Reputation Management or Customer Service?

Interesting article in the Boston Globe this weekend about how the airlines are now using social media tactics to improve customer service especially with its top customers.

Continental Airlines now has customer service reps whose job it is to visit forums and blogs and see what people are saying about their airline. The main SMO guru at Continental is Scott O’Leary. According to the article:

Since being assigned to monitor Flyertalk, www.airliners.net, and blogs on various websites, O’Leary has solved dozens of problems that irritate road warriors. He has posted more than 500 comments in the past year alone on Flyertalk, most answering questions, shooting down rampant rumors, or highlighting a change in the airline’s frequent-flier program.

“These are free focus groups,” O’Leary said. “Every airline executive in his right mind is reading Flyertalk and other sites. If it is bothering these customers, it is probably bothering others who don’t post on the sites.”

Representatives of Continental’s competitors say they also monitor the blogs and chat rooms to quickly pick up on problems. US Airways, for example, is eliminating a $25 fee it used to charge its top fliers to switch their flights at the last minute in response to complaints posted in chat rooms, said Elise Eberwein, a senior vice president at the carrier.

Is your company visiting blogs and forums to hear what your customers are saying?