving service quality. Provide real-time customer information Prioritize conversations that need a response right away, and make sure your social media team is well connected enough to give customers the information they need. Don t divert from social Honoring the customer s choice of channel offers a better experience, as well as valuable information for other customers looking for answers. Only take the issue off social when sensitive information is required. Offer human interaction No one wants to feel that they re getting an automated, generic response. Use the customer s name, apologize where it s merited, and make sure that you ve addressed their issue directly and explicitly. Don t hide from negativity The only thing worse than looking as though you aren t interested by not responding is actively deleting angry messages. Confront customers complaints head-on, and you ll be surprised by how negativity diffuses. Collaborate with your team to maximize success Ensure that all members of your social team can easily communicate with each other to solve customer service issues. It s important not only for them but for your business as a whole to be able to effectively work internally as a group. Social customer service resolution is still a challenge for many brands, including airlines. But if you have the right technology and process in place you can tackle the issues head on. By having the ability to integrate workflows, approvals, customer data and prior engagement history into a single view and platform, you ll be able to scale your social customer service. As a result you will have the ability to deliver a truly cohesive and effective customer experience--answering questions quickly and effectively. Conversocial can help you achieve this. Request a Demo Here 23

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