Too bad United..

We often underestimate the power of social media. I find myself amazed at the technology at our fingertips. I remember joining Facebook when you had to be a college student. Now my 10-year-old brother has an account. Even though these social networks can provide great communication and create and maintain relationships, they can also hurt organizations. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and many other networks all have this in common. They can spread good OR bad news to the point of destroying a company’s image.

Country musician Dave Carroll who is a member of the band, Sons of Maxwell, proved this point by an experience he had with United Airlines in July of 2008. Traveling with his Taylor made guitar, Carroll found baggage handlers in the Chicago O’Hare airport ‘throwing’ his $3,500 sentimental instrument that he had owned for over ten years. He immediately spoke to a flight attendant who told him to speak to a lead agent…who could not be found. When talking to a third employee, Carroll was told he signed a waiver, when in fact, he had not and no waiver could explain what was happening outside. Nine months later and after repeated calls to United Airlines, Carroll was eventually told United would not take responsibility for what happened and there would be no more following e-mails.

Carroll only asked for a final settlement of $1,200 (what it cost to repair his guitar) in flight vouchers but was shocked to hear not even that would be given. Carroll’s final reply was that he’d write three songs about his united airlines experience. His estimated goal? To get one million followers to his first song. Much to Carroll’s surprise, “United Breaks Guitars: 1” was posted on YouTube and within three days, had over one million followers. As of August 2009, there are over 5.3 million views to “United Breaks Guitars: 1” and over 290,000 views to the second song, “United Breaks Guitars: 2”. Curve Productions Inc who assisted Carroll in his attempt, said to just search "United Breaks Guitars" on Google and you will find over one hundred blogs and pages commenting on the song.

According to Carroll’s website the response has been incredible. He thanks United and said, “they’ve given me a creative outlet that has brought people together from around the world.” According to numerous sources, United lost roughly $180 million due to falling stock three days following the “United Breaks Guitars: 1” posting. Based on United’s Twitter page, there are only 12 tweets posted in mid July where they claim that it had ‘struck a chord w/us and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right.’ They also expressed their apologies and plans to use the video for training purposes.

Carroll released a settlement statement saying that United had ‘generously but late’ offered some compensation. He said that he’d be very happy to see United give that money to a charity of their choice. United announced July 10 on Twitter, “Wud like Dave 2 sing a happy tune—as asked we gave 3K to Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz 4 music education 4 kids.” However, there was no information found on a donation from the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz website to my knowledge. There is also not a single ounce of information about the situation on United’s website.

Correlation to public relations based on what happened? Simply put, United Airlines should have put Carroll first because after all, maintaining good relationships with clients should be a priority. United could have saved a lot of trouble by responding to Carroll quickly but instead, lost almost $2 million because of bad communication and reasoning. Not only did they refuse to compensate for his guitar, they also did not respond officially until 9 months after what happened.

When there is a problem within an organization, as a public relations specialist, you fix it. Don’t ask why or how, just do it. A $1,200 loss in comparison to a $180 million loss is a pretty big jump. The result of hoping Carroll would just forget and move on was a bad choice. Carroll said it best himself when he said ‘the system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims’ and that ‘United is good at it.’

Not only has the airline been hurt, but the women who assisted Carroll in his final debate has a reputation that will affect her for the rest of her professional life. A Ms.Irlweg is described by Carroll and even though his settling statement claims that song number 2 will give her a break with a better explanation, the damage was already done by the first video. There was no information that I could find about the current state of her job, but I wouldn’t doubt United Airlines’ decision to find a new director or PR specialist over customer complaints.
I hope United has learned their lesson and will positively take every customer claim or complaint seriously. For the company themselves, the ending result could have a positive effect for the future of the company. They did mention that the videos would be used in training new employees. I wonder how that will go over.

If something does happen where an organization gets in trouble, there should be an immediate reaction. Even when Carroll threatened to create the songs, United reacted as if they’d never talked to him in the first place. Good public relations should have settled his complaints after the first protest or even after the threat of posting the now famous “United Breaks Guitars” hits.
The PR of United Airlines should now focus on bringing their name back into the spotlight or back period. The loss of stocks expresses that enough. After time, a company or organization’s name can reclaim what they offer but will unfortunately always have their mistakes on record. United will hopefully be able to mask this mistake.

Social media is out there. It’s alive and kicking. Even though it may seem like nothing good or bad can come from a tweet on Twitter, a status update on Facebook, or even a music video post on YouTube, David Carroll proves it can. Now not only Americans but Canadians and possibly everyone around the world know to take precautions when choosing whether or not to fly with United Airlines. As Carroll says it best, "I should have flown with someone else or gone by car because united breaks guitars."