High-Flying Praise for Branson
Richard Branson has his detractors, but you can’t accuse him of failing to understand the power of word of mouth.
Rob Galkoff of The Business Consultants lives very close to England’s Manchester Airport, which no doubt has something to do with his five-year-old son’s fascination with Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic. Over breakfast this morning, Rob was telling me how when he drives his son to school, the boy pleads to take a detour through the airport so that he can admire the planes.
This past weekend Rob and his family flew from the UK to the States. But a few weeks earlier, Rob had tracked down on the Web Branson’s direct e-mail address and sent him a message asking if his son could possibly get a look at the cockpit before the flight. Being the savvy e-mail expert that he is, Rob used a short but attention-getting subject line—his son’s full name, followed by “age 5.” He also included a graphic: a drawing by his son of a Virgin plane.
I imagine Branson’s a busy guy. And maybe he doesn’t even read his own e-mail but has minions to handle it for him. But whether he read this particular message or one of his staff did, the fact remains that Rob promptly received an e-mail back saying that a cockpit visit probably wasn’t possible but that a pilot would try to come by the Galkoffs’ row during the flight with a Virgin souvenir for the boy.
Well, Rob’s son did get to visit the cockpit. You know that the kid is now a Virgin fan for life. And I’d guess that each person Rob tells the story to thinks at least somewhat more favorably about Virgin than he did before. I know I’ll definitely put Virgin on my shortlist of carriers next time I fly to one of its destinations.
And all because Branson, or whoever is responsible for reading his e-mails, responded in a timely fashion, said he’d try to do something, and subsequently more than delivered on his promise.
In fact, that’s not just understanding the power of word of mouth; it’s adhering to the basic tenets of good customer service.
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