DAY NICE: the web team comes AAround

Great surprise this morning: a tweet from @AmericanAir.

Just a flashback from previous episodes: I've booked some tickets for a family holiday around Xmas but they were not ticketed, despite me calling back to check. Since, it appears clearly to me that the reservations department failed to resubmit the transaction as confirmed by BarclayCard and to contact me about it. Obviously, by then the fares had doubled, which meant explaining the kids we were no longer going to see the Grand Canyon.

I've made a bit of a stink about it, on Twittter, Facebook and directly before that with the Customer Relations department.

Following all that, the web team who operates Twitter and Facebook contacted reservations and confirmed that they had never emailed me after all. They then tweeted me yesterday and proposed to reinstate the booking.

IT WORKED!

In about 30 mn after I cam back to them via DM, they had ticketed our booking! WOW.

So what now? We're relived after a few really stressful days. But then, we're looking forward to our holidays. Thank you to the American Airlines web team.

Based on this personal story, here are my thoughts on the customer experience aspects:

• First, I have to praise @barclaycard who was incredibly responsive. They called me up to do the fraud check the next day, which is annoying but I suppose fine. Then I got them on the phone and that was not very conclusive but then they came back quickly by email. When I tweeted though, they were right away on the case.
•  Secondly, after some denying and passing on the parcel, the @AmericanAir crew really helped. I'm not sure what went on between them and the reservations department, but I guess they put some pressure. So, thank you web team. I've checked the volumme of comments on Facebook and Twitter, and it's quite impressive. Clearly they're busy!
• The AA reservation department though is a bit of a mess. There's probably quite a lot of manual processes. They're hard to reach and agents don't seem to have authority to do much, not even escalate a complaint.
• For customers then, social media (SocMed) is a great new avenue to engage with brands, directly and using channel of choices -it's much easier to tweet or Facebook than waiting 20 mn for an agent.
• For brands, it can be a way to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty with quicker issue resolution. And also an easier way to trip in public if responses fall short of the mark.

Previous post in this series:

• DAY FIVE with American Airlines: w're merging with US Air, talk to the hand!

American Airlines -DAY FOUR, now own up!

American Airlines, give me my booking back!

DAY FIVE with American Airlines: w're merging with US Air, talk to the hand!

OK, it's now DAY 5 since I've started my complaint about AA losing my booking.  It's now clear that someone in their reservations department made a mistake by not calling me, I suspect not emailing me and probably not trying to take the payment from my credit card company as confirmed by BarclayCard.

Yes, their so called "customer relations" doesn't want to be involved in investigating the matter further because they're not "equipped." A feeble excuse and a poor way to treat their customers.

It's clear now that not only they don't have a single view of the customer, that their reservations and payment processing systems are not quite state of the art, and that more worryingly they don't have a "voice of the customer" office. No wonder they went bust.

Here's their latest letter (below), you can judge for yourself.

February 13, 2013

Dear *****

Thank you again for contacting us, and I do apologize for the inconvenience this is causing you by being passed on, from department to department.

I also understand your frustration, however as I had advised you in my previous response, Customer Relations is only equipped to handle and work to resolve a variety of past travel issues and we are not equipped with the systems required to handle or resolve future reservations issues hence we recommend that you contact our Reservations Team for immediate assistance. Our Agents have complete access to the most current schedule and fare information, and are much better equipped to provide assistance for any issues relating to impending / future travel.

They will be more equipped to assist you, and I do apologize that this has not been the case in the past. Again, as we only deal with past dated travel through Customer Relations, I am afraid I am unable to assist you further.

M** **, I apologize again for this inconvenience and I do hope you will find a quick resolution to your booking.

Sincerely,

Olivia Kacisolomone
Customer Relations
American Airlines

AA Ref#1-809646144

For security purposes and to protect privacy, our process does not allow for replies to this message. If we can assist you further, please let us know by clicking http://www.aa.com/customerrelations.

Previous post in the saga:

• American Airlines -DAY FOUR, now own up!
• American Airlines, give me my booking back!