Bad customer service on reputed international airlines! In recent cases, such as the #UnitedAirlines fiasco, where a customer was dragged out of his confirmed booked seat to accommodate crew members of the flight, the world was shaken and awoken on the lines of PR disasters that happen with gigantic fleets across the world. Let’s take a look at United’s Flight 3411 fiasco that happened and what can we as customers learn from it!
The Flight 3411saga
It was on April 9th 2017, when passengers were being seated on United Airline Flight 3411 that a fiasco began. Four passengers onboard and ready to take off were asked to give up their seats by the airline personnel, why? To make room for their own in house crew members that needed to be on that flight. The one man that refused to budge and make a move was Dr. David Dao. Amidst the arguments, the doctor made it clear that he wasn’t going to be the one to be removed and that he would stay put, come what may. What followed was pandemonium, brutal physical assaults and David being literally dragged out like a dead piece of meat from the cushy comforts of his seats, onto the aisle of the flight and in front of panic stricken yet shocked passengers; a scene that was terrifying for the travellers, and social media onlookers alike when the latter watched it through videos posted about. Did the security personnel of United care enough before acting the way they did? No they did not! The altercation was caught frame by frame by several passengers, which is how the incident became a social media outrage last month for several days.
What can we learn?
If an airline trip is supposed to be a heavenly ride, literally! Why then are some passengers given the boot and unfair means of customer service? The recent case of United’s Flight 3411 to name from amongst the many PR disasters with airlines opened the eyes of many. We have our rights as consumers to know what to do and how to deal with it, if ever we were to face the same. Here are some.
Traditional PR policies are different from new-age social media policies. Anyone with a smartphone and access to a high quality camera phone can upload videos of what’s happening inside airlines in a moment’s notice. Remember, the consumer has the power to do so, because traditional PR policies cannot match up on the same.
Word of mouth using social media can create the outrage much needed to bring in justice. You don’t need to be a professional journalist for the world to know how disastrous the PR policies of a particular airline are.
Find out if the airline has trained their internal staff and team on how to deal with situations such as the United’s. Remember, all airlines would teach their staff to be tolerant, no matter what. Physically assaulting someone is not accepted, even in the worst case scenarios or else the tables would turn.
How does one make amendments for the same? What about damage control? Is a simple apology enough? Would offering freebies and compensation to the assaulted make peace? Would a public apology cool the minds of the outraged?
We hope to learn more of the PR policies of gigantic birds in the near future, and as the new-age dawns, may they get upgraded and soon for the same. Your thoughts on the same would be appreciated.
