http://adage.com/article/digital/virgin-america-values-twitter-facebook-tv/148795/
Virgin America has capitalized on social media trends. The company, which is relatively new, reaches out to flyers on social media by responding to in-flight Tweets and monitoring social media to try and accommodate displaced or delayed flyers as quickly and efficiently as possible. In turn, Virgin American flyers have turned to social media sites to share the positive experiences they have had or to praise the way Virgin America handled a situation that may have inconvenienced a passenger.
From a public relations point of view, I think that Virgin America is doing a great job of employing social media as a way of establishing and maintaining a positive relationship with their publics. They have created a sense of accessibility and trust, letting passengers know that what they are saying is being heard and that the airline does care about their travel experience. Flying is convenient yet can be very annoying and expensive. Good costumer service and public relations can go a long way to alleviate the annoyances and to create loyalty between costumers and the airline.
Airline companies have probably the worst level of service in the any industry and I'm really happy to read that at least one of them is attempting to improve it. I think this kind of PR is crucial for small airlines such as Virgin America because one of the only ways they can attract business away from big airlines such as Delta and United is to build brand loyalty.
ReplyDeleteFlying is one of those things that we can't really get out of and (excuse my language) whore ourselves out to. No matter how bad an airline treats us (keeping us waiting, serving us vile food, charging us ridiculous fees), if they have the lowest ticket price for wherever it is we're trying to go, we will still keep coming back for more. Wow. After writing that down and reading it over, that kind of depresses me. Yet, it's still true. Virgin America, keep being the sweet and reliable best friend, hopefully you'll gain our love (& loyalty) eventually.