A blog post with nothing to do with Old Spice.
I hope this will come off as something like helpful advice, and less like cranky bitching about a bad flight.
My wife’s evening flight to Chicago was canceled. She discovered this when an automated phone message left her a voicemail that told her not to show up at the airport, but to report back at 6am the following morning to fly stand-by for <Robot voice> flight number 6…2…3…etc </robot voice>
Look, flights get cancelled all the time, we get it. Weather, union rules, mechanical problems…we get it. My wife made a few calls and got only automated phone trees in her attempt to get answers, and so, in a last-ditch effort to get some actual attention, we turned to twitter. I put out a snarky @ message to Delta wondering essentially, what unsavory things a person might have to do to actually talk to a human being from their company.
What I received was this:
Take a minute and see if you can tell me what’s wrong with this picture. Here’s my take on it:
a) I complained publicly about Delta. They are requesting that I privately message them in order to work out the issue. Why would they not want to solve my problem publicly as an @reply? That way they can show the world how helpful and enthusiastic they are and I can respond enthusiastically about how Delta solved my problem.
b) I am of the opinion that you must be following me in order for me to DM you. But all right. I’ll bite. I’ll follow. One hour later, no follow from Delta. It’s one thing to ask me to take this conversation to a private room…it’s another to invite me over for tea, but the draw the blinds and turn out the lights when I ring the doorbell. 24 hours later, still no follow, I gave up.
c) a quick visit to @delta’s twitter page reveals dozens of identically worded @ replies. Is there a person copy/pasting identical replies or am I speaking with a robot here? Robots, in general, being bad internet form.
There’s a few airlines that people love. People seem to genuinely love Virgin. Here in the U.S. people have warm fuzzies for Southwest, JetBlue, and occasionally Midwest air (which used to give out free, oven fresh cookies upon boarding). But I so rarely hear people express their love for the larger U.S. Carriers and I think this twitter exchange has something to do with it. It’s a nod towards customer service and helpfulness, but without any real help and at worst it makes it look like Delta doesn’t know how to use the tools it’s using.
So, my advice for Delta (and any other company looking to dip it’s toes in the “Twitter as customer service” waters? Hire Klick. We can walk you through it.
P.S.
Also…^BH. Nowhere on Delta’s profile page does it explain who ^BH is. Am I missing something blatantly obvious? Is ^BH the name of the person helping me? Is it code for dealing with customers who use unsavory language?
