I had a very interesting “real life” Twitter experience yesterday, and it once again showed me (and hopefully you) the power of Twitter.
It all started when I tried to book a room at the Doubletree Hilton in San Juan. On their website they’re advertising a package where you pay for two nights and get the third night free.
Fantastic! I thought…
I’m heading over to San Juan for the Bar Camp meeting on Friday and I have a triathlon in Toa Baja on Sunday. So according to the Doubletree special, I’d pay for Friday and Saturday night and Sunday night would be free.
The Problem
With credit card in hand I called Doubletree reservations, and even though the person on the line was extremely pleasant, she was not too sure about the promotion on Doubletree’s website. And after further discussion, she just plain told me that it was not available.
Great, I thought, my weekend plans were over before they even got started. Or, were they?
On the Doubletree website I noticed that they had the standard social media buttons, so I asked the customer service phone rep who ran their Twitter account. To my surprise, she said it was run by the hotel’s general manager. (Hence the question in the title!)
Hilton Doubletree is a BIG business and I was really pleased to hear that their Twitter account was under control of someone at the hotel and not outsourced to a PR or marketing firm. To me that signifies that this place cares about its customers and genuinely wants to create a connection.
The Solution
As you might imagine, I asked to be transferred to the general manager and was put right through to Mr. Caban. After hearing about my issue with booking the special rate, and how I was very impressed that he is the person that actually interacts with folks on Twitter, not only did he honor the special BUT we are also now having a breakfast meeting next Monday to discuss social media and the tourism industry.
Once again, with a little help from Twitter, a customer service issue was resolved inadvertently with the help of Twitter.
If YOU know of any big or small businesses who are thinking about using Twitter as a medium to build customer relationships, please let them know the value of having a “real” CEO, general manager, or caring employee behind their account.
Saludos Mark,
Thank you for your kind words. We are always looking for new ways to keep in touch with our guests. After all, they are the one that steer our business decisions. I look forward to our breakfast on Monday and having to opportunity to pick your brain.
Always at your service,
Yodil
And this is exactly what will make me think of the Doubletree first if my travels ever take me to San Juan!
Great stuff Mark.. Can’t wait to meet you on Friday!
Yodi – thanks for proving that big business does pay attention! Looking forward to staying at the Doubletree and meeting you in person.
Ed – well, if you make it to San Juan you know you have to get over to Culebra. :-)
Luis – I’m really looking forward to Bar Camp on Friday! See you then.
Very true, Mark. I’m seeing more and more companies outsource their social media marketing. I’m not saying that it’s wrong, but by handling social media internally, the quality of interaction and relevancy would be higher.
Your experience with Doubletree was kinda rare though where the CEO himself handles hotel’s Twitter account. Usually they said that they don’t have time to deal with “this social media thingy.” Kudos to Yodil!
Steven – Definitely agree that it is rare having top-level execs running social media. Hopefully that is a trend that will change in the future…