Publishing Twitter ‘wait’ times – would you dare?

Customer service – no longer hidden away in call centres, it’s now a full on spectator sport on social media. A slow response to a serious complaint or the wrong tone in a reply to a customer query can really damage brand reputation. Speed of response is becoming even more important. Leading the pack in this space (as they often do when it comes to social media), KLM Airlines are demonstrating how serious they are taking customer service on social media by publishing Twitter ‘wait times’. A real-time ticker is updated and published every five minutes to keep it refreshed and up to date. They will soon be rolling this out on Facebook too. This feature is not available from Twitter itself, so the airline is using its cover photo to keep waiting customers informed. It’s another interesting move in social customer service and one we’re sure will be copied by other brands as customer experience on social channels becomes more important for brand reputation.

This week British Airways launched their #lookup billboard campaign. Installed in Piccadilly Circus and Chiswick, the interactive boards display information about the flight that appears immediately overhead. Using custom-built surveillance technology the billboards display the flight number and route information in sync with a recorded video of a child who appears to be pointing at each plane as it soars above. By creating a more meaningful and engaging connection with consumers that triggers childhood memories, the stroke of genius from BA is already racking up a huge amount of social media chatter.

If you have five minutes to spare, we highly recommend watching this incredible time-lapse video made by two friends who spent two months travelling through the USA, holding photography workshops en route. Incredible scenery that seems too beautiful to be real; this could be the video that inspires you to pack your bags and start your own adventure.

For all those out there who struggle to keep up with the daily deluge of information from the ever expanding array of social media sites, Google may be able to help. The search giant has patented plans for robot software which slowly learns how you react on sites such as Twitter and Facebook and which ultimately may be able to respond on your behalf. Supposedly, the software will be able to mimic usera s common responses to updates and messages from friends and relations to help cope with the daily data deluge. However, despite the promise of robot alter egos ‘poking’, ‘liking’ and ‘Twitpic-ing’, initial protocols have revealed the system lacks the nuances of communication that we humans use to interact with one another… For instance, in response to learning that an acquaintance called David has changed jobs, the system might suggest: "Hi David, I am fine, You were in ABC corp for 3 years and you recently moved to XYZ corp, how do you feel about the difference, enjoying your new workplace?"

Finally, it’s the last few days of Movember, so how about lending you support to the sterling efforts of TravelMole’s Graham McKenzie and the boys at Siren. Thank you so much for all the donations we have received so far, but it’s not too late to donate.