As a social media manager who leads many corporate campaigns for my agency’s clients, I can’t help but sympathize with the poor soul who handled United Airlines’ social media accounts in the wake of a passenger being physically dragged off a flight in April.
By now, nearly everyone has watched the viral video of David Dao getting yanked out of his seat by police, his face smashing into the armrest in the opposite row. Gasping passengers aimed their smartphone cameras at the ordeal, but no one with the United staff seemed to realize how bad the situation was — and certainly not how bad it would become. News organizations reported on this PR disaster, social media users skewered the company relentlessly, and competitors gleefully piled on.
Social media was never meant to be a place where customer service issues were handled. But that’s the way it has evolved, at least in part because companies avoid dealing with problems their policies create until the collective voices rain down on them via their Facebook and Twitter profiles.
Consumers are more active now than they’ve ever been. They expect more than they ever have. And they arguably have greater power than ever because of social media.
Can you blame customers who feel cheated or wronged for taking the only recourse they know how? Companies have a duty to serve their customers in a fair and just way. Yes, mistakes can happen and in those cases, most customers do their best to take traditional means to get their problems solved. If those avenues don’t work or are too inconvenient, to Twitter they’ll go.
What’s unfortunate from a PR standpoint — and social media manager standpoint — is that the United situation could have been avoided.
United needed four people off that flight. It asked for volunteers, offering vouchers as enticement, but couldn’t clear the seats needed. So it chose passengers and ordered them off the plane. When the doctor, already in his seat, declined to leave, police were brought in and social media infamy followed.
The airline could have enticed people to give up their seats by other means. Volunteers could have been found, if United had been willing to pay enough for it.
This incident should remind companies that they need to look at policies they have in place when dealing with customer disputes. They need to train employees to identify and disengage when a policy causes needless escalations.
They should do this because it will help them avoid a PR disaster but, more important, because it’s the right thing to do.
So make it happen, brands. Do right by our customers. They — and the folks who manage your social media accounts — will thank you.
Jay York is senior social media strategist for EMSI Public Relations.