Jon Bird explains how American Airlines uses social CRM to manage and enhance it's customer engagement. A compelling case study from Our Social Times' Social CRM 2011 New York Conference.

1. How American Airlines
uses Social CRM for
Customer Engagement
Jon Bird
AA Social Media
1

2. 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
2

3. Numbers
Approximate # of people we fly daily
250,000
3

4. Numbers
Social Media Mentions Weekly
35,000
4

5. Customer Touchpoints
Customer Initiated/
Check Duty
Select Reserve flight Check Security Find Find Pre-take Use free Customs/ Exit
Controlled
ticket seats info baggage wait gate Boarding seat off svcs. IFE sales Deplane Immigration airport Complaint
Obtain Visit Find Select Use
Select Purchase Change Navigate boarding Admirals Wait space for Evaluate F&B onboard Landing Collect Transfer Baggage
channel ticket ticket airport pass club at gate carry-on Aircraft svc. amenities prep. bags to gate resolution
Customer travel experience
AA Initiated/
Controlled
AA Upgrades Delay Check Admirals Flight Delay Carry-on Cabin F&B IFE Landing Taxiing Connec- Baggage
advert- notifi- baggage club cancelled/ mgmt. bags interiors quantity options info & jet tions resolution
ising cation oversold & gate -bridge
/mktg check
Pricing Award Rebook Gate Confirm On-time Boarding Take-off Pre-take F&B IFE On-time Deplaning Baggage Complaint
& fees ticket missed info standby departure announce-off svcx. quality/ equip. arrival delivery resolution
flights ments variety
5

6. Approach
• Challenge = Opportunity
• Every touchpoint is an opportunity
• Service failure is an opportunity
• Creating advocates
6

7. Core Communities
/AA
@AmericanAir
/AmericanAirlines
Frequent Flyer Forums
AAdvantage Admirals Club Global Markets
7

8. 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
8

9. Community Guidelines
• Establish basic
parameters
• Let them know how
you’ll help
• Give them a place to
send praise/concerns
9

10. How do we listen?
• 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
10

11. How do we respond?
Responsiveness
Authority Compassion
11

12. CRM @ AA “Before”
Core Team
CR
Proactive Social
Marketing
Customer
Response
Reservations
12

13. CRM @ AA “Now”
Core Team
Integrated with
Core Team Customer Proactive
Response
Real Time
CR Social
Allows for Reservations Marketing
more fun stuff
13

14. How do we respond?
• 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.)
14

15. How do we respond?
15

16. How do we respond?
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 concernsand
apologize
The team also credited Charles AAdvantage miles for
his trouble. Charles then tweeted positively about our
efforts to assist.
16

17. How do we respond?
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
17

18. CR Surprise & Delight
Michael Hyatt(+100,000 followers)
AA Concierge Key member
San Francisco to Nashville via DFW
Nashville flight cancelled, he tweets:
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
18

19. Social CRM and Crisis
19

20. Types of Crises
• Operational Crisis
• PR Crisis
• Customer Crisis
20

21. Domestic & Global Crises
• American Airlines Flight 331
• Haiti Earthquake
• American Airlines Flight 24
• Snowmageddon
• Jack the Cat
21

22. Identifying Crises
• 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)
22

23. American Airlines Flight 24
• 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 million
Twitter followers
23

24. Proactive Social CRM
24

25. Advocates
• 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
25

26. Boeing Delivers
American Airlines Bloggers and
First 737-800 with AA Social
Blue Sky Interior advocates
Invited to fly in
inaugural flight
of the 737-800
SEA-DFW
30 blog posts including More than 2 million 39 consumer and media Immeasurable positive
Simpliflying.com, 26mentions on Facebook, perception of American and
AirlineReporter.com potential impressions totaling nearly 27,000 profuse thanks from social
& AIRTiculate.com on Twitter impressions media advocates

27. 27

28. The NBA Finals with American Airlines
Official Facebook Channel & Mobile
Mobile
Facebook Works on..
BUILT
WITH

29. The NBA Finals with American Airlines
Official Facebook Channel & Mobile
• 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
29

30. 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
30

31. 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
31

32. How American Airlines
uses Social CRM for
Customer Engagement
Jon Bird
AA Social Media
32