With Qantas, your out of office message also goes on holidays !

With its service « Out Of Office Travelogue », Qantas litterally changes the standards in terms of OOO.  From a simple informative email, quickly written 5 minutes before leaving the office for your next holidays, it becomes a proper photo album totally customized and unique.  

How is that possible ? First go on www.qantasoutofoffice.com to connect your Instagram account to your email address. Then fill in your destination, the dates of your travel and write the absence message. From now on, each person who sends you an email with receive your out of the office message but with the beautiful photos of your trip, that you have been posting on Instagram, thanks to the hashtag #qantasoutofoffice.

This way, your family, you friends and colleagues, will be able to follow your adventures even if they are not connected to you on any social networks. The hastag allow to control the broadcasting of the photos.

Then, once you are back at the coffee machine at work, you will not have to answer to the traditional : Oh where have you been on holidays ? The small talk will directly focus on the paradise beach where you had this amazing exotic dish.

For the airline company, the interest of the service is very obvious. As said by Olivia Wirth, group executive brand, marketing and corporate affairs de Qantas “we know that the advices given by the close circle (friends, family, colleagues) is essential in the choice of a holiday destination. The goal is clear : increase the brand awarness in the travelers’ minds.

For the travelers, the benefit linked to the « Out Of Office Travelogue » seems close to zero. This is objectively the case, if we have a very short sight vision. In real terms, the passenger does not get anything with this service : no discount, no upgrade… but the passenger using this service is actually looking for something different : to connect to people in order to share his best memories. 

Qantas is not looking for an quick return on investment with this service. The company does not target the passenger but the traveler by creating the perfect set up for sharing emotion. There is non rational tie that grows. Why does Qantas do that ? It is mandatory that the airline improves the passenger’s experience. (ticket purchase, easy boarding, in flight services…), in word, its core services. But if it simply focuses on these criterias, then the client only faces objectives criterias to make a choice (price, schedules, number of luggages, comfort… ) these are all pretty much easy to copy. With this « Out Of Office Travelogue », Qantas add to its value proposition an non tangible criteria related to the intimacy of each traveler. This is an important vector to differenciate itself. The airline understood that it is mandatory to work customer relationship with both a short and long term approach, by combining rational services with more emotional factors.