How United Airlines could have avoided the crisis on social media
On April 9th, United airlines forcibly removed a ticketed passenger to make room to four of its employees on a flight from Louisville from Chicago.
Thanks to social media, many people shoot this , posted online and it went viral.
And this are the replies from united airlines regarding the incident:
And then, United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, came up with an explanation on twitter ,but not about the passenger who was dragged off the plane and inhumanely treated. This added fuel on the fire when company used words like “re-accommodate,” instead of being apologetic. And it came off insensitive.
Followed by this tweet, Mr.Munoz sent an e-mail to united’s employees defending his staff’s action and calling the passenger “disruptive and belligerent.” !!
So, what went wrong here? What could the united airlines have done differently here?
Here is what United airlines social media team should have done immediately when this incident happened :
- Accept the responsibility of the incident
2. Apologize for what happened
3. Provide assurance to the customers that the issue will be sorted& compensate to the passengers who are affected.
The most important thing you should keep in mind is that you should respond quickly. The first 48 hours are crucial for the brand because people are waiting for a response from your brand. The longer you wait, the situation will become worse.
Always be sure that your brand have the way to quickly escalate and resolve the issue if any such crisis happens.
Billionaire investor ,Warren Buffet said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” !!
