Brand missteps in the social media spotlight – Destroy brand trust at the speed of light

Destroy brand trust at the speed of light

With smartphone video just a couple of clicks away for a witness, any service failure that looks bad on camera may be transmitted worldwide in a matter of minutes. When will companies realize that everyone now has a video camera on them, and that they can broadcast live on Facebook and Twitter within minutes?

United Airlines – also known as “United Breaks Guitars” – has leapt into a brand disaster of mythic proportions. The company forcefully remove a passenger – a paying customer sitting in his seat – from an overbooked flight. Around the world, people watched a video of the bloodied man being dragged down the aisle.

Internet crushes United Airline with #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos.

New cabin class

#NewUnitedAirlinesMottos @united don’t worry…we won’t talk about it pic.twitter.com/qUp9E18xvJ

— AngryTraveller (@angrytrav) April 11, 2017

United airlines flight attendant

Hi I’m Lucille, i’ll be your flight attendant for today, how do you wanna get off the plane? #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos pic.twitter.com/10grAQ3lTo

— Dadscoolkicks (@adzrianzz) April 12, 2017

United Lego passenger removal playset

#NewUnitedAirlinesMottos Passenger Removal Play Set!! ??? pic.twitter.com/8c0A2ta3c5

— Patricia Duffer (@MWChihuahuas) April 13, 2017

The movie 300

THIS IS @United! ??️#UnitedAirlines #UnitedAirlinesMottos #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos #UnitedAirlinesAssault pic.twitter.com/bwlyaOqAyM

— Happening Babua (@HappeningBabua) April 12, 2017

Customer service training video

OMG, wht’s wrong with UA. Calm Down, gonna drop more @cnnbrk#NewUnitedAirlinesMottos#TuesdayMotivationpic.twitter.com/ZU0umNOqtv https://t.co/zI0nLjk5o6

— Panama Mian (@spall_ifti) April 12, 2017

He volunteered

He volunteered.#NewUnitedAirlinesMottos pic.twitter.com/Ajlm76Zw1U

— #MAGA in the 316 ? (@mikeo159) April 11, 2017

Re-accommodate

When our gate agents have spoken, hopefully no one’s face gets broken. LET’S FLY!! #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos pic.twitter.com/LElVWsuR99

— Ansheen Doparkasteen (@AneeshDhoparkaz) April 11, 2017

United Airline customer service

‘Board as a doctor, leave as a patient’: Internet crushes airline with #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos https://t.co/tNm8U8foK9 pic.twitter.com/6eOqJASHt7

— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 11, 2017

United Airlines takes a beating on social media (CNN)

United Airlines finally apologizes

As the social-media backlash grew stronger, and more videos of the incident emerged, the company’s stock began to fall, dropping as much as 4 percent, with the company losing nearly $800 million in value at one point.

There’s nothing like the threat of angry shareholders to get a corporate CEO to offer an apology:

The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened. Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way.

I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right.

It’s never too late to do the right thing. I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what’s broken so this never happens again. This will include a thorough review of crew movement, our policies for incentivizing volunteers in these situations, how we handle oversold situations and an examination of how we partner with airport authorities and local law enforcement. We’ll communicate the results of our review by April 30th.

I promise you we will do better.

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Brand missteps in the social media spotlight — https://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/xnw
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