United Breaks Guitars

My perspective is United breaks guitars.

In this situation I think the organization with good public relations is Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell. Carroll found a way to use his personal skills to change the feeling the public had about United Airlines, he formed a place for those that felt similar to him to come together and be heard. I find it most interesting that he warned United and they still did not care, because they obviously do not understand the power of social media.

I really like how Ryan McCarthy of the Huffington Post put it, “After United repeatedly declined to reimburse him for the damage, he wrote a now-famous song decrying their customer service and their brand. It was funny, justified and smart.” I completely agree with that statement, most of all with the smart piece. Carroll obviously understood the potential power of social media; although even he was shocked by how well the song was received as mentioned in his personal blog. “My goal: to get one million hits in one year. To date I have written “United: Song 1” and “United: Song 2” and I’m proud to now release the first video in the trilogy. The response has been incredible so far. Everyone involved in the recording of the track and filming/editing of the video has volunteered their time and pre-production work is underway for the filming of United: Song 2 (hopefully to be released later this summer).”

I also agree with Ryan McCarthy on the justified side. The fact that he warned United just cracks me up. Carroll gave them the opportunity to get out of the entire mess even after they had wasted several months of his life, and they still would not do any better than refusing his claim over email. After all the time they spent telling him no, I cannot help you, go here, or ask them you would think it would have just been easier to give him a little something; Carroll seems like a very reasonable person, after all he dropped his claim from the $3000 the guitar was worth to merely $1200 the cost of repairs.

Carroll illustrated United’s customer service system perfectly I thought on his blog, “It occurred to me that I had been fighting a losing battle all this time and that fighting over this at all was a waste of time. The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims and United is very good at it.” What a terrible customer service department model. You would think that he must be joking there is no way this can be true a company really utilizing such a ridiculous “customer service” model. Well, just read a few of the comments on the United Breaks Guitars video on You Tube and see for yourself.

“United used my ex girlfriends luggage as a parking break for a jumbo jet” fenixwylde

“United messed up now... they should have just paid for the guitar. Now 5 million people won't fly with them!!! Lol” NevaehChyne

“I hope they go Bankrupt, they broke my luggage too.” rolitofc

Those were some of the nicer comments on You Tube. I really hope the United public relation specialists get out on the internet and really analyze what this whole experience has cost their company. I honestly think it will take them a very long time, and a very experienced, hopefully expensive, public relations team to repair the damage they have done to their customer relationships.

I like that in this situation you can see when United’s public relations department seemingly gets involved. I think this statement is definitely something from United’s public relations specialists, “his video is excellent, and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service....This should have been fixed much sooner."
I like that they acknowledged the quality of his video, but using the video for internal training? What? Where? Are they going to use the video as training of what not to do for baggage handlers? I mean the video is hilarious and United definitely needs to do some internal training, but I just struggle to find a legitimate use for the video in the internal training. Maybe they will use it to teach them how to use social media now that would be a useful skill for anyone in that company to understand.

The thing that makes this story so interesting to me is that I definitely did not understand the power of social media. This situation has been a great learning experience for me. I spend very little time using social media and probably would have been a little ignorant like Ms. Irlweg. Now I know I have grossly underestimated the power of social media. I am excited to learn more about social media and the benefits, and consequences that it can have for an organization in the public relations side of their business.

The only reason that this story is even a big deal is social media. Nothing like this could have ever happened ten, even five years ago. I am so excited now, this story has really got me pumped up about what we as regular people can do now when we unite for a good cause, and best of all we can afford it do it with social media.
I really like that we the people can have a big influence on how we are treated by large organizations. I really hope organizations are following this story and understanding how important Carroll has made customer service for all of them. Carroll has set the standard for consumers not only organizations. I would not be surprised to hear about more videos or groups being produced to fight for similar kinds of things.