GOING SOCIAL

Megan uses technology to help other consumers spar with misbehaving businesses

I’VE HELPED A LOT OF PEOPLE with customer service issues in the more than twenty-five years I’ve been on the radio and TV, and even more with the Consumer Action Center I set up years back, through which volunteers take off-air calls and help resolve problems.

But I believe Megan Smith is the first person who has ever created a company, inspired by what I do, to help people deal with uncooperative companies.

Megan said she heard me helping people and thought, “I can do that!”

“I was hearing story after story of people having problems with service issues,” Megan said, “but they didn’t have the tools to help themselves. I decided to start a little company that could help those who didn’t know what to do but who wanted to fight back. After I helped myself a few times and knew the ins and outs, helping others got easier and easier.”

Megan, forty-two, works as a professional extra in Frisco, Texas, a fast-growing city north of Dallas. She’s been a background extra in movies like Any Given Sunday, Hall Pass, and The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and on TV dramas like FOX’s The Following, starring Kevin Bacon. It’s work that doesn’t pay much—$8 an hour for twelve-to-fourteen-hour days—but she enjoys it.

“You have to go in knowing it’s a long day for little pay. I just like seeing how it’s all done and getting to be so close to some big names.”

Her quest to curb poor customer service doesn’t pay a lot, either, but she didn’t start her company to make a lot of money. She gives a free consultation, and if she thinks she can help, charges a one-time fee of $50.

“I am very flexible on that fee, though,” Megan said. “I am a softy when it comes to the elderly or those in need, so once I talk to them on the phone and get a feel for them, I might lower or waive the fee altogether. For me, it really isn’t about the money, it’s about helping people.”

Megan has had success in dealing with what I call “customer no-service.” For example, she helped a gentleman who, after planning a trip, was told his frequent flier miles had expired.

“I knew I would get nowhere with a supervisor over the phone, so I went directly to e-mailing their corporate office. I explained that this individual had flown for many years with their airline and accumulated many miles in doing so. I also stated that he had spoken to an agent just before his miles disappeared, and she had said nothing to him about their expiration date closing in, which seemed a little shady and definitely not what I would expect of a company such as theirs. Within twelve hours, I received a response with a heartfelt apology and a reinstatement of his miles.”

Another client was a woman who had trouble with her dentist. She had gone in for a crown, and while it was being positioned in her mouth but before it was cemented in place, the dental assistant left the room.

“She was extremely lucky that she did not swallow that thing. Afterwards, she explained that she did not want to pay the $1,000 because of what happened. The front desk attendant explained that it was not in her control and demanded payment. Of course my client paid, because that is what most honest people do. She did have to go back two more times because they had not placed the crown right, and each time she was told there was nothing they could do about the original payment of $1,000. That is when she contacted me. I contacted their office manager and her check was mailed within the week.”

Megan’s philosophy is to be nice, not angry, when she approaches a company.

“Everyone knows the saying ‘You get more flies with honey than with vinegar,’ and that is the absolute truth when dealing with customer no-service. If you come to the company blazing mad, yelling, calling them names, and telling them everything they’ve done wrong, their first instinct will be to defend themselves and fight back. You probably won’t get very far, you definitely won’t get results, and you’ll walk away angrier than when you started.”

Instead, she says, “kindly state your problem, let them know you respect them as a company, and tell them you are sure they will handle your matter appropriately because of their excellent reputation. Nine times out of ten, they will want to live up to your expectations and they will take care of you. In the rare instances that they don’t help on first contact, I then use the tiny threat of social media and let them know it would be in their best interest to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Megan does hold out the threat of using social media against a company, but that isn’t a tool she goes to frequently.

“In my opinion, social media isn’t taken too seriously when it comes to business matters. If you want to get your return accepted or get your frequent flyer miles returned, posting on a company’s Facebook page isn’t the way to go.”

But social media can get results. One of my all-time favorite examples of how it works is the case of Canadian musician Dave Carroll.

Dave was flying from his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Nebraska, via Chicago, on United Airlines when airline baggage handlers broke his expensive Taylor guitar.

In nine months, Dave got nowhere getting the airline to replace the guitar, until, being a musician, he decided to express his feelings in a song.

As his website recounts, “His 2009 YouTube music video ‘United Breaks Guitars’ became a worldwide sensation.” Dave’s video showed actors portraying United baggage handlers gleefully tossing his guitar around and showing “complete indifference.” His musician friends appeared in the video wearing sombreros and fake mustaches.

The parody went mega-viral, and United was cowed. It made Dave a pioneer in using social media to bring a corporate giant to its knees.

