There are close to 1.5 million people who board an air plane and fly every day in the United States. Of those people, who knows how many things get lost or broken? These companies have to have policies that they stand by or they would lose millions replacing damaged property. A close family member of mine works for an airline. He has seen so many cases where people have lost or left laptops, i phones, and i pads. Is the airline responsible for all of these objects? The case of Dave Carroll is a bit more complicated.
I believe that United was in the right by sticking by their policies in the beginning. They obviously can’t appeal to every single claim made by angry customers. However, they should have taken him more serious when they found out that he had eye witnesses who saw United employees poorly handling his guitar case. United could have avoided a lot of negative publicity, but what is done is done.
One of the things that bothered me the most in all of my research is that I couldn’t find a single article that spoke positively of the way United handled the situation. That says to me that their PR department needs some help. According to The Times (UK) “Big companies such as Ford, Proctor&Gamble, Coca-Cola and Comcast, the cable company, have recognized the need to use the internet to counteract bad publicity and interact positively with consumers. They have set up teams to handle complaints and feedback on blogs, chat rooms and social networks.” It is about time that United set up teams as these companies have done. The situation could have been handled before the video went viral or at least before the second and third videos hit the internet.
United Airlines has lost 10 percent of their share value ($180 million) as a result to the “United Breaks Guitars” videos. 10 percent! Let me tell you what I would have done if I were the public relations professional of United Airlines. As soon as I found out that share value of my company’s stock was decreasing as a result of the music videos, I would launch a PR campaign to counteract the negative publicity. First, I would own up to the fact that sometimes things get broken. I would come up with a series of tips for people traveling with instruments that would help prevent the possibility of them getting broken. The lists would be made available on the website and with the customer service representatives at airports. Then release that information to the press. The best thing for United to do is ride the wave that Dave Carroll generated.
“The company is trying to put a brave face on things. On Twitter it admitted its mistake and announced that it was donating $3,000 to a music charity,” The Times (UK). $3,000 is not enough. The company is facing potential losses of millions of dollars and they think donating $3,000 to a charity is going to fix the problem. Again, if I were with United I would go out of my way to make it up to Dave Carroll. Then I would hire him. I would write an apology song saying what we did to make amends with Dave and what we were doing to fix the problem. Even if the song was terrible, if the timing was right, it would go viral. Everyone that was impacted by the Dave Carroll story would want to hear the formal apology.
As far as Dave Carroll himself, he played all of his cards right. However, the chances of a similar story reoccurring isn’t very likely. The internet is unpredictable and the fact that his video went viral was absolute chance. As a side note, Taylor Guitars got some awesome publicity out of all this. They knew how to ride Dave Carroll’s wave. Right under the three “United Breaks Guitars” videos, there is nice little video featuring the owner of Taylor Guitars. They gave Dave two new guitars, which he mentions in his songs. They also provide information on how to better protect guitars while traveling and also advertise that they repair guitars. I thought they were pretty smart.
References:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/07/did_dave_carroll_cost_united_1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6725588.ece
WOW! you put so much thought and detail into this essay! I loved it!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I can really tell that you did a lot of research for this and you incorporated it all greatly! I enjoyed reading this one!
ReplyDeleteI agree! United definitely should have been much more willing to resolve the issue and put in more than a meager $3000 into some charity, then "call it good." Stupid stupid stupid.
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points Jackson, I like your suggestion of hiring Dave Carroll/making response songs.
ReplyDeleteI know this is over two years old, but I have to bring it up. Taylor Guitars wasn't the only one whew knew how to ride Dave Carroll's wave.
ReplyDeleteThere are other Dave Carrolls out there, many of whom are musicians. The Dave Carroll of davecarroll.com fame is a guitarist/singer/songwriter who saw his YouTube views skyrocket after the Dave Carroll scandal simply because he shares the name. He wrote a response song called "that's why I don't fly": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbM8yFushB0
The name itself is a powerful one. I would argue that Dave Carroll is among the most sonorous names in the world, the "cellar door" of names. It's no accident that Dave Carroll's own name makes it into the lyrics of DaveCarroll.com's response song. I know a Dave Carroll, and he goes by Dave Carroll (not Dave). The band Love in Stockholm (http://loveinstockholm.com) is fortunate enough to have a sax player named Dave Carroll, and his name makes its way into song frequently in their company.
The fact that you used Dave Carroll's full name in this blog post MUCH more frequently than either "Dave" or "Carroll" is telling as well.