In a world of instant tweets, Yeoh Siew Hoon is reminded that the customer who shouts the loudest gets the most attention, never mind if he isn't always right.

He stood out in the crowd. I had first noticed him at the airport. He was dressed in a double-breasted dark suit. He wore dark leather shoes. His hair, slightly graying, was combed neatly black, not a strand out of place. To complete the ensemble, he carried a black briefcase.

At any other airport or flight, I would have dismissed him as yet another business executive. But this was Denpasar airport and we were on a flight from Bali to Singapore where almost everyone was dressed down.

He ended up across the aisle from me. I was intrigued. The way he was dressed made me think this was a man who would be particular in his ways, who liked everything in place. I thought of a friend, Nick, who tells me he organises his socks by colour.

He put his briefcase in the overhead locker, sat down and checked the materials in the seat pocket in front of him. He flipped open the inflight magazine and he tutted. His back straightened, as though ready to pounce on something.

Through the flight, I observed him watching the crew at work. Whenever a cabin crew walked past him, he would look up and shake his head. During meal service, I heard him tut a few times.

You could almost feel the sense of indignation building up in him - and that he was merely waiting for the right moment to express himself.

I didn't have long to wait. As soon as trays were cleared, he pushed the service button. A stewardess promptly answered the call. "Can I help you, sir?" she asked.

"I'd like to speak to your manager," he said.

She said, "Of course but is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, I'd like to speak to your manager, the person in charge," he insisted.

She persisted but he insisted. A senior stewardess came to see if she could help. He said no, and insisted on seeing "the manager, the person in charge". All this done in a very firm but polite manner. He had a point to make and he wasn't going to make it to anyone else but the person in charge.

In the end, the cabin crew director came to his seat. That's when he poured forth his feelings. The point he was trying to make was that he had been on many SIA flights, he was a loyal customer but he'd never been on a flight such as this where everything was not consistent with what he thought an SIA flight should be.

The inflight magazine was torn, and had been written on, the crew seemed overworked and always rushing, and they were missing details ...

He didn't have a specific complaint as such but he wanted to share his feelings, he said. "I think you are working the poor girls too hard."

The cabin director, obviously trained to fix a problem, tried to ascertain what it was he wanted but it appeared that he really didn't want anything, perhaps just some attention and recognition. And he seemed happy after the hearing he received.

I was reminded of this encounter because of the Kevin Smith fracas in which the overweight movie director was thrown off a Southwest flight because of weight issues. His irate tweets got the attention of not just the airline but every blogger and newshound looking for a fat, juicy story to sink their teeth into.

And it reminded me of that old truism, he who shouts the loudest get the most attention and in today's world of instant tweets, it's certainly truer than ever before.

See, if that gentleman on the SIA flight were of a younger generation, he would have tweeted his feelings and the world would have reeled in shock horror and a headline would have emerged, "Singapore Girl abuse - airline working girls too hard, say customers". And every one who had an axe to grind with SIA would have spun stories like "airline cutting costs, service standards deteriorating" and all that ...

As it is, he did it the old-fashioned way and communicated his feelings on the spot which allowed the staff to deal with it instantly.

Kevin Smith wanted to share his outrage with the world and the story was played out real-time in full view of the public eye, with Southwest trying to deal with it on the fly.

Which customer would you rather have? Truth is, social media is creating a new kind of ugly customer who isn't always right but insists on his right to share his feelings with us and his right to be heard.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com. Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.

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