13 takeaways for Airlines in a viral social world!
David Studden ?
Aviation, Travel, Coffee - Planely addicted, Ideas, Stories, Family ?? Believe that age is just a number! Love ?? to keep learning, everyday!!
What thought(s) flashed through your mind when you saw the 69-year-old passenger being dragged off United Express Flight 3411 headed from Chicago to Louisville?
- Was he aggressive & endangering the safety and security of other passengers or crew?
- Was he intoxicated & a threat?
- Did he use the B*** word?
Nope - none of the reasons above - the flight was overbooked and he was one of those chosen (randomly) to be offloaded. When he refused to de-plane - we all know what happened to him and to the brand image of United Airlines.
Some takeaways (pun intended) for airlines (and for passengers) from this incident;
1) Virality - All of us are now citizen journalists! The collective power of social networks ensures that incidents go viral in a matter of minutes. United should know this first had as they were just recovering from the "leggings" incident in March!
2) Violence - There is never an excuse for the use of violence or brute force! This incident puts paid to the Chicago aviation security officers getting guns [just imagine what would have happened if they had guns on them]. Violence could happen the other way around - passengers being violent with crew members - the Air India "slipper" incident!
No chance of using the Pepsi technique here! United only serves Coke products!
3) Verbal Communication - When you can't convince someone - as what perhaps happened between United ground staff & the passengers, does it mean the next only alternate solution is using brute force rather than persuasive verbal talk?
4) Terms & Conditions - Read the fine print! The airline contract of carriage gives the airline the right to offload passengers on overbooked flights! The airline’s contract of carriage – an agreement that all customers assent to when booking – gives United the freedom to deny ticketed passengers travel if a flight is overbooked. Passengers are entitled to either cash or a flight landing near the same time as compensation.
How the contractual terms & conditions are implemented by frontline staff is another matter!
5) Taking Responsibility - Who takes responsibility for the incident or do you fluff around with corporate speak in as ambiguous terms as possible. Taking responsibility is NOT sending an open letter saying criticizing the passenger!
Mr Munoz said the airline had initially sought volunteers to leave the aircraft and offered up to $1,000 in compensation. When they began selecting passengers instead, one man had “raised his voice and refused to comply with crew member instructions” becoming “more and more disruptive and belligerent”. Mr Munoz said the passenger subsequently reboarded the plane “in defiance of both our crew and security officials”.
6) Apology - No outright apology, because that would mean legal liability, right?
7) Free creative negative publicity - Always remember that the competition benefits positively from all the negative publicity that surrounds the airline in the eye of the social media storm!
8) Damage Control - Difficult, when the initial responses are not properly management. Especially after your CEO was just named the PR Week's 2017 Communicator of the year! It was definitely not for social media communication!
9) Enlightenment - the meaning of Overbooking / Volunteers - Unknown words for most passengers - that is till now. Merriam-Webster defines “volunteer” as “someone who does something without being forced to do it" — contradicting United's use of the term following the incident.
10) The Stock Market! - Yes, it does impact the company financial value, but for how long is the question. United's stock dropped as much as 6.3% before paring the loss to trade 2.5% lower at 9:19 a.m. in New York premarket trading. The impact on United's brand image could take a lot more time & effort to recover.
11) Boycott - Can & should companies be boycotted for such incidents? The Chinese seem to think so! Shashank Nigam & his team at Simpliflying just did!
12) What actually happened? It will be interesting to find out the full sequence of events in a fair, transparent & open manner. Hopefully, some answers soon - before United moves on to the next social media storm!
13) Broken Guitars versus Bruised Passengers - In conclusion, I think a broken guitar is far more acceptable than a broken, beaten human being!
What do you think?