As the holiday season is now on its way, most businesses are certainly planning and thinking about how they will provide a memorable and positive shopping experience. With social media providing new ways for your customers to engage with one another and share everything under the sun—including their experiences—it has also become a touch point and, in many cases, a deciding factor for the choices that they make in all aspects of their lives.
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In 1995 I was returning to Toronto from New York on a routine, almost commuter flight. Just as the plane landed upon our arrival at Pearson Int’l airport, the tires blew and caught fire. The plane skidded across the runway and abruptly stopped amid ambulances, fire trucks, police cars etc. You could see the flames outside the window, which appeared to be close to the engines. Suddenly, the chutes came out and the flurry of fleeing passengers began. People were trying to grab their bags from the upper baggage compartments, stewardesses were screaming for everyone to take off their shoes and get onto the shoot. As you took your turn and entered the door you saw that the drop looked like you were jumping from the CN Tower. With no time to think, you slid down at warp speed to be greeted by someone on the ground shouting for you to run…we ran towards a grassed section well away from the plane that still had flames coming from the tires that had blown and waited for a bus to taking us to a holding terminal. In those days most people did not have a cell phone or laptop—let alone the ability to provide a real-time account of what had happened. Lines formed with people on payphones trying to call their loved ones while sitting there for several hours. Not being in contact with anyone except for those that shared this experience kept this frightening event extremely insular.
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