As consumer complaints go, it was epic.
The YouTube video posted in 2009 by Canadian musician Dave Carroll with his song United Breaks Guitars, chronicling a customer service disaster by the airline, which, as the song points out — broke his guitar — sounded an alarm bell through corporate boardrooms.
It chalked up millions of hits online and became a textbook case demonstrating how disgruntled consumers can make their voices heard through social media.
However, according to a survey released Tuesday by Insights West, although more than a third of British Columbia’s social media users have posted complaints online about a service or company, most don’t find satisfaction.
Seventy per cent say no action was taken, 23 per cent received an online apology and 12 per cent were given a discount or service.
“They are complaining but they are not really being heard,” said Insights West president Steve Mossop. “ It’s not a two-way street yet.”
Many major brands, both across Canada and internationally, have embraced social media, building teams to monitor and manage their online presence and answering on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter much like they answer customer service lines.
For customers, the response is often faster and more convenient than sifting through an auto-response on a phone to get to the right department.
“The big brands are doing a good job,” said Mossop. “It’s the smaller companies that are not.”
For Vancouver’s Shane Gibson, it only took a tweet to get him a seat on a plane.
The social media analyst and co-author of Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down, was waiting for an Air Canada flight in Winnipeg when the airline told him because an earlier plane had been cancelled, he might be bumped from his confirmed flight.
“I was put on standby even though I had a ticket in my hand,” he said. “They said, ‘You may or may not make it to Toronto tonight.’ I said, ‘That’s not possible, I have 140 Ford dealers waiting for me in Toronto.’”
When Gibson tweeted his predicament, Air Canada responded on Twitter.
“Within a few minutes I got a call on the PA asking me to come to the gate,” said Gibson. The next day, the airline tweeted him to say good luck with his presentation to the Ford dealers.
“I think forward-thinking consumers know: ‘I don’t have to pick up the phone and deal with this antiquated system; I can contact the social media team,’” said Gibson.
However, he said there is the risk of people abusing their influence on social media, a practice digital strategist J.P. Holecka also pointed out.
Holecka, whose company Powershifter provides consulting services to national brands, refers to it as ‘blackmail’ on social media, where users use their influence to get companies to fulfil their wishes, even when they are in the wrong.
“There are serial blackmailers,” he said.
Social media monitoring can reveal the chronic complainers but Holecka said often companies would rather acquiesce to the demands rather than risk a David and Goliath-like showdown, which they would likely lose in the court of public opinion.
“Social media dashboard software is so powerful, companies can create a profile on you pretty quickly,” he said. “Depending on the software, it can show sentiment — whether you are a chronic complainer.”
The number of followers can make a difference when a complaint is unwarranted, according to Holecka.
“The follow rate and influence has a direct impact,” he said.
Telus is among the large companies that have created entire social media departments.
“We really formalized a social media program in May 2010,” said Katie Drechsel, social media manager at Telus. “It really came out of seeing that’s where our clients were and that’s where they were talking about us as well.”
Drechsel said the company has found on its Twitter @Telussupport channel that close to 80 per cent of the people who are seeking help are Telus mobility clients, and they tend to be early adopters.
“They want help on the go and we provide it,” she said.
Telus uses HootSuite, a social media dashboard and monitoring service which monitors key words associated with its brands. While HootSuite offers a paid service for enterprise customers such as Telus, it also has a free product and Drechsel said even one-person companies can monitor social media.
“One of the things about social media is it’s a great equalizer,” she said. “The cost of entry is zero to nothing for companies so anyone can get on it. If you have a really awesome voice in social, your brand can soar.”
Citing eDigital Research figures, Kate McConne, of Calgary’s SimplySocialMarketing.ca, said 80 per cent of consumers heard back within 12 hours from brands they contacted through social media.
“I think social media is really taking customer service to the next level,”she said.
“It can shape a company’s image, based on how they interact with their customers,” said McConney. “Because if it’s on your Facebook page or on Twitter, the whole world can see how you deal with customers.”
For Jay McKinnon, the airline KLM wasn’t exactly soaring the day it cancelled flight reservations he had made to get his wife and daughter home for his daughter’s second birthday.
McKinnon said because he was buying tickets for a flight that originated in eastern Europe but was ordering them online here with a Canadian credit card, unbeknownst to him, the credit card company refused to put the charge through, even though the airline confirmed the reservation.
McKinnon couldn’t rebook the flight he wanted and calls to KLM customer service didn’t help.
“I went to Twitter. I wasn’t angry, just disappointed,” he said. “I said I wished somebody had called me first.”
KLM responded on Twitter and in short order someone from the airline called him, got his credit card number and confirmed a reservation for the flight on the same date at the same price.
“Basically if you tweet KLM they are really on top of solving problems,” he said. “They are taking ownership. They don’t just say, ‘Call our customer service line,’ they say, ‘We’ll take care of it.’
“I want to tell that story every chance I get because it was so exceptional.”
Here are some anecdotes I heard back from people in my online networks when I posted asking about whether or not they have been successful using social media to get a resolution to their consumer complaints:
Darci LaRocque Last year I purchased a Polo jacket in the US and then when I washed it after only wearing it once it fell apart. I loved the jacket. I tweeted about it and a shortly after an employee in NYC tweeted me and then called and said that was unacceptable. I am not kidding you when he called me asked for my address and the very next day TWO jackets arrived. I was astounded. Everyone should stand behind their products like that. It was amazing!
Leeann Froese the best is Shaw – they reply to tweets and help you solve things.
Judy Bishop are you kidding me ? One small complaint to @Telussupport got my year-long problem totally repaired, and fast too. It was an elusive problem, with lots of moving parts (so to speak) and ultimately, they toiled away and sorted me out. It would’ve taken a year of phone calls, time on hold, to get anywhere near that kind of resolution. I’m hooked !!
John Biehler I wrote about poor service I got at Save On Foods a few years ago on my site…got a lot of comments, especially from some of their own staff (unofficially) that were quite entertaining.
Raul Pacheco-Vega American Airlines was horrible with me this past week. I can email. Using social media did nothing to help my case.
Kris Constable I’ve had a pretty amazing experience this year, and the story only got worse (way worse) using social media, and is still unresolved.
http://www.theupsell.com/…/camera-chaos-at-xs-cargo…/
Part II:
http://www.theupsell.com/…/anatomy-of-a-response-to…/
Tris Hussey Here’s my story http://www.trishussey.com/okay-nespresso-time-to-step-up…/
Okay Nespresso Time to Step Up Your Customer Service (case closed) – TrisHusseyDotCom
April Yau I have normally received great feedback and results from complaining on social media. One of the good ones was at a restaurant and my party was unsatisfied with the service and quality of food we were receiving. After a short tweet expressing my dissatisfaction, one of the owners of the restaurant tweeted back within minutes and had a chef create custom meals for our guests (as they had dietary restrictions). It was a great experience! Definitely a reason I would go back to the Glowbal Group restaurants. I was thoroughly satisfied at the prompt response and resolution.
