Despite in-flight connectivity still being in its infancy, we have seen rapid expansion since the first connected aircraft took flight in 2008. Since day one, Gogo has been a pioneer of this new era in the sky and consistently dedicated to connecting passengers to the things that matter most to them 30,000 feet above the ground.
Gogo's brand is fueled by creating consistent, unique and seamless experiences for passengers. In order to do so, we put heavy emphasis on our customer care and its working. Our unique strategy and real-time approach to customer service allows Gogo to successfully continue offering experiences in-flight that rival those on the ground across the more than 2,000 commercial aircraft equipped with Gogo connectivity services.
While many airlines are rolling back their restrictions on the use of digital devices on flights and embracing in-flight connectivity, we're not blind to that fact that demand for faster service and speed is still an issue for many. Gogo and the in-flight connectivity market are growing to meet those expectations, but while we continue to work to get service where it could or should be, Gogo remains focused on building and maintaining our customer care and brand loyalty.
Unlike our competitors, we provide real-time customer service to passengers 24/7/365 in the sky. Through our Oracle platform and social media channels, passengers have the ability to instantly engage a member of our customer care team during any point of their flight – 30,000 feet above ground and moving at 600 MPH – to troubleshoot service issues or ask a question. While we're always available for passengers, our customer care team proactively monitors Twitter and Facebook 24/7/365 to ensure no complaint, question or issue is left unaddressed and work hard to maintain an average response rate of just over 12 minutes to direct mentions and messages. To maintain our high standard of customer service, we have implemented an intensive application process to ensure we only hire the best of the best. This renowned team was the proud recipient of the 2014 Skiftie Award for social media customer service at last year's inaugural Skift Global Forum and received more than 450 customer service mentions or complete turnarounds in 2014 (for example: "@Gogo Shout out for great service. Just had an issue with the in-flight wi-fi connection & got great customer support!!"). For reference, our customer care team handled an average outgoing volume of 10,989 interactions in 2014 across the 2,000 commercial aircraft equipped with Gogo's services.
At Gogo, we also take our real-time engagement with passengers a step further, using the information gathered during our social interactions and from our Oracle platform to gain a better understanding of our customers' pain points, wants and needs. From that, we work with our engineering and product teams to use that information to enhance overall customer experience and guide product and service decisions.
