$180 Million Cusomter Service Foul-Up

How Social Media Amplifies Customer Complaints and Business Risks

It used to be that an angry customer would tell an average of 8-16 people about the poor service at that organization. What would the fallout be if an unhappy customer told 3 million? It happened for real several years ago when Dave Carroll got fed up because United Airlines broke his guitar in baggage and refused to replace it. He wrote a song, ‘United Breaks Guitars‘ and posted it on YouTube. Within 10 days the video had gone viral with over 3 million views. United’s share value dropped by $180 million. That’s an expensive guitar!

Savvy managers recognize that they are expected to manage risk. It does indeed cost money to properly train employees on recovering customer goodwill after a mistake. That investment, however, is a proverbial drop-in-the-bucket compared to the risk of not training. Today’s universe of social media means one disgruntled customer can do serious financial damage. ?

What’s your plan this year to give your team a customer service tune-up? If you’d like some options, let’s have a brief zoom chat. Then if it looks like a possible fit, I’ll put something in writing for you to consider for 2025.