steved5480

https://www.thestreet.com/story/1375...-requests.html

ursine1

Southwest is pretty responsive to Twitter, but much less so to Facebook. All tweets get a quick response, but Facebook posts are often ignored for days, unless they're a compliment, which are usually addressed quickly. There's a note on the Southwest Facebook page indicating that they "will not address specific Customer Service issues" there, but in practice they do -- generally by asking for details to be sent via direct message.

If you have an issue, Twitter is usually the best route.

alggag

I tried to contact Southwest via Twitter to fix an issue that I could not correct on my own. Their response was to call in and talk to somebody. It wasn't an urgent issue which is why I decided to try with Twitter but still kind of annoying.

captaink

Southwest has a couple centers at HQ dedicated to monitoring social media- one focused on the CS side (responding to complaints, compliments, etc), and another more operational (in the sense that they don't respond so much as direct Ops to fix the issue everyone's tweeting about).

nsx

They do monitor in order to detect problems affecting many people. Responding individually is another matter.

FWIW, I used Virgin America's social media and web interfaces earlier this year. I got only canned non-responsive answers. Then I found a phone number for headquarters and talked to one of the managers there. She gave me an email address and we had a useful exchange which I believe helped her company. (As it happened, I no longer needed any assistance by then, but I wanted to help the company avoid similar situations.)

I believe all large companies have a problem responding to social media. The front line people are not smart enough and do not have sufficient authority to fix your problem. You need to find the executive in charge and work down from there rather than up from the bottom.

ursine1

Social media is replacing the call center. It's going to happen whether or not we like it. Successful companies will recognize the possibility for potential benefits to the customer, and not just those to the company.

snoopoz

I once had a problem, and when I tweeted at Southwest I got a response within minutes. (And a voucher!)

deezl

JetBlue is generally very responsive on twitter.

United is absolutely worthless.

I tweeted @United asking why (re: United Specials) there weren't (and hadn't been since last Fall) any mileage specials in their weekly specials. Every listing says "mileage special not available. The mileage specials were actually discounted (and thus 'special') whereas the price specials were basically the same prices as every other day.

United's response? "Thank you for your feedback. Do you need assistance with anything?"

Umm... Yeah. So, I basically asked the same question again.
@united why are weekly mileage specials gone? why list 'mileage special not available' when mileage hasn't even been an option for a year?

United responded with "Is this in regards to our Deals and Offers page?"

And I'm thinking "do you have 'weekly specials' posted somewhere else on your site? No? Then that's what I'm talking about. Sheesh!" So when I confirmed that, yes, that's what I'm asking about, their response was:

"Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.".

Worthless.

ursine1

Customer Service and Marketing are two different departments.

nsx

That was pretty funny. It sounds like they use a Magic 8 ball to generate their responses. "Ask again later."

ursine1

Southwest's Facebook posts, especially to frequent questions like, "When us the next sale?" are often scripted copy/paste.

nsx

They should modify their software to add typos randomly to make the posts appear real. @:-)

Air Houston

For these types of questions Twitter is worthless. Similarly, if you call the reservations number or 1K desk they won't be able to answer these types of questions.

UA Twitter is very good for basic things that could be done by phone, but with the advantage that they can be done from overseas or another location where you have internet service but no phone service. For me I use Twitter from the plane or when I am in meetings.

goatman

None of our social media is conducted by Robots. We just happen to get the same questions repeated A LOT...and the answer is always the same!

ursine1

Visitor posts for Southwest's Facebook page have been deleted (or perhaps are not showing up because of some glitch or inadvertently changed setting) for 2 days now... so I'm guessing the answer to the OP's question is "no."