ORLANDO, Fla. – More than 53 million people will be traveling for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, even more for Christmas.
But did you know that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter could help you while you travel, especially if you have a complaint?
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After two years of staying put, millions of Americans are traveling again, and with that comes travel headaches, and lots of them.
But how do you get help? Travel companies say they’ve become more responsive to social media channels.
Consumer experts say some ways are better than others to get your complaints noticed. Don’t follow the crowd. Resist the urge to publicly shame a company off the bat. Instead give their regular customer service channels a try first, before taking it public. Don’t be platform specific. Don’t just send out a tweet, reach out to all platforms to try and get the answers you need. Tell the truth. Companies will more than likely shrug off a false online review. Before tweeting or posting, go to LinkedIn first.
Experts say LinkedIn is a smaller social media network and executives are more likely to respond there, first.
One last tip, the airline industry is one of the fastest when it comes to speedy answers on social media. According to a recent study, airlines generally answer customer questions on Twitter in a little over 90 minutes and Facebook replies average about five and a half hours.
You may not know that travelers and customer service representatives use Twitter and Facebook to actually make re-bookings, request cancellations, and more.
Travelers also reported that direct messages to companies — instead of public tweets or posts — are more likely to get addressed.