Weather has been pounding much of the country over the last few days, canceling hundreds of flights and delaying many more. If you were one of the millions caught in the mess, I feel your pain. Traveling is not easy, nor is the airline business. But I often say, it’s not the inevitable weather delays that cause the most frustration -- it’s how an airline chooses to handle the situation and communicate with its customers. There have been many instances of what not to do, like the infamous JetBlue situation a few years back that uncovered massive holes in their communications capabilities and operations and eventually resulted in JetBlue’s customer bill of rights. One airline that has impressed me with its communications lately has been American Airlines.
What does American do right? First – the email communications program has been proactive. Maybe it is because I’m a gold member, or maybe not, but I’ve been surprised to receive apologizes after delays and, in some cases, bonus miles for my trouble – wow.
Next – I recently received a phone call from Amercian’s President’s office asking me if there was anything wrong. What? When does that ever happen? You see, I used to do the NY/Dallas route pretty often and that stopped after I left my last employer. After about 6 months they called asking why they haven’t seen me and if there was anything wrong. Wow, again! And guess what? When it’s time to book my travel for board meetings out in CA, guess which airline is in the mix? Yup, American.
The latest example of American’s impressive communications program was the Holiday email I received last week. The email thanked me for my business this year and included a small token of their appreciation, along with 3 wishes for me. After clicking, I landed on a personalized page which had three cards for Peace, Hope and Joy. Each included a warm message along with the opportunity to earn bonus miles for donations made to three worthy charities. Peace included bonus miles for donations made to Operations Care Package. American Airlines customers have donated over $1.1 million or 50,000 care packages delivered to American’s men and women in uniform as they strive for peach on earth. Hope included bonus miles for donations made to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, of which American Airlines is the official Airline and their first ever lifetime Promise Partner. American Airlines customer shave already contributed more than $600,000 this year to the Susan G. Komen for the cure through the Miles for the Cure program. Last was Joy, to benefit American’s miles for Kids in Need, which helps provide transportation to worldwide for a variety of important children’s causes. Over the past year, American Airlines’ customers have donated over 30 million unused miles for the cause.
What a great example of a company using email communications to not only thank its most loyal customers for their business, but to also encourage its customers to participate with their brand in a series of worthy causes. A few more good reasons to fly - now that’s the holiday spirit.
Tell us what you think. Do the airlines get it?
‘Til Next Time
Comments
I have worked with the travel industry for 6 years now, and can truly say that their marketing strategy and segmentation both in the direct and online channels are far superior than retail and financial services companies.
I also saw the cuts that they were making as the cost of oil increased and the CPB has dropped over 70%. Smaller planes, less flights, fuller planes, more profit!!!
Throw in baggage handling fees, and pricing for everything from peanuts to water, and we will see them turning profits next year.
What will be interesting to see is if a company like southwest, takes marketshare from airlines tacking on fees for everything under the sun.
Only time will tell.
At the end of it all, the merger between Delta and NWA shows that they get it.
It is an interesting time in the industry, I think they get it, and will come out very strong.
Unfortunately, a lot of what we are rating airlines on is customer service, not marketing. And while setting the tone through marketing is important, it is really difficult for that effort to permeate a large customer facing organization. So, we rate (and berate) the airline industry depending on the employee or employees that we dealt with in that day, which is also highly dependent on how we have presented our selves to that employee and how many people before us have yelled at those employees as well.
So, the public face of the airline industry often are held up by operational issues that we all face when we travel.
But truly, if you look at the airline industry from a marketing perspective I think that you see a highly evolved and often innovative industry. For example they have:
- Highly Successful Loyalty Programs - They were among the first to build out a points based loyalty program and these programs continue to be some of the more successful programs in the market. I'm a loyal United customer because I enjoy the status that my miles give me.
- Early SMS adopters - it is almost a standard these days that flight updates are recieved via SMS text and email on my blackberry. It was the first SMS program that many of us have opted into and for another large group, it remains the only SMS program that we've opted into.
- Partner/Affiliate Marketing - By necessity maybe, but airlines have perfected partner programs in emails and pay for performance types of programs for travel agencies and referring partner websites. How many places to we all go to book a flight these days?
I could go on, but we get the point. I have worked with several airlines that have been on the cutting edge with their marketing. They get it...
...now if their marketing department could only fix the attitude of that angry ticketing agent I just dealt with...