How To Use Web 2.0
I found this YouTube video about a disgruntled United Airlines customer and his broken guitar. This video pretty much states what an information free-for-all we live in. They broke his guitar, they didn’t make it right, and the disgruntled customer had the talent and know-how to explain his story to the world.
I despise flying simply for this reason. In order to fly, I must place myself into the the care of a company who could care less about my basic needs. Their safety record is good, peanuts are outstanding, and they can get me there, but they’re a bunch of assholes in general. I don’t want to be stuck in their world of assholetivity and pay for it.
This guy needed to get him and his guitar from point a to point b. A simple task he was willing to pay for. United obviously failed and then put the responsibility on him to prove that they did wrong and he had to follow their very involved process to get the matter resolved. Why couldn’t it have been resolved right at the luggage center? “Hey, I just pulled this guitar off of the belt and it’s destroyed.” “Ok, let me do the paperwork to resolve this for you.” How difficult is that?
Every company, even local Newark, Ohio companies have much to learn from this. Customers in large are not out to get you. They just want just treatment and they have very easy methods to share their case with others through Social Media. Resolve problems and customers are not going to take the time and effort to bash you. Your competitors will be bashing you, but that’s another matter that you can address with Social Media as well.
If your business is on a local level, you are already part of a social network. People talk about you all of the time and your business has no say in the matter. Social Media gives you the ability to let the public know who you are and what you are about. When problems do arise, you have a platform to show what the resolve was. It’s very inexpensive too! What did you spend on the flaky Yellow Book ad? That’s probably enough to cover a few years worth of Social Media, blogs, and websites that are going to be seen by many more people.
Take your traditional advertising money and divert to methods that actually mean something. No, you can’t “measure” results directly, but you will see the difference at the bottom line with happy customers.
Posted in Editorials And Opinion
Good essay. Sometimes it seems to obvious to say, that’s it’s been said enough. But it isn’t. The more people who get on-line, the more effective all this preaching becomes. Well-said. Keep beating the drum.