4-2 Blog: Effectively Impacting the Consumer Through Digital Media

            For "The Tale of the Tiger: Customer Service," what was done successfully to meet the wants and needs of the target audience was the title itself. The article was titled, “Tale of Tiger’s Big Adventure Highlights Airport’s Commitment to Customer Service.” The title alone shows that they are committed to customer service, which is one of the most important things of any company. Customers who read the title will get curious as to how this company was exceptional in customer service. They will read the article to see what the company did and afterwards, they will feel more comfortable going to Tampa's Airport. Also, what was done to meet the wants and needs of the target audience was that this article explained how one employee went above and beyond for a little boy. This shows that the employees of this company care a lot about their customers and want to make sure everyone is happy. This act of kindness proves that this company is committed to customer service and ensuring that their customers are satisfied. This act of kindness will let other customers know that their satisfaction is the company's number one priority. Also, what was done successfully to meet the wants and needs of the target audience was that the operations manager did his absolute best to make a customer happy. He went above and beyond to make sure the little boy was happy. The target audience is the customers. Customers want to know that they are a company's main priority so when they see exceptional customer service, they know that this is the kind of company they want to be loyal to. Customers always want to feel important to a company.

            A little boy’s mom called to see if they had left their boy’s stuffed tiger in the airport and one operations manager went above and beyond to ensure that it reached the little boy. The social and consumer experienced was done successfully because the operations manager was committed to making sure the little boy received his stuffed tiger. The operations manager took the tiger around the airport campus and photographed it in different places. He wanted to create a storyline to go with the photos so that the little boy had something to read and hold onto. The goal of this airport was to tell a story that was unfiltered and exactly how it happened, which was to prove and show that their committed to making their customers happy and want to encourage brand loyalty. The company proved their core value of customer service by making sure the little boy had not only his stuffed tiger back but a little story book to go along with it. This was done successfully because it showed how the employee of this company took it upon himself to take the boy’s tiger around the terminal, photograph it and make it into a book. This showed that the company is all about keeping their customers happy. As for the consumer, the boy was ecstatic to receive his tiger and find a little surprise with it. The company reached out to the mother to get her account and proceeded to create the story. The social consumer was addressed successfully because they made sure to contact the mother. Then, they posted the story on Facebook and Twitter with a link back to the story on their website.

            The digital media followers were handled well. After the company posted the story on social media, this allowed the general public to leave comments and share their own stories. After this story was published, this gave the employee the opportunity to highlight other customer service achievements through social media. The company responded back to customers on social media, including a staff member’s mom who posted about the story about how great of a story it was. The airport responded back with, “Thanks, mom!” and “I love that TPA has a mom… who’s also on Facebook.” TPA allowed customers to interact with them on social media This also allowed customers to be able to tweet TPA. The digital media followers were handled well as TPA tried their best to respond back to every comment. The story went viral and appeared in all the local print and media outlets. It was also featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, Time, People, NPR, Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post, CNN, New York Daily News, and numerous affiliated sites. The digital media followers took this story to the heart and loved it. This lead to thousands of people gushing support for the feel-good story and the airport. The digital media followers loved the story and commented the airport staff for their exceptional customer service with many stating that the story brought tears to their eyes. The digital media followers were handled well and TPA took in all the feedback they received.

            Something that could have been done differently to make that experience more efficient would be to include the little boy and his experience. In the article, it mentions how well the story did and how it went viral, but no where on there was mentioned about the boy’s experience. To make this experience more efficient, the company should have included the little boy n interviews or on social media “interviewing” him about his experience with the airport. The story would have touched more people if the little boy was involved. If the little boy was involved and talked about how he felt before getting the tiger, how he felt when he received the tiger, and how he felt after reading the story, I personally believe the story would have touched more lives and gone more viral. Including the little boy would have made things more personal because customers can put a face to the story and feel how he felt.

            For the company as of right now, they are doing a great job with responding back to customers. On Twitter, the company does their best to respond to every tweet that it sent to them. They also posted about holiday travel tips to make customers’ experience better. They also tweeted about how much their parking garage is for four nights. Their twitter is informative and keeps their customers in the loop. As for their website, it is easy to maneuver. The main page is clearly labelled for customers to see. There aren’t any annoying popups and it shows a list of departures and arrivals. All the links are available for customers. As for their Facebook page, they don’t update it every day but they do update it often. They also respond back to customers who leave comments. Their Facebook is informative because they post about tips, parking information and even add photos for entertainment. Engagements in social media helps with the effectiveness because it shows that the company cares about their customers. Engagements show that the company cares about responding back to their customers and making sure that all of their questions are answered. It shows that customers are their number one priority and this is something that is important to customers. Customers want to feel important and like they matter to a company so for companies to respond back to their customers in a timely manner, it shows that they care.