A year later, Dave was speaking at Columbia Business School, telling the story of making the video with volunteers and friends and then realizing it was attracting an audience.

First there was a local newspaper story, then one in the Los Angeles Times.

He was talking about the incident on a regional Canadian TV show when the cohost told him during a commercial that his story was on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

Dave watched the story that night.

“It was just too bizarre. It was surreal,” he told the crowd at Columbia. “I saw a story on Barack Obama and the pope, and there in the middle of this were my friends, the Three Amigos, singing their guts out with their sombreros on.”

Dave’s website says, “His creative use of social media to share that message has reached over 150 million people. ‘United Breaks Guitars’ was named one of the five most important videos in Google’s history.”

Dave wrote a book, United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media, is a sought-after speaker, and also helps others fight customer no-service.

Another example I love of fighting back via social media is Arijit Guha, a PhD student at Arizona State University, who was able to use Twitter as a bully pulpit to get Aetna insurance to pay for his medical bills.

According to The Arizona Republic, Arijit, who passed away on March 22, 2013, at thirty-two, had Stage 4 colorectal cancer, but his health insurance policy, which he had through Aetna as part of a co-op deal with ASU, had a $300,000 lifetime cap. Arijit blew through that in no time, leaving him in a battle to secure the treatment that could keep him alive.

Arijit took to Twitter and started tweeting at the CEO of Aetna, Mark T. Bertolini, when he was getting the runaround from regular Aetna customer service channels. The CEO is a Twitter guy (@mtbert) and started tweeting back, even admitting, “The system is broken, and I am committed to fixing it.”

The insurer agreed to pay his medical bills. Arijit, in the meantime, had raised $100,000 on his own, and with Aetna paying for his care, he decided to donate the money to cancer research.

Megan Smith thinks companies are improving in their handling of customer complaints.

“I think it varies with the company, but for the most part they’re getting better. Most companies are aware of the impact social media has on consumerism and are more likely to do what they can to please customers because of that.”

She said people should watch out, though, for stock answers.

“These show up mostly on online chat sessions or [coming from] outsourced call centers. They pick keywords out of what you are saying and read back a response that might help you. It just shows that they aren’t listening to you, and that to me is a prime example of customer no-service.”

She recently complained to a major hardware chain regarding dogs in their stores. She was OK with stores allowing pets inside but got upset when she stepped in some dog waste.

The manager apologized but said even though they have a sign stating no pets allowed, the store allowed them anyway. She contacted corporate, but all she got was a stock response saying some stores allow pets and sorry for your trouble.

“I was disappointed but decided the battle wasn’t worth my time. I just decided not to frequent their store anymore, and now I go to their competitor for my home improvement needs.”

And that’s the ultimate power any consumer has in the free market.

What do you need to know about using social media to protest when a company has treated you wrong?

Enlist some outside firepower.

• In a post–“United Breaks Guitars” world, the use of Facebook and Twitter to complain is routine. Now a new site called Groubal.com is trying to organize all the social media gripes and says it will take your complaint to the company and demand an answer. Groubal even compiles its own customer satisfaction index on companies. It’s like social networking for complaining, as people look for more and more effective ways to be heard in a busy world. Meanwhile, Dave Carroll has co-founded a site called GripeVine.com that puts the focus on effective problem-solving, providing a forum for customers and businesses to work out their differences.

Identify your targets.

• Arijit Guha had spectacular success using Twitter to address his grievance with Aetna, and it began by targeting tweets to Aetna’s Twitter account. But sometimes you might have to penetrate deeper into a company’s social media sphere of influence than just their public Twitter account. If that’s the case, I recommend you go to the company’s website and read press releases in the investor relations section. Look for the names of both the top company brass and the lower-level executives. Then go on Twitter and do a search to determine if any of those individuals have private Twitter accounts. When you find a match, start tweeting away at them.

Use humor as a weapon.

• Particularly if you’re doing a YouTube video to spotlight your gripes with a company, you want to do it with an element of humor. Take a cue from Dave Carroll, who softened his blows against United by dressing up with guys in sombreros and fake mustaches. Remember the old saying, “You get more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Because no one likes it when somebody just posts an angry rant!

Gripe when you’re on the go.

• It was only a matter of time before griping went mobile. ComplainApp is a free app for Android and iOS that gives you one-click access to send a complaint to a company’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google accounts. The app will even help you craft an effective complaint and help you find other users who have complaints for the same company. Just search “ComplainApp” wherever you download apps to see if it can help you.