Last night an overweight passenger (director, writer and sometimes actor, Kevin Smith) was subjected to a 25-year old "policy to assist passengers who need two seats on board an aircraft". Supposedly the policy is in place for the comfort and safety of all passengers aboard a plane.
Smith had purchased two tickets for himself for a later flight, but requested a single seat on an earlier flight. It isn't clear among all of the tweets, retellings, and articles storming online if he was ejected because there was not a second seat available to him as a standby passenger, or if some other reason lead to his being asked to leave the aircraft. In any event, Mr. Smith took to his Twitter Account to launch a "twar" on Southwest.
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A Little Background (if you've been up in the air?)
He Said
What Kevin Smith says...a lot but also maybe, "Be Sure to Check out "Cop Out" in theatres 2/26!"? Almost smells like being punked, doesn't it?
Sacred Cow Marketing VPs Everywhere Say "I Told You So"
This isn't a blog about whether this is right or not...rather what will the implications be for Southwest, and how will a company that has made such huge tracks in the social media world cope with the viral aspect of this storm, and the PR nightmare they face.
What far-reaching impact will this story have on social media projects and advocates across cubeland?
I have often blogged about how great Southwest is at the online marketing game...but can they figure out how to deal with twitter savvy Kevin Smith? With 1,662,280 followers and counting - I was 1,662,280 BTW - "Silent Bob" is not so silent. Also impressive, Southwest (at 1,029,447 followers and counting - I was 1,029,441), the airline known for their casual demeanor, songs, snacks and shorts, has an audible online voice too. So far, I commend them on at least one thing, transparency. There has obviously been no censorship on any of the available forums to post comments, as the negative and positive comments scroll right alongside one another, fighting for the armrest.
Marketers everywhere will be watching the storm, and there is much more than Kevin Smith's dignity at stake here. This will be talked about endlessly for the next year, in budget meetings, conferences, panels and webinars. How Southwest chooses to handle the situation could very well reframe the use the social media for business.
A few tips for Southwest...
My hope throughout this is that at the end of the day, social media is the cure for the cough it caused. And that Southwest doesn't back off from their online persona. Instead uses it to help smooth over this situation - as they would with free drinks on a delayed flight to Vegas.
How about a poll? A little crowd sourcing would certainly be helpful right about now. Why not ask customers to vote on a possible solution? Put 2-3 ideas out there that are feasible to offer Mr. Smith (and that would satisfy customers like him), and let the public decide. Then make the offer, let us know you did, and move on.
Also, keep in mind that in social media world - comments are often shared just to get a laugh, reflect a person's crappy day, or are just mean-spirited for the sake of being mean-spirited. Thoughtful remarks hold more integrity, and most intelligent people can sniff out the legitimate gripes from the rest.
I may also work on a set of tips for Mr. Smith - as tweeting activity like his doesn't always paint the source in a very positive light. Followers of all types still use sanity gauges when reading tweets - and although his were honest, direct and brave - they may have generated more negativity than support, something which remains to be seen.
For any airline: A little advice. Take conversations like this to the counter. Some things, no matter how awesome social media is...are better said face to face and with discretion. Like telling someone they're too fat to fly.
I'll stay on top of the storm and get back to you soon - please chime in with your ideas for how Southwest can leverage social media to address this debacle.
Keep Clicking!
Michelle
Funny aside - New York magazine wrote an article on how Kevin Smith + Internet = new marketing paradigm ... in 2006!
ReplyDeletehttp://nymag.com/movies/profiles/17663/
As we learned from WarGames ... "The only winning move is not to play."
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There are plenty of reasons that Southwest should have responded with a simple "We do not comment publicly on private customer matters," but now that it's out there, they need to A) acknowledge the mistake (the arbitrary enforcement of the "too fat to fly" policy) and then B) fix the problems (1 - policy is too vague and 2 - apply it to everyone)
on Kevin Smith's radio show/podcast/whatever he mentioned that a Southwest employee referred to him as "revenue" as he was boarding the flight. "Revenue" apparently means a paying customer that is not a frequent flier/upgrade/comp. it's easy economics that double revenue = increased profits... but is really a business decision that needs to be made by some random guy on the jetway?