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Yesterday I had the opportunity to engage with members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto (awesome hotel - customer service was Over. The. Top!). Our topic of discussion? How do travellers use Twitter? Here's what we discussed:
Marketing Messages - most travel suppliers get this part of Twitter. There were lots of examples of companies announcing enhancements to their services, new routes, specials and packages. Check out any hotel company, airline or travel tool...and you'll see examples of this.
Assistance - savvy suppliers use Twitter to provide helpful tips for their client base. @Concur tweeted out a link to a blog (not a Concur blog - a travel journalist's blog), giving helpful advice on how to avoid having your luggage invaded by unsavory characters who may have access to your luggage during your travels.
Customer Service - by far and away, the most helpful aspect of Twitter for travellers was the ability of travellers to tweet out their problems, frustrations and questions which were then answered almost immediately by the travel supplier. A couple of good examples of this are @AirCanada and @AskAmex. Check out these tweeters to see how they help travellers who are stuck in departure lounges, can't make online reservations, have a question on a policy or are just plain frustrated with one aspect or another of their travelling day!
THE DISCUSSION - Most of our discussion centered around the need for 24/7 coverage of a travel supplier's Twitter account. Whether the supplier intends for it or not, the traveller will feel free to use Twitter as a form of communication in order to get customer service support? Is this fair? Who cares? It is what it is....suppliers who are not prepared for this run the risk of having customer complaints hang out there in the Twittersphere...unanswered and abandoned! Not good.
THE CONCLUSION - Twitter is all about client engagement - it's fine to provide travellers with helpful information, but be prepared to handle their issues as well.
THE "BLOW YOUR MIND" FINALE - At lunch we were treated a video of how KLM used Twitter to totally "Wow" their passengers...or did they "Creep Out" their passengers - Click on the link below and you be the judge!
http://ow.ly/6AC5Y
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