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A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It
- Spivak 9y agoI get that it's a catchy title and all, but give the airlines a chance here. This seems like a genuine attempt to provide better customer service and we should applaud companies for actually bothering to try.
- nxsynonym 9y agoI'm all for better customer service, especially as a customer. But I question the motives - is it a way to improve customer service or is it really just a shroud to help cut down on the "social media dirty laundry" posts? As much as I applaud the idea of quick issue-resolution via text, I don't think texting will actually solve 90% of the issues customers face.
- Sleeep 9y agoI get it though. You can text in situations you can't/shouldn't call, such as on the can or while someone is sleeping. You may want to get quick business done in public place but don't want to annoy bystanders or have them listen in on personal information you may want to talk about. Texting a question and waiting for an answer is waaaayyy better than sitting on hold listening to elevator music interrupted by "your call is important to us." Title is stupid though.
- joezydeco 9y agoIMO there are customer service cases that could benefit from a tighter communication loop. Real-world example: Trying to drop bags at the counter, there's a huge line and not enough stations open. Flight is boarding in 30 minutes. Which would improve your chances of getting some help at the counter: SMS or a Facebook post?
- mikeash 9y agoDoes it matter? Having another option is good. It's not like having this service somehow blocks you from complaining on Twitter. Lots of companies already provide text-based customer service (although usually as some crappy custom web-based thing, not SMS) and I often take advantage of it. It usually takes longer than calling, but it takes up a lot less of my attention and is easier to deal with, especially when I have to give or receive some long number or code.
- ebiester 9y agoThe social media likely has nothing to do with it - it's likely more about reducing/shifting call center costs. If an issue would require multiple calls, it can get much more expensive than handling by text. Some issues are also much easier to handle async.
- CaptSpify 9y agoIf their standard channels for support were useful, then complaining on twitter would't be a problem. This is fixing the wrong issue.
- newscracker 9y agoSlightly off topic. As someone who values privacy a lot and doesn't give out phone numbers much at all, I prefer other ways to communicate with service providers where the user identifier is easier to switch/change (changing one's phone number is a lot more tedious than changing email addresses because many people, at least from the last two decades, have the habit of using multiple email addresses segregated by usage but have just one phone number).
- Sleeep 9y agoIt's slow but pretty much all banks have a "secure messaging" system on their website. I don't know about airlines though.
- samstave 9y agoYears ago I started crating email aliases on my mail server for various things. I would typically make an email alias for a company that was [company-name]@my-domain.com and use that as my contact email for correspondence with said company. So, I was doing something with the DMV online - and I created the alias "dmv@my-domain.com" to communicate with them via... They sent their lawyers after me and sent me cease and desist letters telling me that my use of dmv@ was a violation of their copyright and that I would "confuse users" I tried to explain to the DMV (yes dept of motor vehicles) how ridiculous this whole thing was and that the email address was for their use only - and that as a state agency, they don't have a consumer brand and that anyone with the initials of DMV, like David Michael Vincent would be using DMV in their emails etc... They persisted and were annoying enough I just deleted their alias...
- xkcd-sucks 9y agoHow do they deal with the 50ish other DMVs?
- toast0 9y agoA lot of other similar state agencies have different names, DOT is popular, I've also seen MVD. DMV procedures are a great illustrator of bubbles; a lot of things vary wildly (for example, what happens to sequential plates when a vehicle is sold), but most people don't realize there could even be a different procedure, or if they do, they think most states do it the same way they do.
- stasel 9y agoThey are talking here about SMS while some airlines already use Facebook messanger and Whatsapp which is way more convenient than SMS messages
- ryanmarsh 9y agoI fly weekly. After every flight and almost every phone call I get an email requesting I take a survey. Knowing how metrics driven most big companies are (I'm a consultant) I have to assume that for all the complaining nobody is filling out these surveys. When I fill them out things happen. Every time I give a negative review I find myself higher in the upgrade list or upgraded outright. It's actually a "hack" another frequent traveler taught me. Give negative reviews, get more upgrades. Forgive typos I typed this on an iPhone
- maxxxxx 9y agoInteresting. My naive self thought that these surveys are anonymous.
- dredmorbius 9y agoBad assumption on any survey. Especially electronic.
- maehwasu 9y agoThat's such horrible incentive-setting on their part--and now I really want to try it...
