Charge of Customer Service at United Airlines Case Study
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Charge of Customer Service at United Airlines Case Study
Read as below, Unhappy Customers , and answer the following questions:
– Happy customers make great brand evangelists. But have you ever thought of the unhappy ones, as an influencer marketing opportunity? In this video, we will dive into their importance and the steps you may take to turn your customer service challenges into a marketing opportunity. In 2009, a singer-songwriter, Dave Carroll, was flying with United Airlines from Canada to Nebraska via Chicago. Upon landing in the layover city, he heard a passenger behind him scream.
“My God, they are throwing guitars out there.” Sure enough, his $3500 Taylor guitar was one of them. Upon arrival to his destination, he discovered that the guitar’s neck was broken off. Nine months of his back and forth with United, weren’t crowned with success. So the songwriter wrote a song, United Breaks Guitars. He also produced a brilliant music video to accompany it and uploaded it to YouTube. Within four days of the upload, Dave’s song was viewed by more than 1.5 million people.
It went viral and the viewer count tripled in the next three months. United’s efforts to make things right, came too late to stop the snowball effect. Now, many years later, the video’s viewership has crossed the 16 million viewers threshold. But there was something more than the number of views. According to the Times of the UK, within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall and then plunge by 10%, costing shareholders $180 million.
Whether these numbers are right or not is irrelevant. In 2009, Time Magazine named Dave’s video one of the top viral videos of the year. CNBC featured him and his experience on their 2012 documentary, Customer Disservice. Later, Dave also published a book on the power of one’s voice in the age of social media and he is now a highly demanded keynote speaker on customer service. Had United handled things differently, things could have been turned to their benefit.
There was one company that turned Dave’s sad situation into a positive. Taylor Guitars, the company who made Dave’s beloved guitar, broken by the airline, gave him a new one. Not only that, they went further. They also created a video, one that expressed their concern,reminded of their guitar repair services and offering guidelines on how to travel with guitars.By now, that video was watched by nearly one million people, been liked close to 2000 times.
Scott Stratten of Unmarketing also once had an unpleasant experience with an airline. In contrast to Dave and his guitar, Delta Airlines reacted to Scott’s tweet within three minutes.They respectfully apologized, admitting their fault and won him back. He is a professional keynote speaker too, but instead of scolding the brand, he applauds them in his speeches by remembering how disarming was their timely and courteous reaction.
According to a research by VentureBeat Insight, in the US alone, present day connected consumers complain about brands 879 million times a year. And it all happens on social media. The staggering part though, is not the number of complaints, but the fact that 33% of the time, brands do not respond to these complaints, leaving close to 290 million complaints unanswered. Obviously, not every brand gets it.
Those that do, reap the benefits. Here are some practical steps you can take to turn a complaint into an opportunity. Monitor mentions of your brand across the web by employing tools that allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of various platforms. Make sure you’re monitoring misspellings of your brand as well. Angry people do mistype words. As soon as a complaint is discovered, turn to social media marketing expert, Chris Brogan’s AAA approach.
Acknowledge, apologize, act. Be swift at it. Timing is of essence here. When stressed about a situation to the point of announcing it to the world, your consumer needs to hear from you fast. JetBlue, for example, averages a remarkable 10 minute response time and they’re being mentioned over 2500 times a day on Twitter alone. Based on how the situation develops, see if there is an influencer marketing opportunity to develop from your interaction with the customer.
Also, monitor complaints about other brands that mention your brand. Like Taylor Guitar’s case, which we have discussed. These situations may yield additional opportunities. To summarize, you want to put a system in place, whereby your customer support will efficiently handle complaints, discerning also, potential marketing opportunities and passing those alongto whoever handles influencer marketing within your organization. As Jay Baer of Convince and Convert puts it, “Unhappy customers represent “an enormous opportunity for businesses.
“You just gotta learn how to “marry your customer service with marketing, “hugging your complainants, “because they are not your problem, “ignoring them may become one for you.”
Question One
- What is the most important element of this case study? Why? Did United Airlines do anything wrong?
Question Two
- Was the customer’s reaction justified? Provide a rationale for your answer.
Question Three
- If you were in charge of customer service at United Airlines, how would you have handled the situation? Provide a rationale for your answer.
Respond to Peer(s)
- Read and respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts.
Respond to Peer 1: Maxwell
In my opinion, the most important element of this case study is the focus, or lack thereof, on customer service. Customer Service is incredibly important and necessary to keep in place; word of mouth travels first and people talk. Say that you were a HUGE fan of United Airlines and refused to fly with any other airline and your
friend told you that their private property was destroyed by the airline and nothing was done about it on the airlines side; likely, you friend will move away from that airline and will share experiences with their friends by way of word of mouth or social media. At that point, you can bet on people continuing to move further and
further away from the negative experiences that their friends have had and find new products, new airlines, whatever the case is. United Airlines was at fault because they didn’t respond immediately to the situation and they did not apologize or offer compensation of any kind to said customer. They refused to do anything
about it and it was a 9-month battle back and forth, which to me, is absolutely unacceptable.
In my opinion, yes, the customers reaction was justified. If a customer gives you the opportunity to make something right and you don’t, it is the customers right to share their negative experiences if they please. I share negative experiences that I have with others because I want them to avoid the situation as well.
If I was in charge of customer service at United Airlines, I would have responded IMMEDIATELY with an apology, I would have rectified the situation by providing a new guitar, free flight miles, anything to keep the customer happy. As a result, they lost 10% of their stock and lost $180M dollars. I would not want to be responsible for that.
Respond to Peer 2 : Tiffany
Question One
- What is the most important element of this case study? Why? Did United Airlines do anything wrong?
The most important element of this case study is responding to customers efficiently in a timely matter. By doing this, United Airlines could have avoided the lash backs from people around the world. I’ve always lived by the saying “customers are always right”. Even if I sometimes don’t believe that it’s true, I believe making it
right for the customer matters a lot. At the end of the day, customers are the “marketers” for the company. Customers are the word of mouth as to why others should or shouldn’t buy a certain product, etc. In this case, United is in the wrong and should have reacted sooner than later. For the fact, the guitar was mishandled in the
hands of United Airlines employees, United Airlines should have taken accountability quick and resolved it in a matter of minutes rather than waiting for a simple post from a customer to go viral.
Question Two
- Was the customer’s reaction justified? Provide a rationale for your answer.
Customers reaction is definitely justified. Everyone would of course weigh in on the issue of mishandling customers personal property. It clearly shows that the guitar had been mishandled and damaged and when posts are made showing that the company itself was in the wrong, customers will then post and respond on their experience as well.
Question Three
- If you were in charge of customer service at United Airlines, how would you have handled the situation? Provide a rationale for your answer.
If was in charge, I would definitely apologize for the inconvenience that United Airlines had put him through, apologized for the fact that his property was damaged and offer to replace it or pay him for what the retail value is along with giving him United Mileage. This isn’t much compared the negative publicity it had caused United Airlines.
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