According to recent research carried out by Statista, 21% of consumers are inspired to book a holiday after reviewing their friends’ social media channels. (Source)
Whether it’s customer service, pushing new deals or simply telling a story, social media is now critical to the success of any travel brand.
We recently conducted social listening via Crimson Hexagon to give you an overview of the social landscape within the travel sector.
Methodology: On the 11th April 2018, we researched the top ten companies ranking for the term ‘holiday’ within the UK. We then analysed mentions of these brands over social media from the 11th April 2017- 11th April 2018
The following graph reveals the most vocal topics being talked about on social which are impacting travel brands:
A staggering 42% of the conversation currently revolves around negative customer reviews. This has become expected across platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, however, it’s worth digging a little deeper to show how best to deal with this:
84% of customer complains come via Twitter
When we explore our data set, we see that Twitter is the main channel in which customers air their frustrations. Our data reveals that 84% of customer service complaints are on Twitter with Facebook being the next largest at 6%. A full break down can be seen below:
So, what does the above insight actually show us? Well it highlights that customers are looking for answers and that brands should be utilising social to not only resolve the problem, but also get their side of the story heard. Hopefully our 4 tips on how to successfully run customer service on Twitter should help you:
- Try Twitter’s customer service feature
Twitter soon cottoned on to the fact that it should help businesses out with customer service and, as such, introduced features to help business optimise their customer service strategy.
We recommend that you display your customer service hours in your bio along with a customer service email address.
- Try take any private conversations to DMs
You need to publicly show a response on Twitter. Customers are wanting to see you interacting and responding to any requests. However, once the initial conversation has started, try move this into a direct message so you can discuss any private details and resolve the situation fully.
- Track brand mentions
Every now and then, people will air a complaint about your brand but might not tag you in that post. It is vital to ensure you are answering all complaints even if it doesn’t directly appear on your dashboard. Using social listening is a great way to track all mentions of your brand to ensure you can answer all concerns.
- Respond in a timely manner
Resolving the issue as soon as possible is vital to ensure that you don’t anger the customer more. A recent study showed that 72% of people who complain on Twitter want a response within an hour. (Source)
Ensure you’re tracking your response rate and try set targets to hit, this way we should see more happy customers.
What channels to focus marketing activity on
Although Instagram might draw you in because of its visual mechanic, Facebook continues to be the market leader for all generations when it comes to influencing the purchase decision. The following graph from Statista shows what social channels influence different generations when purchasing a holiday:
Facebook clearly leads the way for all generations (or at least those who deem social media as an influence in their purchase decision).
Although Twitter remains number one for customer service, marketers need to ensure they are not neglecting Facebook and Instagram as these have the potential to drive more leads and therefore more revenue.