- passivepinetree 9y agoWell, maybe. Even if your general experience was positive, if you give honest negative feedback about certain aspects of their service then that could be useful information to the airline.
- ubernostrum 9y agoIf you fly "weekly", then as long as it's a round trip of at least one segment each direction, you're going to hit 100+ segments/year. And as long as you spend enough on tickets to hit threshold, that's in at least the platinum tier of all three major US airlines, and knocking on the door of their top tier. You shouldn't be surprised that you're getting upgraded.
- quicon 9y agoHow is this different from what they are already doing on Twitter?
- probably_wrong 9y agoThe article is slightly too optimistic, bordering on naive. My problem is not that I hate airlines. My problem is that I hate (some of) them because they keep ignoring my complaints. Even when it is "hugely expensive" for them to listen to me, they still keep me around for hours. If the medium were the reason of traveler's unhappiness, all problems would have been solved by now with Twitter/Facebook/WhatsApp. Social media gives users (some) power back, by making public shaming a real possibility. Texting won't change that anytime soon.
- noxToken 9y agoWhich is why they want to use texting in my opinion. Social media is public, and when an angry customer uses it as a platform to complain, you have to handle the situation post-haste. The longer a mention goes publicly ignored, the worse it is. Think about the other communication platforms. People hate calling, because it usually means waiting on hold to get connected. Email can suck, because it can be days before you get a response. Face-to-face can work, but airlines seem to train their desk agents in customer service warfare. That leaves texting. It keeps customer out of the face of agents. It's private. Turnaround is faster than email, and you can lodge your complaint in the same amount of characters as a Tweet. "Why do a social media mention on Twitter when you can text us directly at your leisure?" It's the perfect way to subvert public shaming. Anything that can be handled in SMS can be handled through Twitter DMs after you call them out for your terrible experience.
- jorts 9y agoTweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that you wouldn't publicly post on twitter. It helps drive to a much quicker resolution and overall provides a much better customer experience. If I were in their shoes I would 100% be pushing for this so that I can do my job better. It will definitely reduce the noise on twitter, but I don't think that's the main motivator here, just a nice side effect.
- guiomie 9y agoTweets makes your problem public. Multiple times I couldn't get reach to customer service or I would be lost in a Labyrinth of various agents who would simply transfer me over and over.
- jorts 9y agoYea, if the company has a terrible support process outside of tweeting, it becomes the nuclear option to get someone to actually deal with you, which is just terrible for everyone.
- joosters 9y agoGreat. Another way for companies to send me an automated response that doesn't answer my question.
- _jal 9y agoAt a guess, that's what airline decision-makers are probably thinking, too. It doesn't have to be that way, but probably will. This is an entirely different category, but my local hardware store started publishing a number to text with any questions about home repair and whatnot, and they're actually great, responding quickly with good answers and sometimes a bit of humor. Really awesome customer service.
- Old_Thrashbarg 9y agoI'm disappointed to see more companies trending towards text messages. Text message should be used only for time-sensitive communication, but some companies (like my network carrier) text me to let me know things like my bill was auto-paid. I'll be in the middle of coding and my phone goes off, so I stop everything I'm doing to see that my monthly was autopaid. With email, I check it every 2 hours to minimize distractions and I can also use filters to ignore certain routine emails, but companies text messaging me feels like an intrusion into my privacy.
- criddell 9y agoYou can probably set your notification preferences somewhere on your carrier's website. Unless you do that, they probably have no idea if you even have an email address. > Text message should be used only for time-sensitive communication That's how I use it as well, but I'm not sure we're in the majority. To the phone company, a text message is the less time sensitive way to communicate. Time sensitive communications are handled with an actual phone call.
- wyager 9y agoYou can mute messages from certain contacts on both android and iOS. You'll get a notification, but it won't make a sound or wake your phone.
- a3_nm 9y agoYes, but this is very poor compared to how precise you can get with email filters. I use git to version 1000-line Sieve filter to route incoming mail, I couldn't do the same with texts (thankfully they are still much more rare than email). So, like the parent of your comment, I find that email is a much better medium for non-time-sensitive communication than SMS.
