Two days after the video of a passenger being bodily dragged out of his seat from a United Airlines (UA) aircraft became viral on social media, the company’s stocks lost US$250 million in market value.
Financial loss is one threat companies strive to avoid during a crisis situation. Aside from financial loss, crisis-related threats may include public safety and damage to reputation. Suffice it to say the three threats are inter-related and may bring a company to the doldrums if not resolved in the shortest possible time.
That is why one of the major functions of effective crisis communication is to hasten the return of the organization to normal business operations to stem further financial losses – prioritizing of course the safety of its clients, and then reducing the damage to the company’s reputation.
Almost two weeks after that viral video created a public relations nightmare for United, let’s look at some lessons learned from what happened:
1.Crisis messaging should be sincere, targeted, and pro-active.
Untoward incidents in companies’ operations regularly happen, and not all may necessarily evolve into a crisis.The Institute of Public Relations defines a crisis as a significant threat to an organization’s operations that can have negative consequences if not handled properly.So the key words are “handle properly.”This disruption of operations can create the three crisis-related threats mentioned above:public safety, financial loss, and damage to reputation.It is also a characteristic of having a crisis when a company suffers from overwhelmingly adverse public opinion, or when a situation prompts an imminent intervention through regulatory action from government authorities, something that companies would find intrusive.
Several factors and situations can be considered as possible sources of crises – including natural disasters, extremist actions (ie hijacking, terror attack, kidnapping etc) to product and service errors – and could put the company in a crisis mode.The presence of violence in a negative incident may also unfortunately make it evolve into a crisis.
Companies must properly handle effective crisis messaging.During a crisis, top management should immediately communicate (as in the first few hours after the incident) the following messages to its publics and stakeholders:
a. That it is aware of the incident.
Companies must acknowledge that an incident occurred and that it is aware that it indeed happened. Awareness would imply that the company is on top of the situation and that would project the perception that it is not stalling any action on its part.
b. That it is working with relevant organizations, agencies, government authorities, and individuals in investigating the matter.
Saying that you’re working with appropriate partners implies a spirit of collaboration and willingness to resolve the issue.
c. That it will give its publics updates as soon as these are available.
Briefing stakeholders, including the media, implies an approach of transparency and a proactive sense to keep its publics abreast of the latest developments. Media and stakeholders should not be left out in the dark as that can open doors to misinterpretation and false information that we naturally don’t like to happen.
2. Be consistent in your response.
Timothy Coombs’ explains that organizations’ respond to crises in a spectrum, from a very defensive stance to a fully accommodative approach. These responses run the gamut from deflecting the blame (by attacking the accuser or the victim) on one end of the spectrum to a full apology and corrective action on the other end.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz. Photo by Reuters.
United’s initial response – a statement from its CEO Oscar Munoz – was a confusing, half-hearted apology.Aside from the fact that it took them more than 24 hours to issue one, the statement was unclear with its use of jargon – technical language that used “re-accommodation” – a key word whose meaning may not be familiar with those not in the airline business. There was an apology for the act of re-accommodation, but none for the violence or the treatment the passenger received.
What is more upsetting though is the inconsistency:the content of the public statement is different from the letter Munoz sent to airline staff also on that day and later on was leaked on social media.Although the public statement said that United would urgently work with authorities to investigate what happened, Munoz already passed judgment on the incident when he called the passenger “disruptive and belligerent,” and also concluded that “employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this.”How can the company commit to an investigation if the CEO already formulated his own conclusions?
The letter had a defiant tone that did not sit well with the public.Netizens were quick to express their dismay to United’s statement and the CEO’s letter.It took another day for Munoz to issue a full apology to the “customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard” the flight.Correctly, he added that United takes full responsibility and “will work to make it right.”That indeed is the correct tone.If only this statement was the one that was first issued to the public, a lot of backlash and negative feedback could have been avoided.
3.After apologizing, corrective action must begin.
It is not enough for a company to issue an apology.Corrective action must be done to avoid similar incidents in the future. In fairness to United, almost two weeks after the full apology was issued, it has started its review and changes to regulations with regards to policies it enumerated in the statement:crew movement, incentivizing overbooked passengers, and dynamics with airport law enforcement agencies.Identifying areas for review and doing something about them are actually a best practice in repairing damage to reputation and a good benchmark post-crisis.As of this writing, United has committed to no longer use law enforcement officers to remove passengers from its planes; and the airline will now require crew members to book their flights at least one hour prior to departure.As a bonus, United said it would communicate the results of its review by April 30.
4.Senior management must be trained to engage the media.
The quickness of how the video became viral was another proof of the importance for companies to have chief executives and senior managers trained in engaging the media.Soon there will be articles comparing the style of two airline CEOs on how they handled crises:United’s Munoz (who ironically won PR Week’s 2017 Communicator of the Year award early this year),and Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes who won goodwill and positive feedback from his handling of an Air Asia aircraft that crashed in Indonesia in 2014.Fernandes was very hands-on in engaging the media by providing frequent updates through Twitter.In a few hours after the incident, he acknowledged that there was a crash, apologized for the loss of life, and took full responsibility for what happened. Aside from that, he went to Surabaya where most of the passengers were from and also made himself available to be interviewed by the media.
5.Finally, a lesson in crisis communication is that public opinion is not cast in stone.
This may bring partial relief to companies undergoing crises.Public opinion is malleable; and with sustained corrective action, public opinion can be molded and eventually change to return to be positive and favorable to the organization.
Carlo Figueroa is an assistant professorial lecturer at De La Salle University teaching public relations and issue management.