“WhyYouFly.com” is a sister site of American Airlines that exists mainly to promote its slogan, “We know why you fly.” The site doesn't really do anything significant – it’s just trying to build customer relationships. It offers a few interactive games for the terminally bored and an ad archive for people who like to look at recent airline ads.
Recently the site included this weird little typo (circled). If you look in the square headlined “Vancouver,” you’ll find a parenthetical statement that was never meant to see the light of day. It looks like a fact checker queried the use of the phrase “Coast Mountain” (rightly pointing out that “Coast” refers to a range of mountains, not a single peak). Instead of fixing the error, the web editor approved the wrong copy plus the query.
That’s a blunder, but it’s not serious. These things happen all the time and are easily fixed. The problem is, when I spotted the error, I thought I would contact the site and point it out to them. But when I went looking for a “Contact Us” page or even an e-mail address, I found nothing. There was no direct way to contact them.
This is where management blundered. They built a mini-site to build relationships – but left no way for the customer to join the conversation. It’s a typical, top-down solution: We talk, you listen. It’s short-sighted and totally out of step with today’s interactive Internet world, where marketers are supposed to be listening to consumers. There’s lots of valuable info and strategic advantages to be gained from listening to your customer – but first you have to make it convenient for them to talk.
American may know why we fly, but they're obviously not interested in what we think.
Recently the site included this weird little typo (circled). If you look in the square headlined “Vancouver,” you’ll find a parenthetical statement that was never meant to see the light of day. It looks like a fact checker queried the use of the phrase “Coast Mountain” (rightly pointing out that “Coast” refers to a range of mountains, not a single peak). Instead of fixing the error, the web editor approved the wrong copy plus the query.
That’s a blunder, but it’s not serious. These things happen all the time and are easily fixed. The problem is, when I spotted the error, I thought I would contact the site and point it out to them. But when I went looking for a “Contact Us” page or even an e-mail address, I found nothing. There was no direct way to contact them.
This is where management blundered. They built a mini-site to build relationships – but left no way for the customer to join the conversation. It’s a typical, top-down solution: We talk, you listen. It’s short-sighted and totally out of step with today’s interactive Internet world, where marketers are supposed to be listening to consumers. There’s lots of valuable info and strategic advantages to be gained from listening to your customer – but first you have to make it convenient for them to talk.
American may know why we fly, but they're obviously not interested in what we think.
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