Orange Envelopes | Small Business Optimized Marketing > By Design

United Airlines suffered a very public viral humiliation last week with the release of YouTube sensation United Breaks Guitars. As of this writing, more than 2.6 million people have watched the video and more than 13,000 people have left scathing comments about United’s lack of compassion and minimal care.

So, when I returned yesterday from a 3 day trip to Tulsa, OK on Continental Airlines and my suitcase (an orange Tumi bag, naturally) failed to circle the baggage carousel, I was wondering if I was about to suffer a similar customer service nightmare. Fortunately, Continental did just about everything right – with the exception of actually delivering my bag, along with me, to Cleveland.

Rule 1: Accept Responsibility
Don’t try to shift blame to another department, another city’s staff, heavy airline traffic or aberrant weather. Your client doesn’t want to hear excuses. United took their beating largely because they refused to accept responsibility for what was undeniably their staff’s fault.

Continental’s baggage claim rep, unlike United’s, was cordial and professional, acknowledged the airline’s error, immediately discovered where my bag was (Houston) and expressed concern whether there was anything in the bag that I needed that night. She then adhered to Rule #2, looked me in the eye and I listened to her…

Rule 2: Apologize
I’m constantly amazed how few businesses actually apologize for their errors. Dry cleaners, waiters, mechanics, cable installers. No matter who you are, if you or your company screw up, the first words out of your mouth should be “I’m sorry.” Even if it’s not your fault. Even if it may be partially or largely your customer’s fault. Your apology isn’t an admission of guilt, it’s simply an acknowledgement that you have sympathy for the customer having to deal with their situation.

At 11 at night, after traveling for 7 hours, I was tired and annoyed, and Ms. Robinson’s sincere apology and concern salved my irritation. She knew my bag’s sleepover in Houston wasn’t her fault, and I knew it wasn’t her fault, but by apologizing for the company, she shifted the focus from the mistake to…

Rule 3: Explain How You Will Correct The Mistake
Everyone screws up sometime. We understand. What’s crucial is how will you correct your error? What’s your plan? How will you resolve the problem without introducing more inconvenience or disruption in your customer’s life?

After accepting responsibility and apologizing for Continental’s mishandling of my bag, Ms. Robinson told me exactly how they were going to resolve my problem: my bag was going to be flown up in the morning and they would deliver it to any address I specified. Then she provided me with all the contacts and phone numbers of anyone I might need to talk with the next day and I left the terminal hoping that they would actually…

Rule 4: Correct the Mistake
Promising to correct the mistake is an important step, but actually taking the promised action is essential. So, when I received a call from the third-party service that dropped my bag off on my front porch I knew that I wouldn’t be writing a viral song about Continental’s baggage handling miscues.

What more could I expect? They screwed up. They admitted it, apologized, promised to fix the problem quickly, and did what they promised. No hard feelings, Continental. Now, can you send Ms. Robinson over to United to show them how it’s done?

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Tweet This Post

This week saw the debut of a YouTube video United Breaks Guitars by Canadian songwriter Dave Carroll that satirized United Airlines’ negligence and indifference to the way their O’Hare baggage handlers damaged his guitar. The video went viral and accumulated more than two and a half million views and over 14,000 comments in less than a week.

The attraction and impact of Carroll’s video demonstrates the enormous potential of social media tools when wielded skillfully and exposed the vulnerability of sclerotic organizations with no social media aptitude or capacity to engage their clients in substantive dialogue.

Do you want your SM content to have the same impact? Follow these lessons:

Lesson 1: Tell a story. Marketers continually preach the value of storytelling for a reason: stories stick. Carroll’s song tells his entire story from witnessing the guitar carnage at O’Hare to the denouement nine months later when his claim is finally rejected by the kind Ms. Irlweg. There was no recitation of United’s lost baggage policies, their industry ranking in bagage claims or even details of the damage done to his guitar. Raw data simply doesn’t have the impact of a well crafted story. No one who views his video will forget his basic narrative: United broke my guitar, they don’t care, they don’t take any responsibility for their negligence and he’ll never fly them again.

Lesson 2: Keep It Simple. Carroll’s song reinforces a simple message directed at United: You broke it, You should fix it. Simple, easy to grasp and powerfully true. If you click through to his personal website, he provides a written narrative that contains all the gruesome details of his nine month saga. But the song is actually more powerful because the core elements are all contained in his facile lyrics.

Lesson 3: Be Authentic. Authenticity is powerful and persuasive. Carroll doesn’t embellish his story, but relies instead on understated frustration and anger that thousands of his viewers can empathize with. Although he may be entirely justified in ranting against United’s casual indifference, his temperate presentation enhances his believability and strengthens his message.

For those wanting to emulate United, these simple lessons should help you enrage half a million clients yourself:

Lesson 1: Design Client Interactions to Maximize Anger and Frustration. One of the reasons that Carroll’s video resonates so powerfully is that it perfectly captures the indifferent response that so many travelers have encountered with the major airlines. While several upstart airlines like Virgin and Southwest have adopted business models that reflect a genuine concern for their passengers, the legacy airlines, including United, American and Delta retain business models that appear to be designed to antagonize and disappoint their passengers. Until the advent of accessible social media channels, they could get away with boorish behavior, but not anymore.

Lesson 2: Refuse to Engage Purposefully In Any Social Media Channels. United has a corporate presence on a single social media channel: Twitter.  And that presence appears to exist for outbound dissemination of ticketing specials and other company promotions, not to engage passengers in active dialogue. Is it any wonder that they appear coldly imperious and uncaring?

Lesson 3: Outsource Your Limited SM Participation to Public Relations. Visit United’s Twitter page and their profile reveals that the account is managed by their public relations department. Not by someone on the front lines of customer service. Not by anyone who has the authority to solve problems immediately. Nope, United apparently views Twitter as another media channel to be managed for their corporate interests, not as a method to interact in real time with their passengers. Want to complain? Not our department.

Lesson 4: Limit Your Response When Confronted With Execrable Behavior. In a case study for what not to do when confronted with appalling corporate behavior, United has limited their response to two brief Twitter messages (right) asserting that they intend to make it right with Dave Carroll and to use the video in future training so everyone receives better service from us. This anemic response is being overwhelmed by over 14,000 nearly universal negative comments attached to the YouTube video. As the video gains more exposure, it will be picked up in other media outlets and has the potential to inflict serious damage on United’s precarious brand image. But it appears that their ingrained, insular culture will trump any creative response that takes responsibility for their negligence and embraces serious change in their service delivery.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Tweet This Post