Its been a while since i last wrote however i just couldnt resist writing about a PR event that i am sure Tiger Airways is regretting. I was kicking back and watching TV the other night when the show Airways came on. Now i dont usually view these types of shows however i was intersted in seeing how the Australian version of the UK show faired. Suffice to say, the Tiger Airways, about which the show is about, came off looking amateurish at best.
A great posting came across my desk ther other day that listed the top 10 CEO’s around the world that never went to college (uni for those in the UK and Australia). All the CEO’s are well known. Of course there is Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the list. However, some of the other names were a little surprising.
The story of Canadian Dave Carroll and United airlines is quite amazing. Dave is a country singer and he and his band were on a trip with United from Halifax to Nebraska that had a layover in Chicago. During this layover the baggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare managed to destroy his guitar.
Now you would have thought that United would pay for his guitar to be replaced. They didn’t come to the party claiming the Dave Carroll didn’t make a claim with 24 hours. Dave was given the complete run around with United refusing to take any responsibility for the damage.
So what did Dave do, he wrote a song about his experience and that song hit You Tube on Monday last week and has already had over 2.3 million views. Check it out … oh and it is called … United Breaks Guitars.
So what do we learn from this?
Well firstly, United must have some very questionable baggage handling techniques. If you are to going to fly United, I would try to take carry-on luggage or better still, fly another airline.
Secondly, United’s customer service approach seems to be designed to say “no” – no matter how legitimate your complaint is.
Thirdly, the $3k to replace the guitar is cheap compared to the brand damage that this whole episode is causing United. And there is nothing they can do about it now. The cat is out of the bag and will run its own course. In today’s social media world, you never know how poor customer service is going to come back and bite you.
Finally, Dave Carroll and his band have made this an opportunity to further their careers. 2.3 million people is a great audience. Hopefully they will release an album soon to take advantage of their new found fame.
Oh … and if you thought United had got off relatively light? Dave and his band have 2 more songs in the works.
In today’s tough economic market more and more people are losing their jobs and struggling to find new ones. A by-product of this new world is that more and more people are becoming entrepreneurs and starting a wide range of new businesses. Now if you don’t have a job and want to be an entrepreneur you can work from home, rent an office or join the new trend of using coffee shops and cafes as your office – the coffice!
I recently wrote an article on one of the other blogs that I run in which I gave my view on a market and how the players are performing in that market. Now the article was meant as a wakeup call for one of those players who I thought had become a little lazy however they took it as a slight against them.
This got me thinking about how you should give feedback and what could happen if you happen to take it as it is meant.
Everywhere you turn people are talking about twitter and the tweets that are flying around the internet. It is clear that people are signing up to twitter in their thousands and some people believe it can be used as a business tool – just check out the new book by Joel Comm and Ken Burge called Twitter Power – How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time.
However the question still remains is twitter a nice social media fad or can it be used as a serious business tool?
The last three months have seen the Classified Ad Ventures business go from strength to strength. We now have a clear mission for mission for the business, a strong team in place and most importantly operations underway. Here is an update on the business.
A topic that is often talked about in management magazines and books is communication. It seems that an enormous amount is written on the topic yet management time and time again get it wrong. I was chatting with a friend today about his work place and he commented that people are anxious and communications are not flowing.
This got me thinking – what are the do’s and dont’s of great communication from management to the employees. Read more…
Have you ever had the situation where someone who reports to you resigns and you try to talk them out of it? I certainly have and i have also tried to talk them out of it … often successfully. However, is this the right strategy or should you just accept the resignation and move on? Read more…
Property Portal Watch is part of Classified Ad Ventures. Classified Ad Ventures helps the management teams of classified sites and their advertisers gain the most from using the internet. There are three parts to the business:
Inspire - Our consulting team works with management of classifieds portals to improve performance.
Innovate - Our incubation team develops new products and services for portals and their advertisers.
Invest - Our investment team takes equity stakes in online classifieds businesses around the world.
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