If you’ve got a first class ticket, the highest level of status with the airlines network and partners, the highest status with the brand in another market, you’d think that would be enough to get you access to the airline lounge. But alas, not so with Virgin America.

And their employees think it sucks too. One said to me today ‘we get that complaint a lot, it’s a stupid rule’. So, how does the employee drive a solution and provide that feedback to management – how does a customer?

This is where platforms like Salesforce Chatter and Ideas come into their own – when matched with a new management playbook.

Virgin is a brand I love. Virgin Australia is brilliant and the employees seem much more empowered to drive customer delight than those here in the US.

But in the age of the connected customer, brands need new systems of engagement to overcome the inevitable service failures that come with scale.

That’s how great brands become greater.