American Airlines, the giant corporate behemoth of an airline, just made my night.

They did so in such a way that this tired #procastipacker (that’s totally a thing, right?) was smiling and singing to the beat of Kool and the Gang’s Celebrate.

I had to stop and write them some props.

But, first, the tweets…

Countdown to celebrating my 30th Birthday Weekend? Less than 12 hours. @AmericanAir – see you in the morning! I can’t wait!

— Karla Lárraga (@KarlaLarraga) April 21, 2016

@KarlaLarraga We can’t wait! #celebrategoodtimescomeon

— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) April 21, 2016

@AmericanAir 🎵let’s celebrateee 🎵 #nowimsinginganddancing haha

— Karla Lárraga (@KarlaLarraga) April 21, 2016

@KarlaLarraga A celebrate to last throughout the years! We love #pAArties.

— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) April 21, 2016

@AmericanAir 🎵everyone around the world, come on!!! 🎵

P. S. You guys are amazing. #icouldkeepgoing why? #procrastipacking 😀😀😀

— Karla Lárraga (@KarlaLarraga) April 21, 2016

@AmericanAir 🎵everyone around the world, come on!!! 🎵

P. S. You guys are amazing. #icouldkeepgoing why? #procrastipacking 😀😀😀

— Karla Lárraga (@KarlaLarraga) April 21, 2016

@KarlaLarraga Yahoo! We love singing and we’re even more excited to help you celebrate your #dirty30. Everyone, sing Happy Birthday!

— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) April 21, 2016

Sidenote:  

TAKEAWAYS

So – what made this brief example of customer service so great? Here are my 3 big takeaways that you could implement in your own social media strategy, especially if you are a B2C brand:

• Consciously, Consistently On-Brand: If you take a look through @AmericanAir’s Twitter posts, you’ll see a mix of problem-solving and fun banter with customers. The problem solving is done seriously – they are not going to be making light of customers dealing with some sort of crisis. The fun banter is like you’re talking (or singing, as above) with a friend. They are therefore perceived (IMO) as an approachable and easily accessible brand. If I have a problem, I trust (!) in their brand to find a way to help me solve it.

Lesson: Stay consistently committed to your brand. Explore how your audience is best communicated with and embrace it!

• Positive Sentiment: This series of tweets put a smile on my face and general warm fuzzies from me in the direction of American Airlines. I am looking forward to my flight tomorrow – all for their simple act of seeing how to make somebody feel good.

Lesson: If you identify an easy way to make your customers feel good, happy, giddy, excited, etc… act on it.  You never know, someone might write a blog extolling all your good virtues. (See what I did there?) Go back and look at what some customers have written to you – how could you have made sure that your customer walked away happy from your brief interaction?

• Embrace the Opportunity for Customer Evangelization: As of this writing, I have shared a version of these tweets on Instagram, on Facebook, to two friends via What’s App and over the phone with my mom. Social media is instant – by embracing it, you could have your customers evangelizing for you, much like I did here.

Lesson: The results of making a connection (even a small one) with a customer could have unforeseen results. Taking a few extra minutes to connect with a customer (or even better, a potential customer) could make all the difference.

LAST THOUGHTS

So, I need to finish packing, but I’ll close this quick blog by saying I’m sorry I haven’t written in two months, but I will make sure to fix that once my big upcoming events I’m planning at work come to passing. I felt compelled to take a quick packing break to write this, but it is well worth it because I see the value in the lesson. I hope this helps you as you work harder to make sure your customers feel connected to your brand.

xoxo – K