Here are 5 ways that EyeforTravel recently found travel companies to be succeeding:-

1. Customer engagement and CRM

For P&O Cruises, social media plays an increasingly important role in their customer engagement strategy.

As Elliott Pritchard, New Media Manager highlights, ‘social media should be a key part of any customer-centred approach.  After all, you can’t get to know your customers without talking to them’.

When it comes to customer engagement, relevance is key.  Many social media articles warn of the dangers of giant social media sites capturing such vast amounts of consumer data but Pritchard confirms ‘as consumers we decry the amount of data that sites like Facebook collect about us; as marketeers we see a good opportunity to drive relevance’.

Taking a consumer-centric approach is not all plain sailing though.  There are a few rules to remember.  For example, he warns ‘social media has opened up a new customer communication channel, it must not exist in a silo in the organisation.
2. Crisis communications

Ash clouds, hurricanes, health scares, terrorism.  The travel industry is constantly thrown one curve ball after the next.  The ability of travel companies to deal with crisis situations quickly and efficiently is vital to their success.

In a 2009 case study with EyeforTravel, Southwest revealed how they use social media channels to keep customers informed and avert disasters before they take hold.

Extract from the case study:

‘Last autumn, Southwest had a situation where one of our planes had to make an emergency landing in Charlestown, West Virginia as it had a hole in the side of the fuselage.  The plane landed safely and no passengers were harmed…

What Southwest did: As soon as we got the call from dispatch that there had been an emergency landing, my counterpart Paula and I (Social Media Manager, Christi Day) logged on and started to watch the conversation (on Twitter) unfold, checking what people were saying.  We had a little message ready to tweet at the drop of a hat.  It was quite quiet on Twitter and we did not want to create a crisis when there wasn’t one. We needed to watch.  Then one media outlet published a story and we sent a message.

The key was that we were prepared with a statement and with the facts (which is the most important thing).  We were able to send out a message to the Twitter audience before they announced it on the evening news. What was crucial is the fact that we did not make a mountain out of a molehill.  Timing was also crucial.  Clarity around social media is very important.’

JetBlue also values social media as an important channel for crisis communications especially in terms of monitoring.  Morgan Johnston, Manager Corporate Communications, states “With social media, things have evolved somewhat to the point where we can do some real-time monitoring which has altered how we approach a lot of these situations.”
3. Discount deals

Farecompare, a US-based airline ticket comparison shopping website uses raw real-time airfare data directly from over 500 airlines.  They find that Twitter offers a great platform to inform customers of real-time price quotes and deals as they happen.

They manage over 180 Twitter accounts, each focusing on deals from particular airports.  At EyeforTravel’s Social Media conference in San Francisco earlier this year, CEO, Rick Seaney said that through using Twitter, Farecompare have achieved a dramatic increase in ticket-sale percentages.

In an earlier interview with travel blogger Dennis Schaal, Seaney said “Using Twitter as a real-time communication backbone that can touch people in a social network with relevant, actionable information instantly—is absolutely the next generation in air travel bargain-finding.”

Launched last autumn, InterContinental Hotel Group have a Twitter account called ‘IHG Deals’.  Deals tweeted include ‘Twedding Gifts Aways’ and opportunities to boost Priority Club rewards.

One of the main reasons behind IHG’s decision for this initiative was the fact that travellers have been on the look-out for hotel deals and value-added packages.  For such a large global brand, 2,690 followers is slow start but no doubt this will continue to grow.

The travel bargain hunters are out there and travel brands are finding Twitter is a great way to find them.

Read more at HotelMarketing.Com