Virgin Airlines Uses Chatter
Virgin Airlines Uses Chatter
Abstract
The following case study undertakes the situation of Virgin Airlines and their desire to retain their cutting edge of company culture and customer experience. Virgin, a long time user of Salesforces’ CRM IS, added Salesforces’ Chatter application to their system to improve communication with employees and enhance their customers experience by putting Chatter at the customers fingertips.
Business Problem / Objective Defined
Virgin Airlines was looking for a way to differentiate themselves from other airlines in a market saturated with me-too airlines. Virgin built their business on their people serving customers, culture is what sets Virgin apart, what they needed was a way to strengthen that culture. Virgin business creator, entrepreneur and former CEO Richard Branson puts people first; he refers to Virgin employees as “Virgin’s people”. (Donaldson, Werhane, 2008 pp. 400). Branson is so insistent that the employees have a way to communicate with him, he gave them his home phone number. What Branson and Virgin wanted was a way for the employees to interact with their employees and make them part of the community and the everyday conversation. Ninety- percent of the people that work for Virgin do not sit at a desk and do not use a PC, their primary communication device is a tablet or smart-phone. Much of these employees time is spent traveling on a connecting bus, tram or in the air going about their daily duties. Virgin Management wanted a way to reach out to these employees and let them know what is going on with the company.
Business Solution Implemented
Virgin was already a proponent of Salesforce.com’s CRM system; when they went looking for a way to enable communication between employees and employees to management, Virgin had to go no further than Saleforce’s Chatter application. Chatter is an application that allows people to use their mobile devices and collaborate on the go. Chatter is
Abstract
The following case study undertakes the situation of Virgin Airlines and their desire to retain their cutting edge of company culture and customer experience. Virgin, a long time user of Salesforces’ CRM IS, added Salesforces’ Chatter application to their system to improve communication with employees and enhance their customers experience by putting Chatter at the customers fingertips.
Business Problem / Objective Defined
Virgin Airlines was looking for a way to differentiate themselves from other airlines in a market saturated with me-too airlines. Virgin built their business on their people serving customers, culture is what sets Virgin apart, what they needed was a way to strengthen that culture. Virgin business creator, entrepreneur and former CEO Richard Branson puts people first; he refers to Virgin employees as “Virgin’s people”. (Donaldson, Werhane, 2008 pp. 400). Branson is so insistent that the employees have a way to communicate with him, he gave them his home phone number. What Branson and Virgin wanted was a way for the employees to interact with their employees and make them part of the community and the everyday conversation. Ninety- percent of the people that work for Virgin do not sit at a desk and do not use a PC, their primary communication device is a tablet or smart-phone. Much of these employees time is spent traveling on a connecting bus, tram or in the air going about their daily duties. Virgin Management wanted a way to reach out to these employees and let them know what is going on with the company.
Business Solution Implemented
Virgin was already a proponent of Salesforce.com’s CRM system; when they went looking for a way to enable communication between employees and employees to management, Virgin had to go no further than Saleforce’s Chatter application. Chatter is an application that allows people to use their mobile devices and collaborate on the go. Chatter is