Do you care for a real life example of Customer service case study and the power that citizen-consumers have nowadays? Please Google United Breaks Guitars.
The story is a fantastic 360o marketing lesson that shows the professional communications have limited power in changing bad company practices; it proves the power of social media; it underlines the power that citizen-consumers have; finally how a strong attack can be made through a smart, creative way (singing)! On March 31, 2008 the music band Sons of Maxwell began their week-long-tour of Nebraska by flying United Airlines from Halifax to Omaha, by way of Chicago. On that first leg of the flight they were seated at the rear of the aircraft and upon landing and waiting to deplane in order to make their connection a woman sitting behind them, not aware that they were musicians cried out: "My god they're throwing guitars out there." Band player Mike looked out the window in time to see his guitar being heaved without regard by the United baggage handlers. His hand-made $3,500 710 Taylor had been thrown away carelessly and it was broken. The story continues by complained sing writer' song (in three different line cues) accusing the company, a website tweeted thousands of times for company's negligence, and a publicity burst (NBC, ABC channel , etc.) that could not be ‘saved' by the company's customer care policies...
The song-1 says it all:
The song-2 insists:
The song-3 becomes more hilarious for the company's stance:
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