How Virgin America Created an Influential and Passionate Brand Ambassador1. C O N F I DENT I AL + N O T F O R D I ST R I B UT I O N
How Virgin America Created an Influential and Passionate Brand Ambassador
Objective: Customer Service/VIPs & Influencers Solution: Sprinklr Monitoring Dashboards and Workflow Processes
The Story
With more than 2.5 million Twitter followers, filmmaker Kevin Smith
(@thatkevinsmith) is almost as well known for his headaches with
airlines as he is for his movies. The most notorious incident was when
he was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight in 2010 for allegedly
being “too fat to fly.” Smith turned his embarrassment into comedy
gold, magnifying the bad PR for Southwest in media interviews and
podcasts. He regularly live Tweets all of his customer service prob-
lems, urging his cult fan base to join his fight for the average Joe. A
few months after the Southwest incident, Smith had a last-minute
boarding issue with Virgin America - and he missed his flight. As he
had done with the other airline incidents, the filmmaker shared his
complaints on Twitter.
What Happened? The Results
• In a series of events documented on his “Silent Bob Speaks” blog,
Kevin Smith, his wife and a friend sat in an airline VIP lounge up until
10 minutes before takeoff of a Virgin America flight from New York
to Los Angeles. They had hired an airline-approved concierge service
to handle their bags and get them access to the plane after everyone
else had boarded. Smith wrote that an actor had suggested the ser-
vice to avoid being rushed by fans.
• The Smith party was not allowed on the plane after the concierge
had brought them there too late. Making matters worse, they were
separated from their luggage.
• The filmmaker made his complaints public on Twitter and his blog,
stressing that the incident had also turned him off from the sister
Virgin Atlantic brand as well: “It doesn’t matter if you’ve got free wifi
on the plane and a kickass, in-flight movie selection. It all starts at
that check-in desk; and what started there today was the end of our
business relationship.”
• By setting up email alerts within Sprinklr as well as real-time moni-
toring of specific keywords within the Twitter monitoring dashboard,
Virgin America was able to engage with Smith when the moment
was right. Virgin immediately contacted Smith’s assistant by email
and sent an apology for any inconvenience before they even landed.
Things were smoothed over while he was on the next flight to L.A.
Here’s how Smith put it in a subsequent Tweet: “Unlike Southworst,
@VirginAtlantic seems to care: lovely, apologetic email, full refund for
flight, free tix offer – all before I’ve landed. I appreciate the gesture/
effort.” (Smith meant to type @VirginAmerica, which was confirmed share with a colleague
during the brand’s correspondence on Twitter).
e n ab l i n g th e e n t e r p r is e to b e S ocia l @ S ca l e
CONFIDENTIAL + NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION | © SPRINKLR, 2012
2. C O N F I DENT I AL + N O T F O R D I ST R I B UT I O N
How Virgin America Created an Influential and Passionate Brand Ambassador
Objective: Customer Service/VIPs & Influencers Solution: Sprinklr Monitoring Dashboards and Workflow Processes
• Smith has since become a brand advocate and has developed a friendship with Virgin founder Sir Richard
Branson. In September 2012, he flew with Branson on a live “Instagram Your Virgin America Experience” pro-
motion.
• Virgin America uses Sprinklr’s workflow processes to keep Guest Relations and Operations teams in the loop
to quickly resolve issues for all passengers—not just the Tweeting celebrities. Using a single platform for these
groups to collaborate allows the teams to more efficiently get the latest information on weather delays and
aircraft/airport issues to their guests.
What You C an Le arn
It’s About Technology + Related Services
Social@Scale Technology: Natural Language Processing (“the Zengine”)
enables real-time scoring of huge volumes of messages, identifying
potential issues as soon as they arise.
Social@Scale Customer Service & Feedback: Sprinklr helps brands
route messages internally, manage workflows, and collaborate across
departments while maintaining consistency and timeliness.
Social@Scale Audience: The platform identifies audience members who
require routing for notification or escalation based on influence. Creates
custom Profile Tags and automated rules to detect incoming messages from
VIP/Influencers and assign them to specific team members and/or queues.
Kevin Smith flies First Class with Virgin America founder
Sir Richard Branson (Source: Virgin America/Instagram) share with a colleague
e n ab l i n g th e e n t e r p r is e to b e S ocia l @ S ca l e
CONFIDENTIAL + NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION | © SPRINKLR, 2012