Listen with many ears

July 31, 2009 · Filed Under Customer Service, Small & Medium Businesses · Comments Off 

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Customer Service Lesson – Social Media Lesson.

July 17, 2009 · Filed Under Customer Service · Comment 

Recently the story of Dave Carroll and United Airlines has been a great lesson in customer service and the impact of social media. Dave Carroll is a singer songwriter from Halifax Canada (www.davecarrollmusic.com).  He traveled on a United Airlines flight from Halifax to Chicago and at Chicago a passenger noticed that the baggage handlers were throwing guitar cases.  Dave and his band looked out and and their guitars were being thrown. Unfortunately one of his guitars got broken and then he spent 12 months trying to get an apology and compensation from United. United ignored him.

Then the story gets interesting. Being a singer songwriter he wrote  a song and shot a music video and posted to his website and youtube. Check the video out at youtube (it is great)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

This video now has over 3.1million views. Yes over 3.1 million views.

This carries some very useful lessons for everybody.  Firstly Uniteds customer service was ordinary and its response to a passengers issue was atrocious. So please take the opportunity when there is a complaint to wow the customer and you will have a loyal customer. Don’t drag the issue out, make a decision and think of the lifetime value of the client.

Secondly – the power of social media.  Businesses must be on youtube,twitter, facebook and communicating to their customers who are on the there. Businesses must be managing their brands and engaging their customers otherwise others will be.

There use to be a saying that a happy customer tells another person and an unhappy customers tells ten others. Well now a happy customer through social media can tell many but an unhappy customer will tell MILLIONS.

So get on social media and always remember to take the opportunity of an unhappy customer and wowing them.

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