Brilliant Idea!
 

:rofl:
In a modern spin on the tale of David and Goliath, a disgruntled customer has found a new way to use social media to take on a big corporation.

Fed up with the way British Airways was handling the issue of his father's lost luggage, businessman Hasan Syed decided to complain about it.

But rather than just put out a normal tweet, he paid to have one promoted.

Using promoted tweets in this way could represent a new trend, experts believe.
Long delay

The promoted tweet bought by Mr Syed reads: "Don't fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous."

Promoted tweets are generally bought by advertisers who want to reach a wider audience. The paid-for tweet is given high prominence in the Twitter feed of the relevant company but otherwise acts as a normal message and can be retweeted by others.

Mr Syed purchased his paid-for tweet via Twitter's self-service ad platform for an undisclosed sum. He targeted New York and UK markets with the tweet.

The decision to highlight BA's customer service came following a trip his parents made from Chicago to Paris at the weekend, during which his father lost his luggage.

Six hours after the tweet went live, and was picked up by news website Mashable, it had been read by thousands of Twitter users, retweeted and commented on.

But it took another four hours for British Airways to pick up on it: "Sorry for the delay in responding, our twitter feed is open 09:00-17:00 GMT. Please DM [direct message] your baggage ref and we'll look into this."

The idea that the ad platform of large corporations can be hijacked by members of the public is an interesting trend, thinks Shashank Nigam, chief executive of aviation consultancy SimpliFlying.

"The implications are tremendous for the future of airline customer service, especially on social media," he said in his blog.

"These tools are easy to use and brand detractors have the same access to them as corporations. I'd guess that this cost less than a thousand dollars to buy and Mr Syed targeted it smartly," Mr Nigam told the BBC.

"Airlines are going to have to start having 24/7 customer services and maybe they need to train up call centre reps to respond to messages on Facebook and Twitter."

In this particular case, the tweet appears to have been successful.

"We would like to apologise to the customer for the inconvenience caused. We have been in contact with the customer and the bag is due to be delivered today," British Airways told the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23943480

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

I have used twitter and Facebook to resolve a customer service issue ridiculously quickly. It's just a shame that companies only give a hit when it's out in public.
In my case it was a uk based company operating out here who were being shockingly shit. Within an hour of a pretty scathing complaint on Facebook and twitter I got a call from head office in the uk and the following day a call from the Middle East md. problem resolved.

Frankly I'm all for consumers being able to complain with paid tweets and any other means they can.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

I've complained on social media too, had a message back and apology within 5 mins.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

Although it wasn't on social media my sister once got a bit creative with her complaints. Her tinternet provider had cut her home business connection off and said that they couldn't connect her again for 'up to 5 days'. So she googled the name of the MD and then inserted his name into the companies employee email format (again found on google) and sent a scathing email off. Half an hour later the MD called up, apologised and said he was following it up. She was back online within the hour.

Not on twitter but I do see it's benefits sometimes.

How much does it cost to promote a tweet?

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

Although it wasn't on social media my sister once got a bit creative with her complaints. Her tinternet provider had cut her home business connection off and said that they couldn't connect her again for 'up to 5 days'. So she googled the name of the MD and then inserted his name into the companies employee email format (again found on google) and sent a scathing email off. Half an hour later the MD called up, apologised and said he was following it up. She was back online within the hour.

Not on twitter but I do see it's benefits sometimes.

How much does it cost to promote a tweet?

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

They reckoned it would have cost this guy about $1k to promote it. It got him publicity, but not sure it got the luggage back any quicker.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

Used facebook to get a response from a car hire company regarding a refund.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

I did this with BT.

I got on their corporate site and CC'd every single director / COO / CEO / MD etc that I could find about being overcharged and unable to cancel.

Got a call within two hours from a 'Special Complaints Department'. The guy told me they have power to do what they want immediately, moreso than the plebs in normal complaints and that he had already sorted everything and it was free, cancelled and all done.

I then moved to a new place, emailed him and he sorted everything again, top bloke and was just a pleasant, intelligent human being.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

Why does a company need a "normal" customer service/complaints facility if they recognise the need for a "special" one? Surely that should be the standard.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

Imagine a room with two long rows of desks facing each other.
On one side sit the company's employers, management, owners etc
and on the other side all its clients
everyone is smiling at each other
all of a sudden one client gets up and loudly says, I don't like the way your company treated me!
now the entire room is looking at him now and after that everyone starts staring at the company, 'what are you going to do about this?'
and the owners and the management go into overdrive mode to quickly resolve the issue :)

thats how a complaint on any social media platform feels to a company
you email or your phone call will be broad casted to a very limited number of company people, but when it goes public, then the company is pushed into taking action to 'show that they care'

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

And therein lies the problem.
It needs an appropriate culture to ensure every customer issue is handled just as if it arrived as a public tweet with the eyes of all upon it.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

I don't know of any large organisation that works like that. A few small ones, yes.

Re: Brilliant Idea!
 

I think the rule of the thumb is, the larger they are, the more disassociated they are from their customers.
And may I just add that it is WORSE here in this neck of the woods :thumbdown: