United Airlines: Next Steps

After this scandal, United has a long road to take to fix what they have done. No one will forget this but there are a few things United can do. The first would be to completely acknowledge what they did was wrong and they should have never blamed Dr. Dao. The second would be to do a full review of their policies. United should take time to enhance their customer commitment and create some goals and philosophies that would comfort future travelers. United needs to have strong PR in order to get through this scandal, so rebranding could be one option however that would take some time. United needs to set themselves apart from the industry and ultimately make people forget that this happened. For example when the BP oil spill happened, the company changed their name to show that they care about what they did wrong. Today, many people don’t even remember the BP oil spill. I believe United should do something similar with their motto “Fly friendlier skies” in order to improve and allow people to trust them again. Even though United will never be able to completely bounce back from this situation, there are many courses of action they can take that will eventually help them. There are top PR gurus that have suggested a course of action for United below are two:

Matt Rizzetta, CEO, North 6th Agency

“If the initial reaction on social media and at office water coolers is any indication, United has already lost a significant group of customers. United would be best served to approach its communications strategy for two customer-retention buckets: one for customers who are loyal to the brand; and one for customers who claim they are never coming back. For the first bucket, it’s all about quick communication that reinforces United’s values and shows immediate differentiation from the competition. The second bucket is a long-term strategy that will require a more personalized approach and can only be rebuilt over time.”

Katie Sprehe, director of reputation research, APCO Insight

“My advice to United would be to take responsibility immediately and admit fault. It should explain how this happened and what it is doing in the future to prevent it from occurring again. This might be an opportunity for United to set itself apart from the industry and say it is looking into alternatives to overbooking passengers. Airline customers place high importance on the actual experience of flying. Yet, time and time again, airlines are failing to meet this basic expectation of good customer service.”

The framework behind United’s successful journey through this situation is Utilitarianism. They have to think in terms of what is the greater good for the greatest amount of people. The question they want pose is: “What can I do to make people safe while flying with us?” United has lost a lot of sales and many customers that this framework would allow them to put pieces together to figure out how they can best serve the community again. This was a teleological framework however United can use a deontological framework as well. United can look at virtue ethics to find the “Golden Mean” in this situation. How they can take this situation and find a middle ground that will work for everyone: the company and customers. While both would be useful frameworks when put together, United should stand with a utilitarian point of view where they are looking at the greatest good for current and future customers. Standing out this way will help people realize that they are really committed to their customer's safety in their flights.

United Airlines, learn some PR from other people

People are saying many different things about this incident. Everyone was truly shaken by how United had handled this before, during, and after. I am sure people have become scared to fly any airplane since they think this could have been them. In this blog, I have brought a couple insights to light to see what people’s opinions are how they think this could have been handled.

The first person I want to bring to the stage is President Donald Trump. Despite being a president that has had PR scandals around him, he had released a statement saying the following:

“You know, there’s a point at which I’m getting off the plane—seriously,” Trump was quoted as saying. “They should have gone up higher. But to just randomly say, ‘You’re getting off the plane,’ that was terrible.”

President Trump does bring up a good point. It is actually what a lot of people had said. I absolutely agree with his statement that some amount of money would have gotten me to volunteer to get off of the plane. United should have kept increasing the amount because at some point someone would have taken it causing this incident to not happen. I really liked that he said this incident was terrible. That says a lot coming from him and I am sure it definitely made other people satisfied that their president was agreeing how horrific this incident was. I think he should have commented on how United was handling this and gone even further to publicly apologize to Dr. Dao. I understand that it might not have been his place but offering his apology would have given United a lesson.

Other airlines have offered their apologies and stated how they could have avoided this if it was them. Many airline companies have taken this opportunity to comfort their customers ensuring that this would never happen on their flights. One particular airlines I want to mention is Emirates. Emirates is one of the best and luxurious airlines to fly internationally.. They are known to have amazing service and a professional staff. The president of Emirates, Tim Clark, released the following statement:

"Let me say it was a disgrace. It shamed the airline industry as a whole. We don't go about our business in that way. It's symptomatic of a corporate culture within that company from the board and chief executive downwards. Had it been me in that position I would've have had blue flashing lights on cars going right through the company to find out how this could've been allowed to happen in the first place. That was probably the last thing I do before I resigned.”

He brings up a really good point. It did shame the whole airline industry. People have become scared to fly with any airlines. I did like how he brought up how United behaves and what the company culture is like claiming that this incident shows how the company reacts. I think this was a perfect statement that was released by another airline. I feel like more of them should have done the same. They also should comfort the customers saying this won’t happen on our airplanes.

The news had mentioned that the system “randomly” selected passengers to get off. Many have argued that this list is not really that random since it is very much controlled by United. United looks at who has never really flown United and which customer won’t care. They obviously don’t want to kick off customers who are premium or loyal members. They also consider connecting flights while creating this list. United also does not like separate families. Unfortunately, it did since Dao was flying with his wife. United has this list created before the flight even starts to board and stays till the flight has taken off. They had created this list by putting in an algorithm. The founder of crankyflier.com, Brett Snyder agrees that this list is not truly random.

"This was an abnormal situation because usually the computer’s making the decision before everybody's on the plane. It's never truly random, it's what they put into the algorithm."

Snyder stated that this was an abnormal situation. In my opinion, I think he is trying to state that this whole fiasco could have been avoided if they handled this before boarding everyone. I am sure United knew that the flight was overbooked; I just don’t know why they had to wait till the last minute to do something about it.

This scandal has had a huge affect on the airline industry causing people to even say they want to boycott United. This issue was not handled properly at all since United showed no remorse until day 2 or 3 of their apologies. Since then, many other events have happened on their airlines which is making this issue worse for the company. They have stated that they will be reviewing everything such as their values and philosophy and giving another statement on April 30th.  

Sources:
1. http://nextshark.com/president-donald-trump-releases-statement-united-airlines-incident/
2. http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/investing/emirates-united-passenger-disgrace-resign/
3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/04/12/random-computer-search-really-blame-uniteds-removal-debacle/100351720/

After the horrific event that happened, United went through a series of apologies. They were all over the place and some of the top PR gurus have called this a disaster. Let’s see what went down. The first apology that came out was ultimately blaming Dr. Dao. Oscar Munoz, who is the CEO of United, stood behind its employees by supporting their behavior commending them because they ensured how United likes to “fly right”. On the same day, Munoz released another statement as to how he is disturbed just like all of us after watching this crisis unwind and how he will be accommodating those passengers who had to witness this. At this point, he still somehow hasn’t mentioned Dr. Dao. On Tuesday, Munoz got his facts together and finally claimed full responsibility for the events that went down. "It's never too late to do the right thing,” said Munoz on Tuesday. I want to believe in that statement but I also believe that if he couldn’t apologize the first time, how sincere is he in that statement. Again, still no mention of Dr. Dao...interesting. On that wednesday, Munoz went on to Good Morning America and expressed that this type of behavior will never happen. He said that he felt ashamed when he watched Dr. Dao’s video and ensured everyone that it will never happen. He also brought up how he will give full refunds to everyone on that flight. On Thursday, Munoz stated how this was a harsh learning experience and how he wants to make this right for Dr. Dao and his family since his daughter had spoken at a conference in Chicago. This is where Munoz mentioned how he had been reaching out to Dr. Dao however Dao’s daughter confirmed that this did not happen. The following is a screenshot of Munoz’s 1st…..2nd…...3rd….. Oh right 4th apology.

After this crisis, a lot of PR strategists have spoken about what should have been done and how could this have all been saved. Chris Ann Goddard who is the president of CGPR public relations had the following input.

"Goddard says United needed to immediately shift into crisis mode. A crisis plan, she said, should include a heartfelt apology, release of a specific plan for addressing the mistakes, clear communication with front-line employees and a statement sent to frequent fliers and loyal customers.

"Three apologies in two days? Really?" Goddard says. "Put the heartfelt apology out there, issue a thoughtful statement, admit a company's wrongdoing, be consistent on social media. ... And, oh by the way, don't blame anyone else, especially the victim."

Many people have stated that this crisis could have easily been averted. The first step should have been to not let people board until people volunteer. United was already offering monetary accommodations to whoever would have volunteered, however they should have kept increasing the amount because at some point someone would have taken $1000 or $1500. Paul English who is a travel industry veteran and the co-founder of kayak.com had the following statement towards United:

"Never force a customer to change behavior, always offer incentives," English says. "United Airlines could, and should, have offered bounties for volunteers and kept increasing the bounty. There was no reason they could not have pursued a more consumer-friendly approach."

My questions: was this handled properly? Absolutely not. United made a lot of mistakes during this time. Their first one was not apologizing to Dr. Dao and not claiming full responsibility the first time. This made the company look awful and not to mention their stocks had dropped severely. All I can say is that United better have a really strong marketing and PR team to ensure that they keep a good image up since other events have taken place within United flights after Dao’s incident.

Sources:
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/business/united-airlines-passenger-doctor.html?_r=0
2. http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/13/news/companies/united-airlines-statement-david-dao-flight/
3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/12/how-united-must-make-their-skies-friendly-again/100365668/

United Airlines, where are your goals and philosophy? What is you doin?

United Airlines, a domestic and international airline, was founded on April 6th, 1921 and it is headquartered in Chicago. Previously known has Varney Airlines, United has risen to the third largest airlines in accordance to revenue. Its founder was Walter T. Varney and its current operating CEO is Oscar Munoz. The company currently houses 86,000 employees and 744 fleets with 24 ordered for the future. In 2010, United merged with Continental Airlines adopting their logo creating a new brand for themselves. This improved sales for United since they had emerged from bankruptcy just a few short years ago. Today, United is flying to 342 destinations and constantly growing.

This short history about United was courtesy of Wikipedia. It is very surprising that United Airlines does not have a page about their history or even a small paragraph honoring their founder. Moreover, it is difficult to even find their “About Page” as well as their Mission, Vision, Philosophy and goals. I spent some time looking for a paragraph that defines their values and had no luck. I found myself upon a page called “Our United Customer Commitment.” On this website, it starts off with the following paragraph.

“We are committed to providing a level of service to our customers that makes us a leader in the airline industry. We understand that to do this we need to have a product we are proud of and employees who like coming to work every day.

Our goal is to make every flight a positive experience for our customers. Our United Customer Commitment explains our specific service commitments so that we can continue a high level of performance and improve wherever possible. The commitment explains our policies in a clear, consistent and understandable fashion. We have detailed training programs and system enhancements to support our employees in meeting these commitments, and we measure how well we meet them.”

In a way this is their mission, vision, goal, and philosophy. I have purposely bolded those two sentences to show the vagueness and how their “goal” is not aligned with SMART goals. When learning what a vision, mission and a SMART goal is in business classes, this is the exact opposite of what we are expected to learn when learning about SMART goals.

In the following webpage, they have the specific “service commitments” and what their promise is to each of those.

It is really interesting to see a company so large not having a clear defined and dedicated page that defines their values, highlights their mission and vision. After their recent scandals, perhaps the first move of their PR strategist should be to create goals and define United’s philosophy. I also find it funny that their slogan is "Fly with Friendlier Skies." At some point, they should really bring their slogan be made more known to people.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines
2. https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/customerfirst.aspx

United Airlines: A dragging issue that shocked everyone

Recently United Airlines has been stirring some trouble with the treatment of their passengers. A few days ago, a 69 year old man name David Dao was dragged off of the flight to make room for another passenger. It is being reported that David Dao, a doctor, has suffered many injuries such as a concussion, broken nose, damaged sinuses as well as tooth loss. After this debacle, David Dao has decided to pursue a lawsuit and he has every right to.

So what exactly happened?

It is still unclear to many people what happened prior to Dr. Dao’s incident. At the Chicago O’Hare International Airport, a flight was taking off for Louisville in which Dr. Dao and many other passengers were seated. The flight was oversold but had to make room for United flight crew members who had to reach Louisville for an assignment. United had offered $400 as well as a hotel to make up for any inconveniences for anyone who volunteered to get off. After their first offer, no one had volunteered so they increased it to $800. In order to accommodate the United crew, four passengers were selected to be removed off the flight. One of these passengers was David Dao, a physician who had to be at work the next day. He refused to get off since the other flight would reach much later causing him to be late to work. Because he refused, United had decided on a course of action. It was to call the Chicago Aviation Police officers who forcefully dragged Dao off the plane causing him severe injuries. A passenger on the flight recorded the video as well as the following conversation:

“I won’t go, I’m a physician I have to work tomorrow, 8 o’clock…” Dao says.

When the officer asks him again, he threatens to “make a lawsuit” against United Airlines.

“No I am not going, I am not going!” says Dao.

The officer responds: “Well, we’ll have to drag you.”

“Well, you can drag me. I won’t go. I’m not going,” says Dao, who seems to be simultaneously talking to someone on the phone.

“They’re trying to use force,” he tells the person on the other end of the call.

The video was absolutely disturbing to watch which is why the link is not posted in this post. The video makes you feel angry and sad as to how they can treat a 69 year old man like that. They said these people were selected based upon a criteria however it said it was still random. United should have been a little more considerate with the age of this man and the fact that his wife was also on the plane.

This incident has caused a huge PR and ethics scandal not only for United but other airlines and airports who have done similar things in the past. There are many people who are either worsening the issue or playing devil’s advocate. The Internet has been stating things like it was not United Airlines’ fault since it was not directly their crew that had dragged Dr. Dao. Others are turning this into a racial issue and how it was not so “random” of a choice. However, this issue has brought multiple incidents like these to light. After the United Airlines issue, there have been few more incidents of United as well as other airlines taking people off flights.

Sources:

1. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/david-dao-doctor-dragged-plane-files-court-papers-demanding-united-n745721

2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/13/united-airlines-david-dao-family-press-conference/100409492/

3. http://people.com/human-interest/footage-united-airlines-passenger-police-arguing-before-dragged-off-plane/