On a recent flight I sat next to a twit. Not in the politically incorrect way but in the social media way. Twitterer sounds just as goofy so either should fit as a singular title and before anyone takes a swipe at me; yes I have tweeted and will tweet again, when I have something to say. It’s not a rare occurrence with 100’s of millions of twits tweeting daily. What I noticed was that they were sending out messages of frustration about being delayed again. No it’s not hard to read over someone’s shoulder in the confine of a small canister waiting to hurtle through the sky. Privacy after all, now seems over rated.
It used to be that passengers were held hostage without a voice but today it takes a mille second to send out a message to your followers and anyone else willing to listen that you not satisfied with a service delivery or product. At this stage most airlines shut down communications on takeoff but the demand to stay connected will push them all to include internet access at 35,000 feet throughout a flight. Then the airlines and their flight crew will really have to be on their toes as passengers communicate with each other and the rest of the world online. Imagine 400 passengers experiencing a terrible service level on a flight and sending live messages to their friends, the airline and sites such as Trip Advisor.
From fees that passengers feel are unfair, to food that is inedible through to staff complaints, airlines will have to tighten up their chain of efficiency and up their service levels. Levels that most airlines can’t see through the fog of AV gas and with ageing fleets and staff alike, it will be grist for the twits.
Not that everything that will be tweeted should be taken seriously, after all alcohol at 35,000 feet will be responsible for many a rant. Still the challenge for the airlines will be trawling through the millions of messages and reacting and responding accordingly. I can see call centres of social media staff employed by the airlines working to keep a lid on issues, pacifying passengers and having a laugh when bad things happen to airlines other than their own.
Where airlines are using social media to their advantage for making flights via sites such as Facebook, commercial communications and engaging customers to buy their product via sites such as United’s Twares Tweets, they have yet to figure out how to cover a mass cloud (what do you call a lot of tweets) of complaints and frustration should it occur.
Occur it will because like most industries airlines are stretched thin in the people department and eventually one will fall over and be snowed under so many tweets that a pound full of St Bernards won’t be able to dig them out.
The current trend for twitter centres around celebrity and personality updates but just like Facebook it will mature into communication and business applications to stay relevant. Will your company be affected or will you need a direct line to the pound?
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