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Hurry up, the customer has a complaint

July 15, 2008 | Internet Marketing

Customer service is changing in an age when a single disgruntled consumer with a broadband connection can ignite a crisis. But there is also the potential of the Internet to turn miffed customers into fans in a more organic way than an advertising campaign.

At Southwest Airlines, the social media team includes a chief Twitter officer who tracks Twitter comments and monitors a Facebook group, an online representative who fact checks and interacts with bloggers, and another who takes charge of the company’s presence on sites such as YouTube, Flickr, and LinkedIn. So if someone posts a complaint in cyberspace, the company can respond in a personal way.

For example, when Travis Johnson, known by the Twitter handle, “pastortrav,” complained recently about Southwest’s check-in process, he received a quick, public response from an airline employee saying, “So sorry to hear it! What don’t you like about the check-in process? Did your flight get off okay?”

“We monitor those channels because we know these conversations are taking place there, and we can either watch the conversations or take part in them,” said Southwest spokeswoman Christi Day.

Get the full story at The Boston Globe

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