I was in Singapore last weekend for the Barcamp conference and had a spectacular time meeting new people in advertising, marketing, entrepreneurship, web services, and so on. Singapore is a beautiful, clean city that reminds me a lot of the Bay Area, California, and caters well to businesses and techies like myself. I had a blast learning from others about building businesses, social media strategy, travel, and more, then wandering around town with new friends enjoying culinary treasures, but when I got to the airport for my return trip to Bangkok, Thailand, my visit to Singapore came to a frustrating end.

Customer Feedback Falling on Deaf Ears

I checked in with my airline, Jetstar , a cheap carrier in Southeast Asia and Australia—but I was informed that my flight was delayed 3 and a half hours! Rather than the tolerable hour-and-a-half wait I thought I’d spend in the Singapore airport, I was looking at nearly 5 hours twiddling my thumbs hopelessly, and missing an important teleconference call with business partners in the US, Argentina & New Zealand.

I’d already re-scheduled my flight earlier in the week to return in time for my important call and get back to work Monday—an itinerary change that had nearly doubled my ticket cost—and now not only would I be unable to try my call from the SG airport, but I’d be in the air while it was happening!

“Are there any other flights?” Nope. “Well can I get a discount because you guys charged me a premium to get on this flight?” No. “Well since I hadn’t planned on being stuck here for 5 hours, can you at least offer me some sort of airport voucher so I can grab dinner while I’m here or something?” Never.

The airline was telling me I was going to have to cut my losses. I had spoken to the two gate agents, then to two customer service agents, and no luck. I had spent nearly twice as much as most of the people on this plane, and all I got was a huge setback in my business. Being an avid Twitter user, I had some choice words to share with my network about how I had been treated. I told Jetstar what they could do with themselves, followed by a few Retweets and comments from others that echoed my negative experience with Jetstar.

As you can imagine, I’m not the only one with problems. In early 2008, United baggage handlers trashed band Sons of Maxwell’s $3500 guitars. When the airline didn’t own up to the mistake, the band released a song called “United Breaks Guitars” on YouTube. And many others are complaining about poor service, long delays, canceled flights, technical problems, bad food, and more. But, as Tom Johansmeyer of Gadling notes , the philosophy when it comes to addressing customer complaints online seems to be mostly silence. A dialogue isn’t actually happening.

You Have to Treat Your Customers Like Kings

The problem social media poses to businesses is that it puts power into the consumers’ hands, and that can’t be ignored. It’s no longer a one-way conversation. This doesn’t apply just to airlines, but if you treat your customers like crap or provide a crap product, people can easily send photos, video, or messages about it to their friends and extended networks and news spreads quickly.

The new reality for business in this age of social media is that people frequently trust their friends’ and peers’ recommendations before than they trust advertising or reviews. Businesses that use social media successfully must engage with their users. They need to provide a response just as quickly as the complaints can get out, and they need to treat each and every customer with respect.

An Airline That’s Doing it Right

A year ago, a passenger traveling on Virgin Atlantic wrote a heated complaint letter to Richard Branson, the owner of the airline. His photos and description of a “culinary journey from hell” spread quickly through the blogosphere and traditional media outlets. Smartly, when the letter reached his desk, Branson phoned the disgruntled passenger personally and invited him to help select the menu for future flights, and Virgin’s public relations team quickly highlighted the response with messages on Facebook.

Virgin America’s tagline on Facebook is “Banishing mediocrity from the skies.” Their Facebook profile allows users to search flights, check flight statuses, see customer reviews, and check in online, and moreso, they’re encouraging their customers to interact with the company and with each other by sharing photos, videos, and comments. More than just using social media as one more platform to hard sell their flights or promote the latest travel deals, they’re actually adding value and engaging with their customers.

When I sent a frustrated message to Jetstar, I was ignored. Nobody wanted to address the issue. But you can bet, I’ve already given my opinion to a few frequent travelers and will continue to discourage my readers and peers from flying Jetstar.

All that consumers really want is to feel that their complaints are being heard, and that their business is valued. Virgin is one example of a great company that understands that, and their happy customers continue to return for more.

Cody is a nomadic entrepreneur & lifestyle designer who helps social changemakers & other remarkable people spread their message on the web.

Tags: airline, airport, conversation, customer complaint, customer service, dialogue, Facebook, flight, flight delay, Gadling, Jetstar, recommendation, review, Richard Branson, Social Media, social network, social networking, Sons of Maxwell, travel, Twitter, United Airlines, United Breaks Guitars, Virgin Airways