by Kari Dunn Saratovsky on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 11:59
Oh, what the good folks at United Airlines must have thought – just another little customer service mishap, nothing new. But, in the new world we’re living in, customer service mishaps take on a whole new meaning when everyone is a broadcaster, and the twitterverse is your stage.
Warning nonprofits: the concept of the “customer service experience” also applies to you! In fact, most donors stop giving to charity not because of financial problems, but because of dissatisfaction of how they were treated by the nonprofit. From too many emails, to not sending a follow up thank you note, customer service is important, and in the uber-connected world it’s as important as ever. Perhaps we can all learn a lesson about staying ahead of the game from a recent incident involving musician, Dave Carroll on a flight last March.
In case you’re not familiar with Carroll, and let’s face it that was most of us until yesterday – he is part of the band, Sons of Maxwell, and was traveling on United Airlines between Halifax and Nebraska on tour. The band landed in Chicago and picked up a connecting flight to Nebraska, but when the luggage was unloaded, the bands guitars were thrown around and Mr. Carroll’s acoustic was damaged. You can read his version of the story, but the long and the short of it is that he sought compensation for nine months, was denied -- and now he’s rising to YouTube stardom for his song, “United Breaks Guitars.”
What United is experiencing is a social media backlash which could have been avoided had someone at United stepped up and handled the situation differently. This “backlash” is one of the biggest fears that nonprofits have when entering the social media waters. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. As Geoff Livingston wrote earlier this year, “In a media environment where people talk back, and expect to be listened to, simply talking won’t work. It won’t. Social media is relational, it’s two-way! If donors, volunteers and tax payers want messages, they’ll read your brochure, watch your educational video, etc. Not here. We want to talk. That’s why we’ve forsaken our roles as simple consumers of media and engaged in this vibrant online world, a veritable bazaar of ideas, conversations and yes, even products.”
And you, nonprofits, must be part of that conversation. Don’t bury the criticism – or wish it away, even if you may not agree with it. People will continue to take the liberty of saying what they want, and now they have more microphones to do so. It’s better to be engaged in the conversation than to filter it and fuel the fire of people like Dave Carroll who will turn you into the next YouTube sensation (at your expense).
It’s still a little early to tell what United’s reaction will be. Apparently Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United had this to say (no pun intended, I’m sure), “This has struck a chord with us, and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right.”
