AA Debacle: Comment answered
In the original AA Debacle blog entry, a site visitor responded with some interesting thoughts. Rather than respond inline on that thread, I’d like to address them in a new thread all together. I’m not snipping anything, but will reply inline with his comment. Here it goes…
I’m not sure what kind of proof you’d like to see. I’m not sure I could replicate a series of phone calls (I’m not in the habit of recording every call I make, especially those where I don’t assume beforehand that there will be problems. My hope here was that American would simply take care of their loyal customer.
Secondly, I’m not talking about any form of legal action. I have neither threatened this, discussed this, or honestly, even thought about this.
Third, you mention that there is a "non-existent problem". Perhaps to you, but to me, this was a real and tangible problem. Set aside the emotional disappointment in realizing that long-term loyalty and evangelism might have been replaced, look specifically at the fact that I’m out $50 that I shouldn’t be.
Lastly, I’d like to remind you what I posted about wanting from AA in the original entry on the subject. These were shown in order of desire:
- A phone call of apology
- A written letter of apology
- A comment on this blog that apologizes
- A surprise that blows me away
- Travel vouchers (of an amount that would actually cover a real ticket for me)
- Mileage credit
You’ll see that my desire for tangible goods ranks at the bottom of the list.
My purpose on this blog has always been to discuss community and the relationship between companies and consumers. This case study (even if you think I’m lying about it – which I’m not) is a great way to discuss and learn how to avoid consumers feeling exactly like I do. I’m not trying to harm the reputation of AA at all. If anything, I’m offering them an opportunity to make this right, win back my loyalty, and show the readers here what great company they are. If they choose not to do so, they are hurting themselves.
As far as the wife beater analogy, I’d like to hope that you’re not actually comparing me to a wife beater. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one.
First of all, I’m not a business associate of AA. I’m a consumer, and a valuable one at that. In my day job, I sit on the other side of the fence, listening to concerns and problems from consumers and work to not only solve those issues, but ensure that they don’t happen again. I do it by forming relationships with the consumer base I work with. The consumer I work with complain publicly all the time, and the fact that I address their concerns time after time with postive, real, quality answers is what changes their opinion of me and the company I work with. AA could be doing the same – they just have to choose to do so.
I couldn’t possibly see how Southwest and DFW have anything to do with this conversation, so I’m going to skip past that.
As far as "being professional", why? This isn’t a relationship between two business, this is a relationship between a consumer and a company. Those are two very different things. I’m not sure why you’re so convince I’m lying – I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences with at least one company before. I gave them a third chance in conjunction with my original post here, which (as you can see from the previous blog entry), was a complete let down.
But the fact is, I gave AA two chances to make this right before moving here. And by moving here, I’m giving them even more chances to make it right. They aren’t, and don’t any signs that private channels will help at all. As you can see, I’ve already had offers of help from two AA employees – something I don’t have access to in "private channels" that aren’t currently working.
The key here for me, however, is that evangelism isn’t only promoting a company when they do good things for you. Evangalism includes the negative things companies do too. You seem to think that I owe AA something. The answer to that is simple – I don’t owe them anything. The only group I owe anything to is the people I’ve evangalized AA to in the past – my friends, family, co-workers, and sometimes strangers. If they fly AA based on my recommendation and have the same issues I do, my stock with them goes down. Those people are far more important to me than a company who is clearly showing a lack of interest in making me happy.
