How Not to do Social Media

If you can’t do it right, just stay away.

UPDATE: I’ve now had a response from Heathrow. See the bottom of this post for details.

On Wednesday I got up at an unholy hour to catch the first flight back to London, keen to capitalise on a full working day. After a few weather related wobbles I landed at Heathrow in good time.

I needn’t have bothered.

My early start was gradually eroded as I waited, and waited and waited for my baggage to arrive, my mood slowly worsened by the stench from the nearby toilets and the awareness that, having waited for close to two hours for my bag in the same spot in late December, I could be in for a very long wait.

I turned to Twitter to vent my frustration:

And then something wonderful happened. They actually tweeted me back:

Imagine my surprise. Well done Heathrow! They care! They listen to customers! They actually realise that it is 2010.

Or do they?

Naively I followed the link and laid out my issues as politely as possible, in the belief that this would help management understand customer issues and prioritise improvements. I was eagerly looking forward to the ‘we’ll be in touch’ part, fully expecting that they would allay all of my fears about the nation’s flagship airport being in such incapable hands.

Dear Heathrow,

I’m writing with feedback for you following your reply to my tweet of this morning (@marklad2020).

On 23rd December after flying from Zürich to Heathrow I waited for close to 2 hours for my bag to be delivered to the baggage belt.

This morning, repeating the same journey my bag was delivered 1.5 hours after disembarking from the aircraft. No explanation was given. 

At the same time, whilst standing at belt number 2 there was a noticeable smell of excrement coming from the nearby toilets.

I am obviously not the only person to comment on the shoddy state of the terminal and the poor message and welcome that it provides to visitors to Britain.

I’d be grateful for your feedback on this matter.

Regards,
Mark Seall.

 

And…

After a looong wait – just over 24 hours – nothing.

I sent a gentle reminder:

48 hours after the event, still silence.

Had Heathrow or whichever lame social media consulting company they’ve hired just ignored my comment then I would by now have calmed down and forgotten about it. However, by raising my expectations and letting me waste time giving feedback they’ve re-opened the wound, and then allowed it to fester.

I now not only think their service sucks, I think their management and PR are incompetent (ok, we all probably knew that anyway).

Unreasonable expectations?

Ask yourself this: In 2008, BAA spent £17 million on marketing and communications. (later figures are not available). How much of that effort makes a real difference to their customer perception and brand?

Now, how much goodwill and how many potential customers are they losing by making such a hash of social media and failing in the eyes of customers who today have the power to spread their message far and wide across the Internet?

Never before have companies had the power to influence customer perception so directly. It is a shame that so many are wasting the opportunity.

UPDATE

A few hours after this post went live, and following several Tweets from other users on Twitter I received a very professional and reasonable response:

Dear Mr Seall,
Thank you for your tweets and email regarding your recent journeys through Heathrow. I apologise for the delay in responding to you.

I know it certainly is frustrating to have to wait so long for your luggage following a flight and I am sorry this has happened to you following flights to Heathrow on more than one occasion.

The delivery of baggage to passengers after a flight is the responsibility of each airline. While airlines transfer your bags from the aircraft and deliver them onto the baggage reclaim belts for collection, we at Heathrow are responsible for ensuring the baggage belts are maintained and remain in operation.

As you will know, on both of the days you travelled, bad weather in the UK and elsewhere caused disruption and some airlines experienced delays and cancellations. I have forwarded the details of your experience to our colleagues at Swiss Air Lines and I trust they also will be in touch soon.

Regardless of the above, I do understand that these journeys were made far worse by the lack of information provided to you and other passengers waiting such a long time in the reclaim hall.

We know we have more to do to improve the passenger experience at Heathrow. Our communications team are currently working on a project to improve the communication between airlines and passengers at baggage reclaim halls when there are delays. We are working with our operational teams to bring a range of initiatives online shortly.

I also note your comments regarding the smell in the baggage reclaim hall and I have today passed this on to our facilities manager at Terminal 1. I agree this certainly is not a great welcome for visitors and I know our facilities manager will appreciate knowing of your experience.

Once again I am sorry this happened. I trust our airline colleagues will be in touch and I certainly hope we can regain your confidence on future visits to our airport.
Yours sincerely,

[name removed]
Passenger Communications
BAA Heathrow

Fair enough. I don’t think the weather is an excuse – I’ve frequently flown from airports far worse affected by weather.

But fair enough.

The root of the problem is probably best summed up in the sentence “Our communications team are currently working on a project to improve the communication between airlines and passengers at baggage reclaim halls when there are delays.” – Some companies just communicate effectively as a part of their DNA. If you need a ‘project’ to look at how you communicate basic information then perhaps something is wrong?

After this post, we promise not to mention Heathrow Airport on this blog ever again. – expect a new and sunny post sometime soon about our very imminent launch!