Over on RaganPR‘s site, Michael Sebastian wrote up the account of what happened when United Airlines – again – missed the boat completely with how to use Twitter. An angry customer with multiple tweets was ignored, and then responded to playfully when she was being sarcastic.
Yes, I know, tone can be tricky when you don’t have regular human reactions to respond to, but c’mon!
Here’s what kills me – last July I blogged about a similar incidient where United ignored Twitter and paid the price.
As if United Breaks Guitars wasn’t enough!?
United, as well as other companies, needs to get with the program here. Social media measurement may be automated, but humans interacting via social media cannot be automated. BE HUMAN. That’s all we ask. If someone walked up to the service counter to complain, it would be hard to say “I can’t hear you.” But on Twitter you basically stick your fingers in your ears and look around as if you can’t hear these complaints?
If you don’t respond, they still don’t go away.
Hire the right people. Give them the right tools. Have a soul. That’s all we ask, really.
