A LinkedIn Success Story
Wednesday, December 21st 2005 | Ismael Ghalimi
As an avid LinkedIn user, I have had many occasions to appreciate what this great social networking tool can offer, but none come even close to this one experience.
I got married last Summer and had the honor of receiving guests from all over the world. Among them was a contingent of 20 French people made of family members and very close friends. Being a satisfied frequent flyer on United, I recommended that they use this airline instead of Air France, which they did, booking a direct flight from Paris to San Francisco.
Unfortunately, most airlines find it hard to resist the temptation of over-booking during Summer months and United is no exception. My friends soon received a piece of mail notifying them that their reservation had been moved to an indirect flight through Chicago, IL.
Being familiar with O’Hare International Airport, I knew that there was no way they would make the connection on time and decided to see if anything could be done about it. I went on LinkedIn, typed “United” in the search field, narrowed my search to France and quickly located the general manager for United Air Lines France. Using an introduction through a connection in Israel, I got in touch with the gentleman and explained the situation over a cordial email exchange.
To my astonishment, all 20 friends and family members received a letter from United less than a week later, notifying them that their reservation had been moved back to the direct flight from Paris to San Francisco. On top of it, they were offered free return train tickets to Paris, which in some cases were worth several hundred euros each.
That alone would have been enough to make a lifetime United customer out of me, but adding elegance to cordiality, United Air Lines France’s general manager sent me an email an hour after the flight departed, indicating that all had boarded and that I should expect an arrival at SFO with a 15 minutes delay. When I welcomed my guests at the airport, I also heard that flight attendants had offered them Champagne as soon as they had learned about the reason for their trip.
Through this experience, I have learned to appreciate exceptional customer service, which is not exactly what I had been used to with the airline business when flying coach. But most importantly, I got a glimpse into what social networking tools such as LinkedIn can do when used in creative ways. If you have similar stories, I would love to write about them in this column.
Entry filed under: Social Networking
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[…] LinkedIn is a fantastic networking tool, but one that takes some time to really understand. Much like I did not understand blogging until very recently, I did not really understand LinkedIn the first time I joined the network almost three years ago as user number 52401 (there are over 4.6M users today). I accepted an invitation from some friend (sorry, I can’t remember who), invited a others, and quickly forgot about it. Much like the very vast majority of LinkedIn users, I was what I call a passive user. Most LinkedIn users are passive users, never sent a request through the network, never will, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. They, together, make the bulk of the network and create a fantastic pool of resources that active users, and among them super active users—also known as power networkers—use to get all kinds of things done, such as finding a job, getting access to some expertise, or organizing a wedding. […]
A tremendous customer service story about United Airlines…
Until I read this I couldn’t figure out how I might ever use Linkedin other than for the most obvious reasons. Now, as a United frequent flier, I just hope they can dodge bankruptcy once again.
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