Few weeks ago I took an intercontinental flight to Helsinki. The plane was a modern Airbus with a fancy touch screen media center for each passenger. There were movies, music, TV-programs, touch screen games etc. available, and in addition a promise of Facebook, email and Twitter applications in the foreseeable future. Great entertainment indeed! Actually so great that I started to worry about the role of my iPad in the future. Only couple weeks ago I thought that a tablet would be the super medicine for never-ending journeys…

Inspired by the touch screen media center I started to puzzle, what if these “no-one can resist” online multimedia centers are suddenly a standard also in busses, trains and metros, and what if similar systems are integrated into the tables at lobbies and walls at elevators? If so, I won´t need my iPad to pass the time. Actually, I will only need a small memory chip which contains all my personal daily data and the apps I like to use. When I touch a random screen I will see my own “desktop”.  So, how short will the tablet´s lifecycle actually be at the era of the touch screen invasion?

The plane´s entertainment center raised also another question into my mind. While the plane taxied towards the gate at Helsinki, the entertainment system asked me to fill a customer satisfaction survey which I could find from the pocket in front of me. “WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING?!”, I thought.

I was shocked when an impressive multimedia animation asked me to pick up a paper and fill a survey, although there was a touch screen in front of me. As a matter of fact, there wasn´t even a pen available. Without a pen I skipped the chance to report my insights and made a note about this experience into my phone.

A few weeks later, I`m still wondering, what on earth the airline marketing manager was thinking when he or she decided to run a daily customer survey without using the technology they had invested in. If I was the airline´s marketing manager, I would run the customer satisfaction survey with the touch screen media centers immediately after the plane has landed and started to taxi towards the gate.  Because social media apps and other online services will be available in those centers in one of these days, I suppose two-way data connection is already wired up. Thanks to the touch screen survey, each passenger would have something to play with a bit longer, so seatbelts would stay fastened and corridors empty at least few more minutes. Best of all, airline will get surely more feedback from their customers compared to the old-fashioned paper and NO pen solution, and also analysis will be much more painless.

Lastly, like we all know, incentives are usually needed to get people to participate. In my opinion a good incentive would be a real time lottery among passengers: after the plane stops at the gate, a light above the winner´s seat will light up. In addition those who check in on Foursquare or Facebook after filling the survey will take part in a monthly lottery with bigger and better prices. It goes without saying that social media check-ins will increase airline´s social media coverage and gain valuable customer data for future online marketing.

What we learned? The new technology changes a lot on the one hand, and nothing on the other. Innovations are pointless, if we don´t think differently.

 PS. Check from YouTube video series ”United breaks quitars” which is a great and well-known example about customer service and customer power in era of social media.

Aarne Töllinen

M.Sc. (Econ.), Project manager

University of Jyväskylä

aarne.tollinen(a)jyu.fi