Reflection on Social Media Case 12: United Breaks Guitar
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear "United Airlines"? Well if you are like most of the United States, you think of them pulling people off of planes or bad customer service. Things like this aren't the only bad customer service United Airlines has a bad reputation for. Apparently, they have a history since 2008, according to this case.
The band, Sons of Maxwell was headed to Nashville, Tennessee, and had a layover in Chicago. This is where things turned bad for United Airlines. The lead singer of the band, Dave Caroll, witnessed their guitars being mishandled by employees of United Airlines. Dave was so appalled, that he talked to three different United Airlines employees and they either told him that he needed to talk to someone above them or that they weren't liable because he signed a waiver, when in fact he never did. This showed a complete lack of human understanding or even compassion.
After his guitars were treated badly by United Airlines, and he was too, Dave hit social media. He wrote a song about United Airlines and how terrible they are. Also, a hashtag went around that said, #unitedbreraksguitars went around different social media platforms, and specifically Twitter. This went viral and within 2 days United Airlines lost $23,000,000 in stock value, because the price plummeted and people pulled out. But who wouldn't, especially with such terrible customer service; how do they expect to keep a company running when their employees can't just treat their customers with common courtesy.
In the end, United Airlines offered to pay for his guitar but was too late because he already had bought another one. In the end, United Airlines should have just made it right in the beginning and could have literally saved themselves from losing millions of dollars, literally. So, if you learn anything from reading this, know that you should always make it right with the customer, because with social media anymore, they will ruin your life.
The band, Sons of Maxwell was headed to Nashville, Tennessee, and had a layover in Chicago. This is where things turned bad for United Airlines. The lead singer of the band, Dave Caroll, witnessed their guitars being mishandled by employees of United Airlines. Dave was so appalled, that he talked to three different United Airlines employees and they either told him that he needed to talk to someone above them or that they weren't liable because he signed a waiver, when in fact he never did. This showed a complete lack of human understanding or even compassion.
After his guitars were treated badly by United Airlines, and he was too, Dave hit social media. He wrote a song about United Airlines and how terrible they are. Also, a hashtag went around that said, #unitedbreraksguitars went around different social media platforms, and specifically Twitter. This went viral and within 2 days United Airlines lost $23,000,000 in stock value, because the price plummeted and people pulled out. But who wouldn't, especially with such terrible customer service; how do they expect to keep a company running when their employees can't just treat their customers with common courtesy.
In the end, United Airlines offered to pay for his guitar but was too late because he already had bought another one. In the end, United Airlines should have just made it right in the beginning and could have literally saved themselves from losing millions of dollars, literally. So, if you learn anything from reading this, know that you should always make it right with the customer, because with social media anymore, they will ruin your life.
Thanks for sharing Erin!
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