Dave Carroll Presents Gripevine
The ongoing battle of the consumer public versus the retailer or other service provider has reached an impasse. The consumer believes they are always right and the place of business is too plagued by a uniform way of conducting their policies and procedures, so much that they are often blinded by those politics to even provide anything anywhere near being considered good customer service.
This is typical of larger corporations whose mentality is riddled with arrogance. The belief has been for the longest time is that there will always be another customer.
Then came a wonderful world; social media.
In the world of social media, everyone has a voice. When a service experience has been so bad and has remained unresolved, people can now use that voice to express their bitter experiences. In that period of expression, the person using their voice to increase awareness of a company and how they do business will often find supporters for their cause.
This is a great thing, however, should we consumers have to go through this every single time we want a situation resolved??
The answer is no.
Meet a guy you might already know named Dave Carroll. Not only is he known for being a cool guy who delivers cool music, he’s also been the recipient of a bad customer service who’s story spread across the globe.
In 2008, Dave was a passenger on a United Airlines flight. United’s baggage handlers destroyed his guitar and refused to reimburse him for the damage. Dave responded by writing a now famous song called United Breaks Guitars. The famous song decries United’s deplorable customer service and their brand in an intelligent and humorous way worth of the writing typically found on The Simpsons. The song went viral and earned support for Dave and his cause.
The irony is that United actually lost $180 million which at the time was about 10% of their market cap. With that kind of loss they could’ve bought more 51,000 guitars for Dave.
That is also something to be said, the stubbornness of most corporations is completely unwarranted. The best example is when a bank won’t give a mortgage holder the loan modification being requested, but then turns around and sells the house at a loss. It just doesn’t make sense.
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