Etihad Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Arab Emirates. Established by royal decree in July 2003 and based in Abu Dhabi, Etihad commenced operations in November 2003.
Etihad Airways has social media presence in most of the major social media platforms. They have 1.05 Million likes on Facebook, 113K followers on Twitter, 14K subscribers to their Youtube channel, 136K followers on linkedin and 154K followers on Google+.
We will review the airlines on their social customer service in the following parameters:
Element 1 – Tone of Messaging
Their tone of messaging is friendly.
Element 2 – Are they sending canned responses, without understanding the context?
No, they do not send canned responses. The customer service representative understands the context and the responses sent are very contextual.
@PONTIS_DJK Hi Dirk, sorry to hear of your experience. Have you received your boarding pass already? Let us know if we can help! Thanks! *GC
— Etihad Help (@EtihadHelp) October 19, 2014
Element 3 – Turnaround Time The first level responses are sent within the next 30 minutes. The average response time to fan post on Facebook is 10 Minutes. The response time is quite impressive.
Element 4 – Is brand sending personalized replies? The responses are very personalized. As given in the example, the agent not only sent the @Handle mentions, they address the concerned customer by name.
@lmkjones It’s ok Lisa, simply email us your booking reference and Etihad Guest details at socialmedia@etihad.ae Cheers! *GC
— Etihad Help (@EtihadHelp) October 19, 2014
Element 5 – Is brand following up on the complaints?
The brands to follow up to the complaint and made sure that the case is closed. They take each incident as an opportunity to create a loyal customer. Luggage mishandling as seen in the screenshot below is a common situation in Airlines. It is a happy ending for the customer.
Element 6 – Is brand answering to all the queries?
Only 1% of the customer queries are not responded. This may be because they are trivial and no response is required.
Element 7 – Is brand sending duplicate replies?
No the brand do not send duplicate replies.
Overall the way Etihad Airways handles customer on social media is commendable.