There’s an old adage in the airline world: “We’re in the customer service business, we just happen to fly planes.”
In our modern age of instant complaints that demand immediate responses, keeping up with those gripes through social media can be a major challenge for any service-oriented business. Perhaps even more so for airlines, which are in a unique position of having to answer for many aspects of their product which are not their fault, like weather delays and rude security agents.
American Airlines has done an exemplary job of keeping their Twitter complainants happy, or at the very least, responding in a timely fashion. It’s an art scores of businesses have yet to attempt, nevermind pull off on such a large scale. There’s been no shortage of grumbling about American’s onboard product over the past couple of years, but the company’s advances in social media engagement are among the best in the industry.
So it was fitting that the following, err, exchange occurred on a day when not one, but two articles appeared highlighting American’s Twitter skills.
American Airlines Responds to Every Tweet
Storified by NYCAviation · Wed, Aug 01 2012 22:46:46
A lot of corporate Twitter scripts would have responded with something bland, like, “I’m sorry to hear this. Please email Customer Service so we can look into this for you.” Many might not have answered at all based on the customer’s risque Twitter username and PG-13-rated content.
Who knows if @hotdoghandjobs will ever fly American again, but kudos to American for trying to win her back rather than allowing her message to float into the unending abyss of unanswered tweets.
