
A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It - victorvation
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-10/furious-about-delays-and-lost-luggage-text-your-airline
======
jorts
Tweets 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.

~~~
nathancahill
No way, tweets are great. It's the only way I've been able to connect to
airlines immediately (once after waiting on hold for 4+ hours). Most quickly
jump to private DMs. No more phonetic spelling my confirmation number over a
bad phone connection. Problems get taken care of really quickly, but even it
they aren't, I'm able to do other stuff while I wait, unlike waiting on hold,
which really saps attention (constantly hearing ads that start with "Hello,
I'm your customer service representative. Ad text here.").

~~~
hammock
>tweets are great. It's the only way I've been able to connect to airlines
immediately (once after waiting on hold for 4+ hours)

That is true, but has less to do with the platform and more to do with how few
people are on it, compared to how many dedicated social media person(s) there
are responding.

In other words, so few people know how to send a tweet (vs send an email or
make a phone call) that you are competing for more attention with less other
customers. If your grandma suddenly became more comfortable sending a tweet
than making a phone call, that would change.

~~~
twhb
That doesn't add up. I'm sure these companies scale customer service staff to
demand. Seems more plausible that Twitter's public nature means complaints
there are measurably more harmful, so the companies intentionally devote more
resources per complaint.

~~~
kalleboo
> I'm sure these companies scale customer service staff to demand

If they did, 45 minute hold times wouldn't be a thing.

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probably_wrong
The 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
Which 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.

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ryanmarsh
I 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

~~~
ubernostrum
If 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.

~~~
ryanmarsh
_sigh_ I know what airline status is thanks. I also know where I normally sit
in the list of upgrades given the route and number of empty seats.

When I respond negatively to surveys I get upgraded almost immediately, others
have noticed this trend as well.

~~~
ubernostrum
I never noticed it in years of getting surveys, as an AA EXP and Delta PM.
Always depended on the same old known factors: elite load on the route, time
of booking/time of request (depending on airline), etc.

Only thing I ever could tie to surveys/feedback was AA comping me 5k RDM after
one particularly horrid flight.

~~~
ryanmarsh
United. Also, AA hates their customers so no surprise. You should try it with
Delta a little birdie told me they take those numbers very seriously.

~~~
ubernostrum
I got merged into AA from the old US Airways program (was US Chairman's
Preferred, became AA EXP). Ditched them after about a year and a half of
suffering, and did a three-month match to Delta Platinum.

Most of the flying was due to working remote for a company in the bay area;
now I work for a different company and actually live out here, and don't have
to play the frequent-flyer game anymore. For less than what I used to spend on
economy tickets with upgrade hopes, I just buy business/first class on the
occasions when I want it.

Anecdotally I have noticed slightly better treatment from that, and I know the
gate agents and flight crew have status listed on the manifest and so can
guess who's up front because they bought the ticket and who's up there because
of an upgrade. Which I guess says something about the priorities of the
airline and the usual behavior of the status-holder.

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Spivak
I 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
I'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.

~~~
mikeash
Does 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.

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keebEz
I 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
DHH 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-
ea...](http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/2013/american-airlines-earned-an-
enemy.html) [2]
[https://gist.github.com/iL3D/59df64947d42828d848ebfc1651a312...](https://gist.github.com/iL3D/59df64947d42828d848ebfc1651a3122)

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Old_Thrashbarg
I'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.

~~~
wyager
You 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
Yes, 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.

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twothamendment
I'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.

~~~
composer
That'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.

------
joosters
Great. Another way for companies to send me an automated response that doesn't
answer my question.

~~~
_jal
At 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.

------
EADGBE
This 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".

------
wyc
I 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.

------
newscracker
Slightly 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).

~~~
samstave
Years 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...

~~~
criddell
That's when you change the alias to the DMV lawyer's name.

~~~
samstave
Oh dear lord that would have been genius!!!

------
freyfogle
Brands 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
Sounds 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).

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frrad
Here 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.

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quicon
How is this different from what they are already doing on Twitter?

~~~
subway
People who don't use Twitter can now join in?

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Animats
This may be an ad for some SMS platform.

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stasel
They are talking here about SMS while some airlines already use Facebook
messanger and Whatsapp which is way more convenient than SMS messages