- Sleeep 9y ago1) I'm pretty baffled by "text message should be used only for time-sensitive communication." There's absolutely no "correct" way to use text messaging, I don't use them for time sensitive communication, I treat text messages the opposite way, I'll get to my text messages when I get to them. If you want my attention now, call. I am not alone in this considering half the time I send a text in the morning I don't get a response until the afternoon. I actually anticipate this since I [naïvely?] assume people are actually working while at work. For me, I'll check my notifications at work when I get up to go to the bathroom or get coffee. 2) [Almost?] all companies let you opt out of text message notifications and/or customize it, I've never seen a company that didn't. For example, for Verizon I just go into "Manage your communications and alerts" online and set it to "email" rather than "text." Phone companies set text by default only because they already have your phone number. 3) Assuming you don't have a dumb phone, this is a solved problem, just put your phone on "do not disturb" while you are working. You can set it to where priority numbers (like your spouse) still give you notifications for emergencies. You can even set "do not disturb" to automatically coincide with your calendar events and/or time of day.
- wyc 9y agoI had a great experience with SMS as customer service. I bought some pens from OfficeDepot and they didn't ship. Texted their support SMS number with my problem and upon request of my order number, I just took a picture of the order email receipt on my computer monitor. I half-expected MMS not to work with their service, but it was fine. They found the problem in a few minutes and I got a shipping confirmation. This was a huge time saver from my perspective. No reading of order numbers, no waiting on hold, no confirmation of order details. The real value in my situation was the delivery of my full context to the appropriate service that could help me. I think WeChat is riding this exact wave.
- freyfogle 9y agoBrands looking to manage the challenge of communicating one-on-one with their customers via messaging should have a look at: https://hubtype.com https://hubtype.com They recently completed YC Start-up School. Full disclosure, I am a very minor investor in the business.
- GFischer 9y agoSounds interesting, we might look into this (I'm building a messaging platform for my employer, and I have my own videochat attempt - this complements both). I see it's only Facebook and Telegram ATM, we're using another platform that does Twitter. And the holy grail would be Whatsapp (the day Whatsapp opens up the API they're going to rack up money).
- Animats 9y agoThis may be an ad for some SMS platform.
- keebEz 9y agoI had a stewardess dump a tray full of water on me and my laptop about an hour into a 5 hour flight. She couldn't give me more than a $50 credit, and I had to go to the customer service rep desk after the flight. First thing he said after I explained to him the situation was "Do you have twitter?". Confused, he explained to me that it was the first thing he had to tick off on the customer resolution checklist. I get it, but a bit of insult to injury.
- composer 9y agoDHH posted about his bad airline experience[1] in 2013. An app for addressing both your experience and his experience is feasible for the HN crowd. Please steal this business plan[2]. tl;dr Today, getting issues resolved places the burden of effort is the wronged. This can be shifted. "Reversing" things does wonders. [1] http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/2013/american-airlines-earned-an-enemy.html http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/2013/american-airlines-ea... [2] https://gist.github.com/iL3D/59df64947d42828d848ebfc1651a3122 https://gist.github.com/iL3D/59df64947d42828d848ebfc1651a312...
- dawnerd 9y agoI've almost had hot coffee spilled on my laptop. I've learned to keep an eye out for anyone walking by with anything spillable and hide my laptop. I get that sometimes they can't avoid it with turbulence/people bumping into them/whatever.
- frrad 9y agoHere I thought this was going to be about someone having implemented my idea. Basically, a fund you can donate to that then looks for lawsuits against the airlines to underwrite Peter Thiel/Gawker/Hulk Hogan style.
- EADGBE 9y agoThis is Marketing brilliance. Get your irate customers to talk to you through text and you're much less likely to have to resolve something displayed for public on the internet via a review. Not saying both won't happen, but you give yourself the option to fix the issue before it's really "a problem".
- twothamendment 9y agoI've tried to tell "my airline" I hate it - by not flying, but they still update planes with smaller and smaller seats and less leg room. Maybe I need to tweet to several airlines every time I drive somewhere instead of fly. I'd prefer to arrive in hours, but the last time I flew reminded me of why it had been years since I was on a plane.
- waqf 9y ago"@airline1 @airline2 @airline3 Which of you can sell me a seat from XXX to YYY that's large enough for an adult male?"
- composer 9y agoThat's funny. But I like the idea of signaling the market some way. In a sufficiently competitive market even your opt-out signaling would would work. In the deaf market of the airlines however, scaled coordination enough to tip power back passengers, may be the only unfortunate answer. You would need to coordinate your "drive instead of flying" with enough people at the same time in the same geography.