Could Humanity, Hollywood and Data Have Saved United Airlines?

By Charles Lankester, EVP, Reputation & Risk Management Practice, Ruder Finn Asia

(This article originally appeared in Campaign Asia on 17 April, 2017)

The treatment of the passenger being removed from United flight 3411 was appalling. United’s management of the situation will also prove to be a case study in what not do when managing a spiraling reputational crisis. Based on what United taught us last week, there are four very simple lessons for any CEO and their management team.

First, speak human. Companies can’t speak warmly when things are going well and then turn frosty when they are not. United sounded like a machine when they needed to sound like a person.

I appreciate it has been dissected to death, but United’s first response was awful. Bloodless, technical and tundra-like in its frostiness, it also gave us a new word – “re-accommodate” – which has launched a meme frenzy. I won’t play the usual lawyer vs. PR person blame game, but what on earth were they thinking? CEO Mr Munoz’s second, third and any other statements will never take away the leaden thud of his first.

Second, think ahead. Hindsight is wonderful I know, but what happened on that aircraft was not exactly “un” thinkable. Shocking yes, but predictable. Businesses need to think more like film scriptwriters and less like risk managers when thinking about crisis scenarios in 2017.

Elderly passenger? Check. Heavy handed security? Check. Lots of people filming on smart phones? Check. Any decent scenario planner could have come up with this one. The problem? Most companies lack imagination when thinking about reputational risk. They also often avoid asking themselves tough, difficult, unpleasant or uncomfortable questions, needlessly restricting themselves to one-dimensional “enterprise risk management”. As United’s experience showed, reputation risk does not live in a tickable box.

Third, use data. Corporations today need real-time digital overwatch to allow them to capture negative or controversial material.

The first videos from Flight 3411 appeared on Twitter at 19:30hrs EST. The first media enquiry was received at 22:00hrs. This can also be looked at from a predictive standpoint: how much traction were the films generating online? United could have quickly analysed their social velocity and realised the situation was very bad and was going to get very big. 

Fourth, develop playbooks. Agree exactly how your organisation will respond in the event of a direct reputational hit. What will you do? What will you say? Who will say it?

There is little more painful that writing a crisis management plan when in the middle of a crisis. Ask United.

United is a big company and they will get through this. At the time of writing, they have just announced crew members will no longer be able to bump a passenger who is already seated to ensure “situations like Flight 3411 never happen again."

But one thing is certain. United could have managed the original situation very differently by adopting a six-word strategy:

Speak human. Think ahead. Use data.