Delivering on expectations (a.k.a. "Be careful who you piss off")

Shame on me - it's a Friday morning and I am looking at my twitter stream a bit too much (but I figure it is more productive than looking out the window, right?). At about 10:00 this morning I noticed some tweet traffic from one of the rock stars of social media - Chris Brogan. (if you have no idea who this guy is set aside the next few minutes and visit his site; and then promise me you'll never call yourself a social media expert again).

Anyway, Chris was (as he very often is) traveling around the country and sharing with his followers (more than 117,000 of them) a ton of info about the trip. Chris is known for putting it all out there when he is on the road.

Check out some of the tweet traffic (bold & italics mine) from his flight from Dallas to Boston...

"And now the @southwestair ticket counter doesn't have a ticket though I'm checked in. #sigh. Today's my boy's birthday. Need to get home"

and then....

"Now buying my own ticket as I've somehow messed up the ticket @southwestair tried giving me. #noteasy."

and then...

"Somehow, this is my fault."

OK, up to this point nothing but an idiot traveler story, right? Yawn. Granted the boy's birthday part tugged on the heartstrings - but nothing to make me stop doing something to pay much attention (probably had it not been Friday I would have quit looking).

But now it gets good...

"Yep. My fault. @southwestair sent a paper ticket to me. Guess that's the linchpin. No paper, no fly. Whoops. #1964technology"

and then the final pre-flight tweet - the proverbial "Nail in the Coffin"

"Really was my fault. But, paper? I'm thwarted by a non-digital transaction? @southwestair, I'll have to stick to things I can't mess up."

So class, do we really think Chris is signing up with Southwest for his next trip to (fill in the blank location)?

Southwest has spent millions upon millions making you believe it is the coolest, most streamlined, best option out there. Sort of the "iPlane". Now one guy is reminding 117,000 people that they shipped him a paper ticket. Oops.

Now it has been a very long time since I flew Southwest, so I am not about to pretend I know the nuances of their booking system. It doesn't matter. Perhaps Chris got a paper ticket because that's what he told them he wanted. Regardless, 117,000+ people (many of whom are business travelers) are at this very moment looking for another flight.

To bring that into our real estate business, if you call a house a "cream puff" it had better be. Just imagine for a second if Chris had started tweeting from your listing about what a dump it was? Oops, 117,000 buyers lost. Heaven forbid he drove a distance to find out it was a dump based on your recommendation...now you and the house are in the target.

Thanks Chris for a quick reminder of how important it is for us to deliver on expectations - or someone out there will be sure to let the rest of us know.

POSTSCRIPT - Go figure, as I was writing this Chris was also writing about his experience...feel free to read it right from the source here.