The following little story was sent to me by my good friend and trusted adviser - Greg Brown. I just had to share it!
A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar (worth $3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages, but to no avail.
During his final exchange with their Customer Relations Manager, Dave stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for You Tube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded: "Good luck with that one, pal".
So Dave posted a retaliatory video on You Tube. The video has since received well over 6 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: "Good luck with that one, pal".
As a bit of an aside, Taylor Guitars recently sent Dave 2 new custom guitars in appreciation of the product recognition they received in the video. Apparently it has lead to a sharp increase in orders.
In days of old, we used to say: “Serve them well and people will tell a couple of friends… but serve them badly, they’ll tell twenty!” I guess the numbers need a little updating.
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Enjoyed the above story and video! Think the approach was both appropriate, clever and witty - and obviously led to an even better response than a time and money consuming course of litigation! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim, my stepson's guitar was broken on an Air Aisa flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. This was even though he took it into the cabin and handed it into the care of the cabin crew. On the ground, they all refused to accept responsibility, but when I wrote directly to the Air Asia Chairman, a very well known public figure here (and also the money behind the new Lotus F1 GP team) it was a different story. Within 10 days I heard back from the Air Asia CEO, that they accepted responsibility and had re-credited the cost of the guitar (about USD300) to my credit card! Now that's service. Cheers, Mike
ReplyDeleteJim, the Wavemaker piece was better than ever. What I have always found irritating about many of your instructive ideas is that:
ReplyDelete"surely I knew that and could have used it myself".
I would have sulked, shouted and eventually given up on the Airline. The simple expedient of thinking differently (you would tell me-outside the box) not only solved the problem, but created a market for guitars and no doubt caused a considerable volume of in-house training in the airline.
I wonder if it is too late for me to create a video of my last flight with British Airways.
Another cracker - keep it up Jim. How I wish I were still working with you.
Great blog Jim! Very creative thinking by a very creative singer. I'm certain United 'got the message' on this one.
ReplyDeleteThis YouTube clip represents a kind of customer "Class Action" that is starting to become possible through the internet. You see the same sort of thing through neutral customer service rating sites that are springing up. Just think of the power of a similar type of clip that sung the praises (forgive the pun) of the positive virtues of a service provider!
ReplyDeleteGood one Jim!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the numbers require updating....scary!
I have been reading your blogs for some time now. They are all VERY perceptive and relevant to today's business environment. - Where do you get all this stuff from? - or do you create it from scratch? - (I wouldn't put the latter past you).
ReplyDeleteI hope all your good work is producing tangible results by way of clients rushing to your door to use your services. - They would do well to do so.
Great article. Just goes to show how the power of one has been amplified by the advancement of of the internet.
ReplyDelete