Wow. This past week has been a case-study in crisis communications. If you’re a PR professional, it’s been like binging on Cops.
Let’s start at the beginning.
On Sunday, in an effort to make room on a flight for their employees, United Airlines forcibly removed a paying customer – knocking him out in the process. All of this was captured on video (obviously) and outraged by what had transpired everyone collectively demanded justice.
On Monday, United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz – who had literally been named PR Week’s U.S. Communicator of the Year less than a month ago – issued a statement “apologizing” for having to “re-accommodate” passengers. Oscar also sent a note to United’s employees, emphasizing they followed procedures and that the passenger in question was to blame, claiming “we politely asked [him] to deplane.”
LOL, “politely.” Predictably, the Internet responded in kind:
United Airlines is pleased to announce new seating on all domestic flights- in addition to United First and Economy Plus we introduce…. pic.twitter.com/KQjPClU2d2
— McNeil (@Reflog_18) April 10, 2017
Munoz managed to magnify what was already a crisis by failing to follow the three simple rules of crisis communications: acknowledge, apologize and FIX IT. Instead, he engaged in clueless biz-speak that sparked yet more uproar, and then – wait for it – told his employees he had their backs, referring to the bloodied “voluntold” man who was dragged down the aisle as “belligerent.”
The outrage went viral, sparking an uproar few have seen since Donald Trump got caught declaring his prowess with women and precipitated a drastic decline in their market cap (value):
Enter Press Secretary Sean Spicer – who managed to condense United’s days-long crisis into a couple hours. Seeking to explain why Russia would align with us over Syria following the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles, Spicer did what you should never do: compare something to Hitler.
Epic chyron @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/FSclFcyEUR
— Dave Jamieson (@jamieson) April 11, 2017
After issuing several “clarifying” statements which only further enraged folks, on Passover no less, Spicer did what he should have done at the beginning: issue a mea culpa.
In both of these examples, United and the White House could have saved themselves a lot of heartache by IMMEDIATELY following these three simple steps:
- ACKNOWLEDGE – If you’re United, you publicly and in the biggest way possible acknowledge that YOUR AIRLINE screwed up, allowed a situation to escalate to undignified and violent proportions, outraged passengers on that flight – and every potential passenger you thought you had – and sent your stock plummeting along with your international reputation.
- APOLOGIZE – to everyone. Just suck it up and do it. United Airlines should have started with Dr. Dao and his wife, the other passengers on the flight and their employees; then their shareholders, board of directors, and the world …. When you’re the CEO, the buck stops with you: Be humble, apologetic, embarrassed and, frankly, ashamed at what was allowed to happen to one of your passengers on one of your planes. In Spicer’s situation, he should have immediately acknowledged his poor choice of words, rephrased his analogy into something more appropriate and moved on. The media still might have called him out on it, but they wouldn’t have hammered him so hard had he not dug in.
- FIX IT. Quit piling on and concentrate on what you’re going to do to fix this situation. United Airlines should have implemented a policy stating they respect ALL passengers; that they intend to always be reasonable and fair when asking for volunteers; that they promise to NEVER pick a passenger over an employee’s seat EVER, etc. They could have offered free flights, discounts, etc. to every passenger on that flight. Those passengers witnessed firsthand, up close and personally, the violent way in which United allowed their passengers to be treated – and they are talking and sharing. Doing these things quickly helps to turn critics into friends.
When companies and press secretaries follow these steps from the start of a crisis, it can prevent an embarrassing situation from becoming an unmitigated disaster. In United Airlines’ case, it could have potentially saved them from catastrophic damage to both their reputation and their stock value.
And one final PR Pro-tip: If you’re about to say or write something that includes any combination of the words “even” and “Hitler” – STOP. Restart. And try again.
(H/T to @reflog_18 for the featured image “United Fight Club.”)