When David Carroll was able to express his displeasure through social networks
When David Carroll was able to voice his discontent through social media, United Airlines didn't believe it would face such consequences. Join us today to learn about the impact of social media on United Airlines' business.
"United Breaks Guitars" is the name of a song released by Canadian songwriter Dave Caroll about his experience of having his guitar broken by United Airlines.
In 2008, Carol and her team boarded a plane for a tour en route to Chicago and saw through the plane window that baggage handlers were throwing their instrument bags, and in the process, Carol's $3,500 guitar broke.
He has been trying to recover his damages from United Airlines for about 9 months, but his efforts have been unsuccessful.
In the end, he agrees to receive $1,200 to repair the guitar, but United officials do not pay even this amount.
Eventually, he composes the song "United Breaks Guitar" in protest and takes a bitter revenge on United.
Sharing the song on social media. The song was viewed 150,000 times on the first day it was uploaded to YouTube, and it set the record for the best-selling song on iTunes in its first week of release.
Within 4 days of the song's release, United's stock price fell 10%, wiping about $180 million off the company's value.
United's customer service manager called Carol and apologized.
In a symbolic move, the company paid $3,000 in damages to a non-profit music education institution and was forced to announce that it had learned many lessons from the incident and was reviewing its customer service policies.
In December 2009, Time magazine named "United Breaks Guitars" one of the most popular songs of the year, and in 2012, CBC made a documentary about it.
In 2012, Carol published the book "The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media" and became a speaker on the subject of "customer service."
Interestingly, during one of his speaking trips, United also lost his luggage.
The impact of social media: It used to be said that a dissatisfied customer would pass on their dissatisfaction to 7 to 13 people, but this statistic was before the era of social media.
Today, a dissatisfied customer has access to tools that can share their positive or negative experience with hundreds of thousands of people.
Footnote: This song has currently been viewed over 15 million times on YouTube.
A big part of United Breaks Guitars' success was not just the protest against an event, but the creative way it was told.
Instead of writing a long post or dry complaint, Carol turned the incident into a humorous song and entertaining video.
This type of narrative caused the content to go viral.
This same issue is being raised as a serious lesson in content marketing today: a good narrative is more effective than any complaint.
The story didn't just end with falling stocks and media coverage.
Years later, when United's name was mentioned in the media, this story would be told again.
That means its effect was long-term.
Even in 2017, when the “Pulling Passenger from United Flight” incident occurred, the media again mentioned United Breaks Guitars and republished it as a record of United’s poor customer service.
This incident caused many airlines and even brands outside the industry to take social media monitoring and social listening units seriously.
This means that companies realize that if a complaint is published online, they need to react quickly before it becomes a crisis.
Carol herself turned a negative event into an opportunity.
He released the second and third songs in the same vein and gained practically worldwide fame.
He later worked as a professional speaker at marketing, customer service, and social media conferences.
This shows that even a dissatisfied customer can become a strong personal brand.
Academic and educational reflection
The United Breaks Guitars case entered marketing, public relations, and crisis management textbooks.
Harvard University, Wharton Business School, and many other educational institutions teach this case to students.
Today, it is called a "Turning Point" in the history of digital public relations.
The $180 million stock drop wasn't just because of a broken guitar, it was because of a loss of investor confidence.
Because this incident showed that the company not only has poor customer service, but also is incapable of crisis management.
Source » Itroz Blog
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