UNITED

BREAKS GUITAR: PRE-CLASS ANALYSIS

GROUP - 1

Shubhanshu Singh (20180125048)

Siddharth Singh (20180125049)
Snehashis Panda (20180125050)
Bhargava Daita (20180125052)
Manoj Varma (20180125057)

As viral videos spread and what can companies do with them? This case is an incident in which
disgruntled customer and musician Dave Carrol used YouTube and Twitter to spread the music video
detailing United Airlines mishandle and damage his $ 3,500 guitar and the subsequent refusal of the
company to make up for it. The song is called "United Breaks Guitars." In one week, he has received
3 million views and follow the major news, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, CBS Morning Show,
and many other print and electronic media picking up on the story.

It is a prime example of how virality spreads uncontrollably across the medium and the limited
ability of the company to address and respond is brought to the front. The case supports the idea of
the Internet as an insurgent environment, it is better in attack than in defence.

What did United Airlines do wrong?

1. Did not address Dave’s complaint in the first place and even after 7 months of follow up, the
complaint was rejected, which led Dave to create the video and there began the inception of
negative word-of-mouth as his zone of tolerance had shifted to zero.
2. No immediate response for the first video post even when they were aware about it and
only responded after it had already gathered much traction.
3. No official apology or statement made by the airlines in this regard.
4. Responded only via tweets and not through any other channels, whereas the conversations
were happening all around.

Evidently, there are persistent gaps as we see the services of United Airlines:
1. Listening Gap
2. Service Performance Gap
3. Communication Gap

Effective solutions recommended:

1. Effective crisis communication plan in place and practice.

2. Adopting an online reputation management system.
3. Feedback platform and easy registration of issues pertaining with any experience with the
airline.