Blogger Jessica Gottlieb sat in JFK Airport waiting to see the plane her kids were on take off, but it just sat there. Not one to keep her grievances to herself, she tweeted her situation and implored her nearly 10,000 followers to retweet. Within minutes, she received a call from the airline explaining the weather situation and assuring her everything is being done to depart. This would have been unheard of even five years ago, but today it is surprising yet believable. Gottlieb is one of the many people taking advantage of the third wave of customer service development. The evolution from forums to blogs to microblogs has amplified the need for on the spot customer service. In the competitive airline industry, companies have had to listen to their customers to avoid any bad PR.
The full story at MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31727411/ns/travel-tips/
jus 1:33 pm on July 9, 2009 Permalink
Sorry. I think that is a LITTLE over the top. How hard would it have been for her to walk up to a counter and ask instead of tweeting it to the world? Had the counter not been responsive, perhaps tweeting would have been the next best choice. But ultimately if you are unhappy - why bother using technology when your voice and true WORD from MOUTH might have worked just as well.
Jessica Gottlieb 4:37 pm on July 9, 2009 Permalink
Jus, you are absolutely correct, I picked up the iphone after almost 2 hours of having the gate agents completely ignore our requests and questions. My husband and I were concerned about our kids (who were flying alone for the first time) and the gate agents were dismissive, snarly and then told me that the airline industry wasn’t like any other business and that customer service wasn’t their problem. They would not give us an estimated departure time, but the gate agents did find time to snarl at us as only an angry New Yorker can.
When I was on the phone with Virgin America’s social media guy (forgive me as I forgot his name), not only was I reassured, but I was spoken to kindly and as any customer would hope. They checked on my kids (at least they said they did) and although I think they’re a failure as an industry I’d still choose Virgin first.
Pat McCarthy 8:27 am on July 10, 2009 Permalink
Thanks for clearing this up Jessica. I think anyone who has had a late flight or baggage problems knows how frustrating airline customer service can be. Considering how quickly you were contacted, we might be seeing a transition from ‘on the ground’ customer service to ‘corporate’ customer service. The employees at the airport are usually dealing with a dozen problems at once, but the social media person was removed from the situation and calm. Perhaps Twitter hashtag would work better than a employees at the scene. The airline could employ someone to update the flight’s status for anyone interested. The passengers and their loved ones could easily follow developments on their phones or computers.
Thanks for the comments everyone!