[vidarh]

I do "use" LinkedIn to get queries regarding opportunities and to keep in touch, but I'm not a frequent user.

However my most interesting recent usage of LinkedIn was signing up to pay for Inmail in order to be able to message a few high level executives at DHL to complain when a delivery was stuck in limbo. One day later and two Senior VPs (out of 3 I messaged) in different offices had told their staff to sort it and I was Cc:'d on a flurry of message exchanges that started or ended with pointing out that "SVP so-and-so wants to be kept in the loop".

Two days later the package that DHL for a month had told me they didn't have (and had told the sender was on it's way back to them), and couldn't have corrected the delivery address on even they did have it (it was accidentally - my own fault - sent to our old office) turned out to be sitting in a depot 5 minutes away, and was promptly delivered (to our new office).

That to me highlights a benefit of LinkedIn: Everyone can get access to relatively high level people, in part because the barrier to hassling them is high enough that it's not massively abused: If you're not in their immediate network you can contact them directly only if you've paid, and only quite few at the time. While it's annoying to have to pay, it's better than not being able to reach these people on occasion.

I'm going to consider using InMail that way whenever someone annoys me enough to be worth the cost of another month of InMail subscription from now on given how well it worked with my DHL problem.

[russgray]

That's really interesting. I've noticed that complaining on Twitter often helps things get moving when the telephone support is giving you the run-around, but I always assumed that was because I was airing their dirty laundry publicly. Seems like complaints via non-standard routes work even when private...

[vidarh]

I think it worked because it still is unusual. The people I contacted presumably rarely hear directly from customers, and are so less likely to be "inoculated" against seeing those kind of complaints as normal.

Presumably most people want to do the right thing for their customers, but frontline staff often don't have authority, and soon gives up escalating systemic complaints (or even gets punished if the continue to bring it up), so if you don't get help right away the solution is often to find a way of bypassing the layer(s) that are powerless or have given up trying, and you find people that often do care deeply when they get to hear about such problems, but rarely do hear.

The moment something like this becomes common, these people will retreat from LinkedIn, or LinkedIn will take measures to protect them (win-win for LinkedIn: Let extra busy people make it more expensive to reach them)

I've used Twitter too, as well as my blog + Twitter. A few years ago I'd problem cancelling my cable subscription, and ended up getting a call from an assistant to the CEO of Virgin Media on the Saturday morning following a posting on the Friday. But in the case of DHL, Twitter too was a dead end - they seem to not care much about their Twitter feed.

[mooreds]

Thanks for sharing. This is a great use for LinkedIn, and one I had never heard of. I'd always heard about access to executives for sales and research purposes, but not for kick starting customer service.