Page 239 - Social Media Marketing

they were required to keep essential on-board services (such as the bathroom and air 217
conditioner) functioning? What if airports were required to provide free Wi-Fi, includ-
ing on the tarmac? Some of these are now present in some airports and on some air- ■ ╇ E ngagement as a B usiness Activity
lines that have a demonstrated commitment to traveler/passenger well-being, while in
others this same customer orientation is clearly missing.

Crazy ideas? Perhaps, but chances are by working together the result would
be both a better flight experience and a better “delay experience.” If you still doubt
whether or not directly involving customers in the process makes a difference, the next
time you see someone volunteer to give up a seat on an overbooked flight for $200, ask
that person why they opted to take the later flight. Evidently, being delayed for an extra
day or night has a market price. Meet or exceed the market price, and “delay” becomes
“delight.”

It goes further than this too: There’s also a point here about the manner in
which gate agents ask for volunteers. Jake McKee shared an experience with me on this
point: Jake once heard an agent looking for “next day” volunteers ask, very sweetly,
if perhaps those without families waiting at home would mind giving priority for the
immediate flight to those with waiting families. Whether or not this changed the actual
list of volunteers is immaterial: At that moment, the airline—through the considerate
act of its employee—appeared human and compassionate. It’s amazing what happens
when a company is seen as a collection of people rather than an impenetrable process.
The adoption of social technology in engagement processes are direct enablers of the
“company as people” view.

At the end of the day, it was not the hours-on delays that caused the 3-hour rule;
it was the dehumanizing experiences suffered by too many for too long. This rule could
have been avoided by asking customers for ideas and then listening to them and acting
on them. The social business question that arises is, therefore, this: What are the social
technologies, tools and processes that need to be put in place to connect customers and
businesses in ways that drive collaborative conversations? These are the kinds of things
you want to be thinking about as you work through concepts like engagement and par-
ticipation and the expected benefits of the application of social technology within your
business or organization.

The combination of active listening, touchpoint analysis, and collaboration (via
engagement) makes obvious the root causes of dissatisfaction and equally so the poten-
tial solutions (ideation and innovation) that drive enhanced satisfaction. Getting to the
root cause of the customer’s issues with airlines, more than anything else what makes
airline travelers nuts is the feeling of an almost total loss of personal control from the
moment you contemplate purchasing a ticket until the moment you successfully retrieve
your bags on the return flight. At the same time—and again very much the subject
of social business—consider the employees of the airlines and their role in all of this:
They have ideas, too. Compare the happy, motivated, and consumer-oriented people
at Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Continental Airlines in the United States