Today, social media sites make it more and more easy to voice your opinions, both good and bad. Unhappy with your meal? Bash the restaurant on Yelp. Unhappy with the flight attendant? Tweet about it. Unhappy with the suite upgrade you didn’t get? You get the idea. For every complaint, there’s a new and effective outlet to let the world know – and don’t think the brands aren’t listening! Any customer service oriented business that wants to be successful in today’s day and age must pay attention to social media.
In my opinion, and this is my platform for sharing my opinion, too many people have gone too far. It’s one thing to complain, it’s another thing to complain and except something more than an apology all the time. Things happen, sometimes they’re out of the control of the employees working for that company, get over it and move on.
Yesterday I was following a twitter conversation between a frequent flyer whom I follow and an airline. The flyer was complaining that his first class meal was cold. The airline apologized for the inconvenience and wished the flyer a good flight. The flyer continued on complaining, indignant that the airline had stopped engaging as his complaints about the food continued. The flyer then demanded, via twitter, compensation – for cold food served in first class.
As I followed the conversation, or perhaps I should say rant, I couldn’t help but think about how trivial the issue was. According to Feeding America, 16 million or approximately 22 percent of children in the U.S. live below the poverty line. Of those 16 million children, 80% get one meal a day in the form of a free school lunch according the the US Department of Agriculture.
Dear flyer, you got a cold meal in first class while 1 out of 5 children in the United States went to bed hungry. You want compensation for getting a cold meal. You have nerve.
It doesn’t stop there. I read, frequently, about travelers who ask for something in return for their inconvenience. Sometimes it’s appropriate, sometimes you get stuck in a situation where a company should provide some type of remediation for a problem you experienced. But is there a line that you draw? I often wonder, when I read certain blog posts for example, did that person stop and ask themselves, “do I really need to be compensated for that?”
Some travelers admit to making complaints about almost anything just to get extra points or miles. Complaining can be lucrative, apparently. One blogger recently told me that they got enough points from complaints in 2013 to fly business class to Europe. I wonder how many of those complaints really called for compensation. But don’t get too comfortable, some airlines are catching on. I recently met someone who worked for a very large domestic airline. His job was to analyze data about complaints and flag frequent complainers. If I had guess, I’d say many more service-oriented business are taking similar actions.
A Facebook post by a fed-up COO went viral last week when one TV station decided to share that post. A customer, a very unhappy customer, decided to share their feelings on the company’s Facebook page. The response from Liberty Bottleworks COO, Ryan Lewis, was amazing. Lewis didn’t take kindly to the way the unhappy customer had treated his employees and didn’t appreciate the inaccuracies inlaced in the customer’s public complaint. He let the customer, actually, the former customer, know exactly how he felt. His response, and the support the company has received in the time since, is almost unbelievable.
I suspect the day will come soon when a blogger or member of a discussion community, will be called out publicly for either repeated complaints, false or trumped up complaints or simply inaccurate complaints. There is a fine line that we all walk and everyone, as an individual, has to make a decision about what they consider right and wrong.
My personal belief is that if your biggest problem in the world is that your suite upgrade didn’t clear, or your first class upgrade didn’t clear, or your meal was served cold, or your armrest was broken then you’re pretty damn lucky and should think about those who are not. I’ve worked for, and with, nonprofit organizations for 17 years. I’ve worked with and met some many people who dream about the things we take for granted. It’s very easy to complain about anything and everything. But imagine what the world might be like if a few less people complained and few more people complemented.
I started a nonprofit organization myself this year to help bring awareness to the fact that many of us, especially many who are frequent travelers, have it pretty good compared to the rest of the world. So the next time you want to complain about that #FirstWorldProblem consider doing something positive. Share some information about a nonprofit organization, raise awareness about global issues like hunger, forced slavery, poverty or climate change.
There are times when almost everyone on social media or with a blog will complain about something – that’s human nature. But not everyone asks for something in return. Sometimes we should just be satisfied with “I’m sorry” and move on, because you can and not everyone is that lucky.
Happy Holidays.
It could be that he used miles and had a confirmed seat in three class first and bumped off. So he should deserve compensation if that’s the case. But that fussing on twitter was just childish and dumb.
I couldn’t agree more. It really irks me complain because they think they can get something out of it rather than when they genuinely have something worth complaining about.
@Jeff, he was complaining about his food, not that he was bumped or anything. Just cold food. You’re right, it’s childish.
@Jason, very good point…what if something really goes wrong and you really deserve compensation…they may turn you down if you get a reputation.
Um yea, I do complain too much. But I usually complain about “reasonable” issues. The least important things I’ve ever complained about were poor service at an empty restaurant, noisy construction at 10am at a hotel (when I had planned on sleeping until noon) and being told I’d get xxxx points for a stay when in fact I’d get 20% less. Other than those three occasions which I remember, everything else is fairly major; you know, flight delays/cancellations (without notification), etc…
In reality though, no complaint is really that important in the (luxury) travel world. So I missed a wake-up call at my $1,500/night room which I paid $20 for. Big deal. Overall, a great post – it’s important to keep things in perspective!!
Think you are totally off the reservation!
Problem is people don’t complain enough. Substandard service for PAID services deserves more than an apology – it deserves compensation. It’s the LACK of complaints which perpetuates substandard service. Just put the shoe on the other foot – if you wanted to bring more luggage and didn’t have enough to pay for it, you think an apology for forgetting to bring money would mollify the airline? Of course not – you either pay or leave it behind.
As for your comparison about complaining about cold food in first (which is a disgrace) vs children going hungry, it’s an absurd analogy.
Of course, what is irksome and a pet peeve, is people who want something for nothing. But suggesting that a paid first class passenger doesn’t deserve compensation for cold food, that’s just ridiculous.
@Paul there was no suggestion that it was a paid first class ticket. And I hope you mean complaining is a disgrace and not that cold food is a disgrace. After all, he could have asked for it to be warmed up!