LEADERS
DIGEST
What the Pepsi and Dove commercials also suggest is that companies need to carefully consider the necessity, relevance, and appropriateness of portraying contemporary race, ethnicity, and gender-related issues alongside promoting their products or services.
Public relations (PR) experts called United’s response a “fumbling, clumsy one”. Stakeholder backlash to the airline’s crisis and its response was swift and merciless – investors devalued the airline’s market value to a tune of close to USD1bil following the incident.
Any corporate communication or messages need to be especially sensitive to the norms of the current times and be inclusive to today’s increasingly diverse consumer and employee base.
There was one major problem with United’s response. Dao was in no way disruptive or belligerent. The entire incident was filmed by Flight 3411 passengers on their phones. The videos defended the doctor, and the passengers themselves attested to his good behaviour.
Internally-circulated crisis communication messages need to inform and update employees of leaders’ and the organisation’s actions – conveying an apology and setting a course of action for the critical time that follows. As far as we can tell, there appear to have been no long-term repercussions – financial or otherwise – on either Pepsi or Dove.
They also univocally agreed that Dao was undeserving of the concussions, broken teeth and nose that the security officers left him with. Bowing to public pressure and feeling the financial and reputational sting of a poorly handled crisis, Munoz retracted his earlier statements.
The take-away here? Sensitivity, empathy, and responsiveness to both consumers and employees are essential when communicating during crises.
A more conciliatory tone followed two days after the incident, with the CEO apologetically stating, “…no one should ever be treated this way…we will take full responsibility and we will work to make it right.” United’s CEO also claimed that “…it is never too late to do the right thing.”
The bad On Apr 9, 2017, United Airlines Flight 3411 awaited departure from Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The flight was overbooked, so an announcement was made requesting four passengers to disembark the flight to make way for four airline staff.
Except that in crisis situations, it can often be too late; organisations do not get a second chance at making that important first impression. The leader may express empathy towards staff, but insufficiently towards consumers, as was the case with United.
Such procedures were standard practice – necessary to accommodate airline staffing and roster requirements (a practice called deadheading). Three passengers, randomly called, gave up their seats. One passenger, 69-year old doctor David Dao Duy Ahn, refused.
How an organisation responds first to a crisis signals what its core values are and where its focus is on. And in United’s case, the empathy that was shown to Dao 48 hours later was much too late.
The airline’s response to his refusal was nothing short of brutality. United called in security officers, who aggressively manhandled Dao, dragging him kicking and screaming off the flight. Chief executive officer (CEO) Oscar Munoz defended the airline’s actions, accusing Dao of being “disruptive and belligerent”, issuing what many perceived as a half-hearted apology for the airline’s aggressive actions. Munoz further defended the security officers’ actions, saying that he backed them “empathically”. He then claimed that such an act was simply to ‘reaccommodate’ passengers – a term that was sharply criticised by those following the story. One journalist said the euphemism was as bad as “alternative facts” – insincere, inaccurate, and a poor attempt at covering up United’s excessive use of force on one of its passengers.
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Issue 38 I April 2020
The airline could have responded in a manner that exemplified its claimed values: “We respect every voice…make decisions with facts and empathy and celebrate our journey together.” It could have embodied, through its actions, its slogan: Fly the friendly skies. Instead, it left the incident reeling from a financial repercussion and reputational damage that would reside in the minds of both passengers and investors in the foreseeable future. Both internal and external parties need to be carefully considered – and the crisis communication message balanced with an understanding of how the organisation’s first response shapes these parties’ perceptions. When communicating in crises, companies do not get a second chance at a first impression.
