Twitter is still just like the phone and email; just because you have them doesn’t automatically mean your service level gets better. You still have to have an authentically passionate workforce that believes in themselves, in their work, and in the organization they work for.

And while not everyone is on Twitter to get those messages…think of how many folks might adopt Twitter if UA did send them a tweet to alert them to a problem.

Safe journeys!

I almost couldn’t believe your post when I saw it this morning. Good timing!

I’m stuck in the Manchester airport and Tweeted just a few minutes ago about how differently I might be feeling if United Airlines had used something like Twitter to tell us, long before we got here, that our plane’s been broken *all night long* and they don’t have a spare.

I think of companies like Zappos that do use Twitter and how highly I think of them. But of course, I thought highly of Zappos’ customer service orientation *before* they were on Twitter…Twitter’s just another way they act on the values they hold.

Airlines don’t seem to hold that value in a real sense anymore.

Chicken and egg thing, then. Great customer service orientation begets a natural, genuine use of social media like Twitter. Companies without that going in are more likely to interact in a forced, artificial — as you put it, over-constructed — way.

Thanks for the chance to think out loud about this while I’m sitting here pondering whether to get up and go home or hold out hope I’ll actually get to my desination today!