Tiger Airways – Social Media Gone Wrong

Not so long ago, I (a frequent business traveller) had the most harrowing experience with the low cost Singapore based carrier – Tiger Airways. Tiger Airways lost my checked-in baggage on a flight from Taipei to Singapore and offered me little help at their make-shift “customer service” desk at the Changi Budget Terminal in Singapore. While it is frustrating to lose one’s baggage, it would not have been the end of the world for me because airlines lose baggage in transit all the time and it does arrive at the correct destination within a day or two, except that the service boy at the airport (note: they did not have a manager on duty, nor anyone in command who could take control of the situation) told me that they were not sure if they would find my baggage at all and that there was nothing they could do save for sending an email to Taipei (Yes, the tracking code on the baggage tag had no meaning for them nor did making a phone call rather than writing an email sound like a good idea to them. Also, it would turn out next day that I would myself manage to call the Tiger Airway desk in Taipei, but Tiger Airways Singapore would claim they had no way to call their Taiwanese colleagues. Right, because in today’s wired age, it is understandable if a company cannot contact its overseas counterparts!).

So, I left Changi Airport with just a copy of the lost baggage report, no clothes or personal belongings for a 2-week stay and, above all, no assurance for finding my baggage. The inefficient and ridiculously rude offline customer service that followed for the next 3 days (and what would come to be the most appalling customer service experience for me) would make for another case study, but what was even more shocking to me was Tiger Airways’ use of Twitter (rather the lack of it).

Now, in an era where several brands are using Twitter to their advantage for offering customer service, one would assume that Tiger Airways would have learnt a lesson or two from its counterparts in the airlines industry and would be prompt in responding to the endless distressed tweets by one of their passengers. Alas, that wasn’t the case. Not only did Tiger Airways not respond to my tweets that night / early morning, they did not respond at all. I went on to have a very unpleasant experience with Tiger Airways’ ground staff over the next few days and rigorously tweeted about it.

Even a brand that would normally not use Twitter for customer service would respond to such tweets to do some damage control in time before the outrage against its brands spreads wild across the social web, and this is one that actually had a Twitter channel. Not only was this an opportunity lost for Tiger Airways to establish some credibility with a customer who had experienced severe wrath at their expense, it further infuriated me to write about my experience over Facebook, blogs and airline forums. My tweets were often retweeted and the social media sentiment for Tiger Airways may have hit rock bottom, yet the company did not bother to make amends.

What is most unsettling about the lack of customer service by Tiger Airways is that it is owned partially by the one airline company that exceeds all levels of customer service and consistently ranks among the top 3 airlines of the world – Singapore Airlines. Not that Singapore Airlines is a doing any better on Twitter (an opportunity they should capitalize on at the earliest, before they lose their edge to other players in the industry), yet one would imagine the core service ethos to run through the company and its subsidiaries.

One could argue that budget airlines can get away with almost non-existent customer service as they will still get business owing to their low costs. It may be true, except even budget airlines realize the power customers have in ruining a brand’s image such that Tiger Airways’ competitor – Air Asia – is actually ranked amongst the champions of listening and talking on Twitter. They have two Twitter channels – one dedicated solely to customer service, but it’s not like they ignore customer rants on the other one. Both @AirAsia and @AskAirAsia are leading the way in customer service for budget airlines. Move over to the other side of the Pacific and @JetBlue and @SouthwestAir are as ahead of the curve in customer service as social media makes it possible for them.

Do not be mistaken that customer loyalty exists only for premium brands and that customers are price sensitive, and therefore fickle, when it comes to comparison between budget brands. The very core value of brand loyalty lies in the fact that it makes customers less price sensitive. Therefore, it is worth a million bucks for budget brands to invest in customer service that fosters brand loyalty.

There are several budget brands out there, especially in the budget airlines industry, which would have a brand following of their own. For example, backpackers; students; frequent short-haul travellers; and a large number of SMEs and technology start-ups would use budget carriers as a norm. Customers in each of these groups tend to have their favourite brands. My own company uses budget carriers a lot, especially for short-haul flights within Asia. I had normally always flown JetStar and was very happy with it, till a colleague suggested Tiger Airways for better timings on the Taipei-Singapore sector. Just as I was exploring to make the shift from JetStar to Tiger Airways, the latter lost me as a customer for good. Together with me, Tiger Airways lost everyone in my company. With people travelling almost every week in my company, trust me, that’s a lot of business they’ve lost. But, even more startling would be the number of prospective passengers they would have lost through the 250 people who follow me on Twitter and thousands others who would have been exposed to the retweets and numerous mentions of my Tiger Airways experience on the social web.

If you are in the service industry and the one thing you are lacking is service, you may not have very many days left for survival. What are the lessons from the Tiger Airways customer service fiasco? One, having a twitter channel and using it only to push products and promotions to customers does not count as effective use of social media. Two, even if you are a budget airline or a small business that cannot afford sophisticated social media listening tools, there are free social media monitoring tools like SocialMention, TweetBeep, and Seesmic to keep a tap on conversations around their own brands as well as competitor brands. Airlines can capitalize on the opportunity offered by distressed tweets about their competitors by offering help to its competitors’ customers. When I was tweeting to no end about my frustrating experience with Tiger Airways, so much so that I even mentioned Air Asia in a positive light in one of my tweets, Air Asia could have jumped the gun by writing back to me. I was already turned away from Tiger Airways, so half the job was done for Air Asia. Air Asia could have done the other half by turning me into a prospective customer in favour of its own brand. This would result in a lot of positive mentions about a brand that understands social media and gets customer service right.

Above all, brands must understand that customer interactions won’t always be rosy and positive. Social media has only made it easier for brands to control the damage in time. Rather than trying to shut out negative comments or dissatisfied customers, brands should engage with customers and be willing to apologize and make amends. This would go a long way in managing the over all customer experience of your brand.

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