When Delta looked to get involved in social media, they faced an uphill battle. The existing conversation was overwhelmingly negative, and nobody out there was telling Delta’s side or helping their customers.
Delta knew they’d have to build credibility to join the conversation, so Rachael Rensink, Jerry Fletcher and their team started with a focus on customer service. Hundreds of happy customers later, they’re now using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs for both customer service and marketing.
In their recent BlogWell case study, Rensink and Fletcher walked through the evolution of their social program. A few of their big takeaways:
- Look to the people who already know how to help customers. After considering outsourcing this to a PR firm, Delta ultimately decided to use their internal talent that already had experience helping customers — their own customer service reps. Immediately they began getting responses on Twitter like “You sound human!” and “There’s actually someone who cares!”
- Customer service hours are different than corporate business hours. During their initial launch, Delta only offered customer service in social channels during their corporate business hours. But after listening to feedback from the community, they expanded to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Take the handcuffs off. Initially, customer service reps were only handling easy questions and directing the rest to other channels. But soon, these reps said they could do much more — and they’ve since been freed to do just that. Today, they can help you with everything from rebooking a flight to letting you know what kind of hummus they serve.
Watch Rensink and Fletcher’s case study (and see their slides here):
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This is a real coo article on how a giant company like Delta used social media to help customer service. A lot of smb's and start-ups use social media marketing to get the word out about their companies, sites like twitter and facebook can be helpful in reaching thousands of potential customers. Delta's approach was different because they were a large super company before social media marketing took off and used it to change some of the negative publicity they were receiving.
I know Delta continues to take heat in the press and struggle with transforming its culture, but I recently had an overseas trip via Delta and Air France and the Delta representatives were nothing short of fantastic.
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It's smart for Delta to expend their social media energy on interacting with and caring for their customers. Am I reading this correctly – have they taken members of their existing customer service team off email and the phones and put them on the social media desk? Do we know if they have added to headcount or simply stretched the resources from the traditional customer service channels? Have they cherry-picked the very best of those agents and assigned them to the social media channel? Given them greater empowerment to solve customer problems? Given them greater encouragement, training and recognition for their efforts? (If yes, what has that done to the already maligned level of service provided to traditional email and phone customer service?)____And the bigger question: Is Delta, and the other firms who have dedicated such resources to the social media channel, just training smart customers to recognize that going directly to the company through the traditional (more cost efficient) channels is only for customers who don’t know better?__
Delta's customer service is still sluggish, but of all the airlines, I think they're making more headway. Unfortunately, they've got a long way to go. And this from an exclusive Delta customer. I just hope they remember that being a social media player doesn't do anything for customer service unless you change the policies that are ticking people off. Now, angry people can just reach them faster. It doesn't mean they're resolving the issues better.
Delta Customer services is so awful. I'll have to try scream via twitter next time they screw up. They have a lot of work cut out for them. I honestly don't think they can do it. Their culture is to suck…why would it be any different on social media?
Delta customer service can be awful. @DeltaAssist on Twitter is remarkably helpful because of the higher profile – people are watching – and as the article suggests these are customer service people who are actually allowed to provide customer service through this method. I have suggested using it to several people and they have been very happy with the outcome. Best approach is to show frustration but don't scream and they will respond.
This is really good to know that Delta Airlines is boosting customer service for social media presence.
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I am a regular flyer with Delta and their use of social media and how well they use it has blown me away. I didn't realize a company like Delta would have it in them to embrace this. Empowering their reps has proven to be a coup and as a customer who has received support via Twitter, I am very pleased.
Funny how some folks do not realize that civility and respect when dealing with customer service reps gets you further than a negative attitude…