This has got to be a public relations nightmare for you guys, but you keep making it worse by trying to somehow prove that as horrible as it was handled, SWA was somehow still in the 'right'. Couple of lessons for your customer service people:
Trying to resolve a customer sat issue using Twitter doesn't work. You should have never even addressed it there, but rather called Mr. Smith and dealt with it person to person.
The first blog was a masterpiece in how not to handle the situation - saying we are sorry, but we really weren't wrong (again before talking to him) just made the situation worse. All that accomplished was to pour gas on a raging fire.
Finally you reached out in person, and it sounds like Mr. Smith was placated. But you couldn't leave well enough alone and had to publish this. Again another mea culpa that ends up with, ' but it was really his fault because we have this policy thing'.
Your customer service VP must be pulling out his hair - you don't have to win; just apologize for a poorly managed situation and move on.
I fly you guys all the time, but I am very disappointed in the way you handled this.
... View more