Malaysia Airlines embraces the blogosphere

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not a big fan of Malaysia Airlines. However, I have to hand it to them, with their new blog, titled Living Malaysian Hospitality (eating, breathing, sleeping MH; MH, their airline code, is now being themed as Malaysian Hospitality, something I think is utter bollocks from their service quality, or lack thereof).

Powered by WordPress 2.5.1, the blog is well-themed, and has been going on since April 2008. For a government-linked company (GLC), I am impressed that they’re embracing modern web technologies, and starting to speak to their customers. They’re giving the company a visible face, and going by the buttons, are not afraid to support Digg, del.icio.us, myspace, and Facebook. They are even hosting videos on YouTube!

They’re brave enough, to print customer letters (from our guests). So far, its all rosy, and they naturally reserve the right to publish only articles that put them in a good light, but Idris Jala has stated: “We want to hear from the customers, whether good or bad.”

This in my opinion can open up the floodgates of complaints, which can then help improve services eventually. There are 30 bloggers at present, and while the blog will not be published in real-time (it takes 24 hours for “approval” – pretty good for a corporate blog), I’m wondering why “Both comments and pings are currently closed.”

Congratulations on opening up MAS, and I sincerely hope that comments will be opened up soon as well. Remember, the whole idea of a blog is not a one-way conversation, which in itself isn’t a conversation. Note that your great competitor, AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes, already writes comments on random blogs…

4 Comments

  1. Sung says:

    Yeah, the section of comments in MAS blog is opened up now. This is really a good move for the company. Wish the nation carrier will be prospering with more connection with its customers and employees.

  2. Alistair says:

    Stumbled on your blog and was surprised to read this. Gotta hand it to MAS. And the blog is a pretty good read too. I’m impressed!

  3. Maris says:

    This is a real nifty way to market the airlines, it’s quite a genius idea to let Malaysian Airline employees to talk about the company in their spare time, it makes the airline more “friendly” and customer oriented.

    But as you said, it will open the floodgates to customer complaints–and hopefully having this blogsite equates to their readiness and openness for criticism.

    Thanks for sharing. :)


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