This is the second article in our Social Media For Business series – read the first post here.

The previous article mentioned that Social Media serves three primary functions for a business: Customer Service, Brand Awareness & Management, and Search Engine Optimization. This post is dedicated to the first – Customer Service.

Bridging the Gap in Communication: Consumer Voices Being Heard

In the news, we are constantly hearing about customers who have used social media as a platform to voice concerns or disappointment with a company’s product or service.  The way that company responds to to such a situation can makes or break their reputation, both online and in the real world. I’m going to review three situations that received notable press coverage and discuss how the companies dealt with the customer’s complaints.

1. David Caroll vs. United Airlines

Backstory: David Caroll, a Canadian Musician, was traveling on United Airlines from Nova Scotia to Nebraska. He checked his $3,500 Taylor guitar which he saw being thrown onto the tarmac while he was looking out the window of the airplane. When he found that his guitar had been broken (the neck snapped off), he filed a complaint with United Airlines only to be told that he was not eligible for compensation because he failed to make the claim within the company’s required 24hr time period. As a result, Caroll made 3 videos about his experience. The first one, titled “United Breaks Guitars” (below) aired on YouTube July 6, 2009. The video has received over 8 million views to date.

United’s Response: The video received 150,000 views by the end of its first day online. This led to United Airlines contacting Carroll, despite having ignored his previous complaints. They first conveyed their sincere apologies and requested the use of the video for staff training purposes.  It wasn’t until the second video aired that United offered to compensate Caroll for his broken guitar – at which point Caroll said he would rather see that money go to a good cause, as guitar-maker Taylor had already donated two guitars to him (incidentally- Taylor capitalizing on this is an excellent example of using social media for positive brand management and customer service.)  Caroll’s experience and United’s poor response (delayed reaction and lack of initiative made it seem that they were disinterested in their customer’s issues) cost United shareholders approximately $180 million – as just four days after the video’s release, the company’s share price plunged by 10%. If that isn’t enough encouragement to take social media and customer service complaints seriously, I don’t know what is.

Learning from Mistakes: United probably won’t ever recover the dent in their reputation created by a single customer and a YouTube video. It’s a lesson in taking the possibilities social media offers to the mass public (your customers) seriously and acting quickly to resolve any negative feedback.

You can read more about the incident and it’s backlash on the wikipedia article created for Caroll’s song.

2. Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Air

Backstory: Kevin Smith, a renowned and award-winning film-maker was thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight for being too overweight and posing a safety and security risk. Smith, who has more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter, began to tweet about his experience immediately after being ejected from his flight. His first tweet on the subject was simple and direct:

“Dear @SouthwestAir — I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?”

Southwest Air’s Response: While Southwest apologized via the same vehicle that Smith used – Twitter – they received a barrage of criticism from Smith’s fans who felt he was a victim of prejudice. With several tweets back and forth between @thatkevinsmith and @southwestair, Smith decided to use another social media platform, his podcast, in order to fully explain the situation and why he was so upset about it. Southwest argued that historically Smith has always purchased 2 seats for his flights. Smith’s response was that his historic use of 2 seats was rooted in a desire for comfort and to avoid socializing with other passengers, not out of a necessity because of his weight. While he acknowledged that he is indeed overweight, his problem was being removed after being seated and that being removed in front of everyone as if he were a “shoe bomber” was humiliating. Smith later boarded another flight and sent a picture along with his tweet:

“Hey @SouthwestAir! Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!”

Smith continued with several tweets criticizing Southwest Airlines, ensuring that the internet would pick up on his story:

“The @SouthwestAir Diet. How it works: you’re publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!”

“Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.”

Smith’s plan worked and his story was picked up by many news outlets- including an interview on the Daily Show.  While being interviewed, he tweeted to Southwest Airlines, telling them to bring the same row of seats he was removed from to the show. He stated that if he failed to fit in them in front of the studio audience he would donate $10,000 to a charity of their choice, but if he was successful (and as such, not “too fat to fly”) they would have to admit they lied and change their policy/retrain their staff to be more humane in their dealings with overweight customers.

Smith’s blog post about the incident is here, and Southwest’s public apology blog post is here.

Learning from Mistakes: Smith’s issue with the treatment of overweight people struck a chord with countless individuals who have suffered similar humiliating situations. While Southwest’s avenues for response (using twitter and blogs, plus phone calls, emails and letters) are appropriate, their insincere apology ruined their attempt at a cleanup and launched a PR nightmare. Smith simply wanted Southwest to admit that he was removed from the plane for being “too fat to fly” – but Southwest made other excuses for removing him and in subsequent conversations insinuated that it was essentially Smith’s fault for not purchasing more than one seat.

The lesson to take away here is that every time a company mistreats or embarrasses or upsets a customers, they are taking a big gamble.  One can never be certain what kind of social media following or network a customer has in place, and any transgression has the capacity to be broadcast to the world almost instantaneously.

3. Dominos Pizza vs. Consumers

Backstory: Two Domino’s Pizza employees from North Carolina posted a video of themselves doing disgusting and unhygienic things to customer’s food. The video (rather stupidly posted on the employee’s personal Youtube account) had an instantly overwhelming and astounding effect. The video received so many comments by disgusted YouTube users that the Domino’s location in which the video was made was quickly tracked down and a complaint filed with Domino’s corporate office. This led to the firing of the two employees mere hours after the video was posted. They claimed that the video was a joke and the food wasn’t served, but the damage to the Domino’s corporate brand  was already devastating, and their dismissal more than warranted.

Domino’s Response: Domino’s corporate headquarters attempted to clean up the damage done by having Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s USA, post a video response on Youtube. In the video Doyle expresses the disgust that the Domino’s family feels for the actions of the two employees. He apologizes for the incident, assures customers that the North Carolina restaurant is being sanitized and then continues to describe the steps the company is taking to insure that such an incident doesn’t happen again.

Learning from Mistakes: Mistakes is actually a misnomer here; as Domino’s handled the situation just right.  They acted quickly, used the same forum in which the criticism was first made, they admitted fault and showed how they are learning from and building off of the mistake that was made. The CEO taking the time to create a message of just him talking shows sincerity, and his choice of language (the use of trust) reaches out to viewers. Sometimes the best thing to do is admit you’re wrong, apologize, and tell the world how you’re going to make it better.

The Moral of the Social Media Story

Why did these incident’s happen? It is because social media increases the reach of the average person, blurring the line between customer service and public relations.  Where before social media a person who had a bad experience would tell 5-10 friends about their experience, they now have at a virtual soapbox that not only increases the reach of their comments, but also increases the duration of their affect.  When one speaks a comment, it is gone as soon as it is uttered.  You write something on the web, it’s there forever.

Companies that realize the impact of social media on branding are the ones that will swim while others are sinking (like United Airlines and Southwest Air.)  The biggest thing to take away from these three instances is how you can use social media to manage customer services issues, and that everyone who has a negative experience might just be a Kevin Smith or a Dave Caroll.