MARKETING OF SERVICES PRESENTATION

United Breaks Guitar

Casestudy
Ajay Agarwal Dinesh Pakki
Amit Kumar Kalia Gangadhara Rao
Angad Sidhu Harshit Mishra
Apoorva Dogra
Dekkala Arun Kumar
KEY CASE FACTS
Case is about how a poorly handled customer complaint and power of social media can
cost a company dearly

UNITED AIRLINES DAVE CARROLL

Professional guitarist, member of the band Sons of
One of the largest international airlines based in US
Maxwell

Close to 50,000 employees and more than 3300 flights

Undergoes a very bad experience with United Airlines
per day

Makes a song United Breaks Guitar which talks about

Rough handling of Daves guitar caused damages
his bad experience and frustration.
United Breaks Guitar- effect
Customer complaint was not handled properly
Reaches 100 million people, popularity increases

United Breaks Guitar- effect

Stocks plunged by 10%, creating a loss of $180 million
to the shareholders
KEY CASE FACTS

United Breaks Guitars- YouTubes no.1 rated music videos of all time and no. 3 in
any category of video

The video reached to a total of 4.6 million, number of visitors to 20000 per week

Song sales on iTunes increased from 1 or 2 to hundreds per day

The song becomes a Top 20 iTunes download in Canada and number one in
United Kingdom for July 2009

United Airlines realizes its mistake and offers Dave $1200 in cash and $1200 in
flight vouchers to correct its mistake
 Case Analysis

United is one of the Largest International Airlines

What United airlines did wrong?
having almost 14% of market share in 2009 and
have Strategic Alliances Did not address Daves Complaint
Pre existing Bad Reputation and less social No Immediate response for the 1st video post
media presence
Responded after it went to mainstream media
Maintenance Services are outsourced
United made no official apology, no statement
Heavy Industry Competition released regarding the incident
Employees are dissatisfied-Pay cuts due to Spokesperson only gave limited media interviews
recession and announced that they use video for training
purpose
High cost of Resources
They only responded directly through tweets, not in
any other online channels
 Case Analysis
Airlines is an Intangible dominant industry
Service Quality is mainly dependent on Customer
Satisfaction
Customer participate in and affect in real time

The United Breaks Guitars video is an excellent Customers

example of how grassroots campaigns can go viral
across a spectrum of media, and how different
media can influence one another. Employees
Public
The primary influencers at the beginning of the
campaign seem to have been bloggers
Twitter Influence-Large number of references
linking to YouTube, blogs, and news sites
Taylor Guitar Shareholders
Poor Public Relations of united-costed
shareholders an estimated $180 million due to
stock price drop by 10% Commercial
Airline
User generated content has affected the Brand companies
Critical Moment of Truth

Third Critical Moment

First Critical Moment Second Critical
of Truth- His plea was
of Truth- When Daves Moment of Truth- Dave
heard after 7 months,
Band members noticed Carroll shared his
but was refused stating
that Daves Guitar is concerns with a flight
that claims should be
mishandled by Uniteds attendant, but it went
made within 24hours of
baggage handlers. unheard by the crew
damage
Tolerance level

The zone of tolerance shrunk to zero for him as the airlines

damaged his guitar which was very precious to him and they
also denied him any kind of compensation
7P Model

Product Transportation

Price Tickets,cargo,Dynamic Pricing

Place Airports Globally

Promotion Social media, Hoardings, Advertisements

People Employees

Process Purchase of tickets via online and offline mode

Physical Evidence Flights

United Service Quality

Reliability United dont maintain their services as promised

Responsivene Carroll made many calls but they didnt respond and it took 7 months when a
ss representative made direct email contact

Low Assurance- when Carroll asked flight attendant about mishandling, his response
Assurance
was Dont talk to me. Talk to the lead agent outside

when Carroll was directed to Uniteds Baggage offices in Chicago, he was told to
Empathy bring guitar to Chicago for inspection. This shows United customer service agents
doesnt have empathy

Tangibles Poor- Even complementary pretzels and biscuits are no longer served
4 Gaps Model
1) Listening Gap Difference between customer expectations of service and company understanding of
those services

a) Rob Bradford called just once and did not make a second attempt

2) Service Performance Gap Discrepancy between development of customer-driven service

standards and actual service performance by company employees

a)Customer service executive did not respond to complaint quickly

b)Handling of cargo was not professional

c) Claim to be made within 24 hours is like to escape the situation rather than solve the problem

3) Communication Gap difference between service delivery and service providers external
communications

a) Fly the friendly skies Slogan of United Airlines, but really not friendly
 Airline Industry Analysis

Flight Delays
Mishandled Baggage
Consumer Complaints delays
Airline Reports of the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals During Air Transportation

File a report at service desk Baggage and claims department processes

'My baggage' (an online corner) to check the the claim if baggage has not repatriated
status of your claim by entering the file within 21 days
reference number that was provided on time Property Irregularity Report (PIR).
of complaint. Report period-7 days of arrival
Recommendations

Create a full crisis communication plan with an immediate response in case of such a crisis

Follow an Online Reputation Management system to monitor, address and mitigate SERPs

Create customer engagement and feedback platforms

An easy to navigate online portal for baggage issues, with clear terms and conditions

Airline baggage specific contingency planning

United Brakes Guitar Video
United Breaks Guitars Video
Thank you