“They’re throwing guitars out there!” exclaimed the astonished airline passenger as she watched United Airlines baggage handlers on the tarmac clumsily hucking guitar cases off the plane and onto the carts.

Musician Dave Carroll heard these words from his seatmate and braced himself for the worst.  While on tour with his band last year, Dave’s $3500 guitar was severely damaged by United Airlines baggage handlers in a story that makes the perfect case for the importance of internal-external marketing alignment. Dave went through an arduous process of trying to be compensated for the damage. He talked to person after person at United - finally to be told they would offer nothing more than some travel vouchers for his loss. You can read the complete customer service saga on Dave’s blog.

To make a point and tell the world that he was wronged by United, Dave proclaimed that he would write and produce three music videos illustrating his misadventures and post them on YouTube for voting by the general public.  The first video (see below) has recently been published and has become an overnight sensation on YouTube. It’s also being actively discussed in the blogosphere, on Twitter, and Dave’s story has been told through multiple media channels including the CBS Early Show, Rolling Stone, and more. His song is now available for download on iTunes.

Dave’s experience is a classic demonstration of how a company like United has a lot to lose by disregarding the importance of internal-external marketing alignment.  There are several issues at play that add up to Dave’s misaligned experience, which is ultimately doing damage to United’s brand:

Failure to live up to service promise.
A basic principle of internal-external marketing alignment is the expectation that you will deliver a service experience that aligns with your brand promise. United’s website offers a very detailed statement of the company’s customer commitment. Among other things, it asserts that United’s customers “have the right to expect - to demand - respect, courtesy, fairness and honesty from the airline they have selected for travel.” According to Dave’s story, he was continually given the runaround by multiple United personnel in several cities as he tried to receive compensation for his demolished $3500 guitar. It sounds like this was not just one poorly trained or disgruntled employee, but a general failure by multiple United personnel to take accountability for a mistake and try to live up to the customer service commitment by handling the issue with “courtesy, fairness, and honesty.” In an aligned company, employees would be given the tools, resources, and training they need to handle customer complaints in a way that lives up to the brand promise.

Cultural issues - “it’s not my problem.”
Dave claims he was repeatedly told by multiple United personnel that the issue “is not my problem” or that the paperwork he submitted was not received. This general lack of accountability can perpetuate an internal culture where employees feel powerless or unmotivated to handle customer concerns. Every time a customer encounters the fallout from this kind of culture, the brand will continue to erode.

The transparency of the social media world.
In the old days, it was easy for companies to sweep complaining customers under the rug. In today’s world of the social web, one irritated customer can quickly communicate to millions through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the blogosphere and more. For this reason, companies need to not only be prepared to engage with their customers in the social space before there’s an issue, but they need to react quickly when trouble arises to avoid a wildfire.

A customer’s heart was broken. 
If you believe that a brand is not what the execs in the marketing department say, but it’s an emotional connection that lives in the hearts and minds of customers - then you will understand the magnitude of Dave’s final verse in his song where he says United broke his heart. When he asks himself in the song if he’d ever fly United again, he said he might if saving the world were on the line, and then he goes on to say:

“…And if I did, I wouldn’t bring my luggage
‘Cause you’d just go and break it,
Into a thousand pieces,
Just like you broke my heart.”

When you break that emotional connection with your customer, you may never get them back again.

Dave’s story of the broken guitar ends on an upnote, although it certainly seems a bit too little too late. The damage has already been done - not just to Dave as a customer, but to the United Airlines brand.  Dave posted a subsequent response on YouTube where he says United is offering reimbursement for the guitar.  Although he says reimbursement is not the point anymore, and he’s encouraging United to donate the money to charity. He says “United has demonstrated they know how to keep their airline in the forefront of their customer’s minds, and I wanted this project to expand upon that satirically.” 

In fairness, I also have to point out that Dave is building his own brand as a musician through this tale. We’ll see what happens to his personal brand and to United when the second and third videos come out in the future.

Has a brand ever broken your heart? What did you do about it?  Leave us a comment and tell us about your experiences.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.