CorpComms Magazine

When Global Infrastructure Partners, the new owners of Gatwick Airport, announced a £1 billion investment programme and the rebranding of the UK's second busiest airport as 'Your London Airport', the communications team wanted to explore how social media tools could be used to inform passengers about what was going on and get their feedback.

Working with Rabbit, Gatwick Airport developed a three-pronged approach. After staff received appropriate training, a new round-the-clock Twitter support programme was launched. Messages appeared on information screens within the airport promoting @Gatwick_Airport and inviting passengers to tweet their experiences - both good and bad.

In an effort to make the inevitable construction work less obstructive, the Gatwick Discovery Tour was launched. A series of giant barcodes was created, using mobile application Stickybits, which were printed on three hoardings around the airport. (A further seven are in the pipeline.) Scanning the codes on smartphones results in pictures and videos that explain the work and show the 'finished' product. (It is envisaged that these ten hoardings will eventually be linked together as part of a Gatwick Discovery Tour.)

Gatwick's management was also keen to get instant passenger feedback on all facilities, and partnered with the review service Qype, which the judges said 'provided authenticity'. Its API service has been built into Gatwick's website (www.gatwickairport.com), and customers are encouraged to review its restaurants, retailers and other facilities. Every week all passenger comments are reviewed, and action is taken as necessary.

Followers of @Gatwick_Airport have more than quadrupled since launch to in excess of 18,000 while its Klout influence has risen from 28 to 72.

The importance of its Twitter feed was particularly felt during the pre-Christmas snow disruptions, when followers rose from 9,498 on 14 December to 15,440 on 20 December. Customers congratulated the airport on the information provided by its tweets, while television presenter Jon Snow tweeted that he had visited to see 'how exceptional leadership and team work + original shopping for snowploughs defied chaos that sank Heathrow'.

Indeed, 45 per cent of tweets involving Heathrow Airport between 18 and 22 December 2010 mentioned 'snow' while 35 per cent discussed 'chaos'. By contrast, just 20 per cent of tweets involving Gatwick mentioned 'snow', less than ten per cent used the word 'chaos' and 16 per cent said 'thanks'. One judge said: 'This was a very high profile customer service issue that they managed proactively to the brand's advantage.'