With KLM, it's often: what's next? The airline has answered by launching a service in which users can make payments for flights via social media.
Passengers who are planning to book a flight, modify, cancel, upgrade seat etc, can now do so by pinging the Facebook and Twitter channels of KLM.
Once a payment request is received, KLM's social media team sends the user a payment link via private message (on the same platform the user has used, Facebook or Twitter).
Once a user makes the payment, the social team contacts the user with booking confirmation details. KLM claims its the first airline to launch such a service. An official says:
"Customers are already able to arrange extra services through social media, but until now payment has taken place over the telephone. Customers have regularly indicated that they would like to pay online through our social media channels."
Currently, there are 130 social media agents at KLM answering about 35,000 queries on Facebook and Twitter every week. Recently, KLM launched a service where it displays in its Twitter and Facebook pages the average time it would take to respond to customer queries. A similar service in the hotel sector has come via Loews Hotel, which also launched the ability to reserve a room via Twitter. The US-based hotel asks users to tweet with the hashtag #bookloews to start the booking process. A team responds to users with a unique URL that takes the user and the Twitter-admin to a private chat room where all booking discussion/chat happens.
So, what's next?
NB:Social user image via Shutterstock.