Dear United Airlines:
You messed up big. You know it. There is no need for me to rehash it because it is all over the web, TV, radio..you name it. I’ve watched the video twice and even showed it to my husband last night, many days after my first viewing. I couldn’t help it.
The tune is actually catchy, the video funny and well, you really had it coming. The next time someone vows to (In Carroll’s words) l “write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world” I think you should take them to heart.
What I talk about on my blog is community building and engagement and there is still hope for you if you’re willing to put in the work. Right now you are in heavy damage control mode and that is quite understandable. But if you can step back for a minute and think of ways to connect with people who are talking about you in droves right now, you can take this big bowl of lemons and start making lemonade. There was a post by Dan Greenfield earlier this week that chronicled your responses on YouTube and Twitter and compared them to the number of comments made by the public. They completely dwarf your numbers. That is somewhat understandable but you could probably do better.
The key here is that people are talking about you. It may not be in the best light but they are talking about you much more than they were before this happened. You will have to kowtow to Carroll a bit, but that should not be your only strategy. Try building community around all of this chatter.
Here are a few ideas I offer you, free of charge:
Ask people what you could have done better. Seriously. Start your own forum or Facebook page asking people what you could have done better in this case. Don’t worry about looking stupid. That has already happened. This could turn into a good thing.
Find Weird Al Yankovic and have him write a spoof to Carroll’s song on your behalf. Remember this rendition of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, coined “Eat it?” Why not get in on the action? I bet he can fit you into his schedule.
Ask Carroll if someone from your company can be in his next video. He may not be as mad at you by the time the third video is produced and if you keep giving him everything he asks for he may even start to like you again. Big maybe on that.
Read EVERY.SINGLE.COMMENT and reach out to bloggers. Get a team of people to read every single comment and blog connected to that video that you can. Comment heavily.
Create some cool sticker with the YouTube logo and Carroll’s face on music equipment reminding baggage handlers to be careful. You see where I’m going with this. Get your team together and start having fun with this thing.
Think long term and get people talking about how you handled all of this with a bit of humor, after the fact and cared enough about your reputation to let the world help you do better.
Yours truly..and good luck,
Angela Connor
8 comments
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July 17, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Heidi Miller
Great advice! Thanks for taking the time to lay out everything that United could and should have done with their crisis communications.
To this list, I would add: Explain in comments and videos what you’re going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Apologizing is one thing, taking positive action to rectify the situation is another. That’s what will change sentiment towards United. It’s not about never making mistakes; it’s about listening and taking appropriate action when you do.
(I wrote about this in my own blog here: http://talkitup.typepad.com/weblog/2009/07/customer-service-requests-falling-on-deaf-ears-make-a-youtube-video.html )
July 17, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Angela Connor
Heidi: thanks for providing the link. I watched Carroll’s response on your post. You had some great ideas as well. I agree with you that they need to focus on changing things for the better. I am going to subscribe to your blog. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
July 18, 2009 at 2:48 am
Allison
I know you meant well, but United apparently agrees with me that a low-key approach is best.
Anything they did to try to be too visible – commenting frequently on blogs and forums (!?!) – making their own video or embarking on any special ad campaign – would come across as trying to steal Dave’s thunder and would only create more backlash, not to mention even more publicity for Dave. They should stay off the stage and let Dave have his moment in the sun.
What United has done so far is fine — they have posted 13 Tweets referring to Dave or his situation, have said they took responsibility, apologized, rectified it, and, most importantly, have learned from it. And United is working with Dave for the 3rd video, which will be, in Dave’s words, a love story.
July 18, 2009 at 6:08 am
Angela Connor
Hello Allison: Thanks for taking the time to comment. Of course I “meant well,” and still mean well. Yes, it is nice that United agrees with your methods. I offer a different opinion and one approach isn’t necessarily the best, though I absolutely understand the points you make. We are clearly living in a new age, the conversation age and should be open to various opinions. We apparently disagree on the definition of backlash and the power of community. And I hope you know, that that’s okay. There is always more than one way to handle a situation, which is the point of my post. It is from my own perspective.
July 19, 2009 at 11:02 am
Scott Meis
Some great ideas here Angela. I’d be curious to know if and how United is using the video as an internal training tool and to what extent that could be leveraged to prevent future mishaps and better baggage care. Kitschy idea with that last one. Certainly a lot of ways to use this as a constant reminder. Always makes me gag when I look out the window of a plane and see bags being tossed around without a care in the world.
July 23, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Rolando Peralta
Great post Angela! I love your recommendations because I think that the only way to learn about an experience like this one, it’s take it to the grassroots of your company.
As Scott is pointing, I also would like to know how will UA be using the video(s) for training.
Another comment that I’d like to bring is the fact that when a company touch one single person, it tend to think that she/he is “alone”; and cases like Dave’s showed us that if you touch a person, you’re touching a network or a community or several communities (as we can see with a single Google Blog Search), that could be invisible, but it became NOTORIOUS.
Thanks a lot for your great post!
Cheers,
July 30, 2009 at 7:56 am
Angela Connor
Thank you, Rolando for taking the time to post a comment. I believe I read something about UA using the video as training shortly after Scott posted his comment. I’ll look for the link and send it to you. Scott, if you’ve learned anything, do let us know.
August 7, 2009 at 11:11 am
United Airlines Incident all over the Social Media space « Designing and Leading Instantly Responsive Organizations
[...] August, 2009 update: To be expected, there is a lot of buzz around this incident. A good analysis of United’s response can be found at Dan Greenfield. Some interesting suggestions for United were penned by Angela Connor. [...]