The company we chose to analyze for our class project was Southwest Airlines. Southwest has been in business since 1971. Since then they have continued to grow and now have more than 3,200 flights a day and nearly 35,000 employees. In June 2010, the American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Southwest Airlines number one among all airlines for the 17th year in a row. The company is also very involved with new technology and utilizes a variety of social media tactics including micro blogging on Twitter, blogging, YouTube, an iPhone app and a FaceBook page. A surprising fact we came across was that Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet and as of the first half of 2010, online bookings have reached 81 percent. Also, for the first half of 2010, approximately 78 percent of Southwest Customers were checking in online or at a kiosk. It is obvious that customers are really utilizing the online resources that Southwest has made available to them.
Among these resources is the company’s micro blog on Twitter. It has over one million followers. Customers can use Twitter to post complaints, thoughts, or suggestions, and Southwest will then tweet back to the customer. The company also uses Twitter for internship recruitment, and contests or discounts. Additionally they send out travel advisories such as cancellations, delays, or weather issues.
Southwest has a very successful blog called Nuts About Southwest. In fact, in October of 2009, Nuts About Southwest was awarded “Best Blog” for the third year in a row at the PR News Platinum Awards. The blog itself has current events related to Southwest as a company and also information about employees. They have different polls to get customer feedback, as well as videos, podcasts, and guest posts from customers. These guest posts are reviewed by Southwest and they will do their best to resolve any issue or answer any questions. The blog itself acts as a sort of hub that ties in all of Southwest’s social media efforts. The bottom of the page has links to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Southwest also has its own YouTube channel. There are a variety of entertaining videos including singing or rapping flight attendants, and a humorous game they call toilet paper racing which must be seen to be understood. Besides this they have informative videos that deal with customer relations, informing customers about policies and procedures, and videos about the ways in which the company is advertising throughout their airports.
Southwest’s Flickr page is basically a discussion forum for suggestions, thoughts, and complaints, but also has photo groups where anyone can add photos. Southwest then takes these photos and will use them in their other social media platforms. It seems that this page is a popular site for plane enthusiasts and has over a thousand members.
Southwest has a great example of media convergence with their iPhone and Desktop application called DING!. This application allows users to have insider deals and information about sales and flights that they wouldn’t get anywhere else. The application conveniently enables customers to book a flight, check on flight status, book car reservations, and even check in for a flight all from a customer’s phone. This obviously provides a lot of benefits for people who travel frequently.
On top of all of this Southwest has a Facebook page with almost one million friends. The page has contests and sweepstakes to win free travel and other prizes such as hotel stays, restaurant gift cards, and even cars. The company uses Facebook to promote their bags fly free campaign, which really sets them apart from other airlines that have fairly steep rates.
Overall we think that Southwest is using this variety of social media platforms very effectively. They allow customers to communicate with each other in various ways which helps to increase customer loyalty, and build a sort of culture. It’s obvious that Southwest strives to be fun and family-oriented and uses exciting ways to engage customers and attract interest. We had a hard time trying to think of any suggestions of how the company could improve with their use of social media. The one thing we noticed was that their Facebook page states that they will not address customer concerns on that page. It directs them to the company’s blog or to an 800 number. It seems like a real missed opportunity there. Some of their customers may only use Facebook, not the other media platforms, and would prefer to post questions and concerns there. Also, it was difficult to find any criticisms or negative publicity about the company anywhere. This of course is good if there isn’t anything for customers to complain about. Our concern was that Southwest could possibly be monitoring their sites and removing any negative comments. Otherwise Southwest seems to be doing very well with adapting to changing technology, and their numerous awards and millions of satisfied customers seem to speak to that fact as well.
I never would have thought to check out a Twitter page for an airline company before, but I can see it being very successful for them if they are posting updates, delays and other information like that to their page. I think that in today's world of growing technology it is almost a must for every business to have an app available for smart phones, which not only expands their business but also conveniences customers, hence bringing in more business and customers. Clever stuff....
ReplyDeleteI think it's great Southwest wants their customer's feedback so much that they utilize Facebook, Twitter,...etc. and actually respond! Companies that do that currently are few and far between. I don't do much flying myself, but cancellations on Twitter would be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteSouthwest is a interesting company with a different way of looking at the airline business than other companies. The book Made To Stick, has a great example of the Southwest culture and how that relates to being the "The Lowest Cost" airline. Some of the ways they cut costs but allow their employees to have fun at work ties closely to the way they seem to be using social media: a forward thinking company that is ahead of the curve for their industry.
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