JetBlue travelers will soon be able to file complaints or get answers from the airline through any communication channel they so choose including Facebook Messenger, Twitter and texts. The legacy travel brand just inked a deal with a start-up called Gladly to overhaul its customer service systems.

Additionally, JetBlue Technology Ventures is investing alongside GGV and other venture firms in a $36 million series B round of funding for Gladly.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, airlines consistently rank in the lowest-third of all brands. And customer complaints about airlines have spiked in 2017, following a dramatic incident and viral video showing United workers dragging a customer off a plane.

JetBlue, however, is seen as the best airline according to 2017 ratings by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. So it’s noteworthy that JetBlue feels pressured in this department.

The President of JetBlue’s corporate venture group, Bonny Simi, told CNBC, “People just don’t want to call in anymore. So we are aiming for omni-channel communication that is on at all hours, that can take advantage of AI to resolve customers’ issues as quickly as possible, and that will work with all of the important messenger apps.”

Gladly CEO Joseph Ansanelli told CNBC, his start-up sees itself as an eventual “alternative to Salesforce.”

Unlike ServiceCloud by Salesforce, or other incumbent customer service platforms, Gladly shows agents a single view of the communications between a company and a customer.

Ansanelli said Gladly enables large corporations to handle customer service via: phone, email, text and Facebook messenger today. It will next roll out support for mobile and Web chat apps, and Twitter. The company is using its funding for hiring and further software development.

Source: Tech CNBC
JetBlue will soon take travelers' complaints via text and Twitter