United We... Don't Stand

As I end my travels sitting in the Dallas Fort Worth Air Port, I read the first chapter of David Meerman Scott's book Real-Time Marketing & PR. Within minutes it is brought to my attention that United Airlines threw a soon to be very famous passenger's luggage around and destroyed the contents. This is not just a "United" problem. I have now flown with Delta Airlines and American Airlines and I have witnessed BOTH companies throwing valuables around. How can this be stopped? Luckily Mr. Carroll took the right approach. He contacted the media. The YouTube video he made about his guitar being broken went viral over night. Which is great for him, but bad for United and other airline companies alike. Not only was Mr. Carroll getting more famous, but wronged customers were more comfortable speaking out. When one person shares a bad experience, along comes social conformity.

The conforming of negativity is contagious. If you hear from a friend that they had a bad experience somewhere, you are not as likely to use those services. You start to tell your other friends, and they tell their other friends, and so on and so forth and we see social backlash.  When conformity is brought into real-time it can be either really good or really bad. Let's start with the good. Everyone wronged gets to speak their mind. They feel as if they are heard and feel a sense of belonging. As with being the first to share the "story" they were the first to make a comment bringing the "fame" of the situation towards them. For the companies, such as Taylor Guitars and Calton's Cases their conformation came in real-time. The fast acting PR staff reacted they made company sales soar. Those experiencing the backlash of the conformity however, did not get a good wrap. The repercussions could have been as simple as getting talked to or as extensive as getting fired. I am unsure of what the fate of the employee(s) who threw Mr. Carroll's guitar was. However United Airlines probably saw sales. Their sales would not only decreased because of the negative effects of Mr. Carroll's video, but because they did not act in real-time... or at all publicly. If Mr. Carroll and other customers would have felt heard in their time of need, there wouldn't be a huge falling out. So it's important that we strike when the time is right.