Dave Carroll's song for 'Marketplace' and his strategies
Halifax-based musician Dave Carroll rose to prominence when his own customer service frustration went viral. When United Airlines damaged his $3,500 Taylor guitar and refused to help him, Carroll took his complaint -- in song form, of course -- online.
"United Breaks Guitars" has since attracted more than 11 million views, and has become a textbook case for companies on the dangers of bad customer service in the age of the Internet.
Carroll's guitar woes may be behind him, but he hasn't let go of his customer service crusade.
In addition to speaking to groups about customer service in the age of social media, he's co-founder of a new site, called Gripevine, designed to connect people with the companies that they have a complaint about.
"It's a place where customers can go and avoid getting into a customer service maze," Carroll says.
"And so if you have a problem, you go to Gripevine, you state your gripe, and you plant it.
And it goes to the right people at the right company without you having to pick up the phone and find the number and be stuck in a queue for a long time."
Social media certainly worked for Carroll, and he believes that it gives everyone the power to fight back against bad customer service. "People have a voice in the age of social media that they never had before," he says. "People are waking up to that and so are companies. They're starting to see that they have to take every bad complaint as a potential viral video."
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