The Cost of Bad Publicity

9 July 2009 281 views Comments

In today’s Web 2.0 world, everyone has a voice and word-of-mouth is more powerful than ever. Of course, you can’t please everyone all the time, but it’s important for companies to recognize that they at least need to care about their customers, otherwise something like this will happen…

About a year ago when musician Dave Carroll flew United Airlines, baggage handlers broke his guitar. After discovering that United refused to compensate him for this, he created a revenge music video and uploaded it to YouTube this past Monday night.

The video, titled “United Breaks Guitars” is now a YouTube sensation and over half a million people now know about Dave’s bad experience with United.

So what I wonder is: How much will this bad publicity cost United?

– Probably more than the price of Dave’s guitar. It really is a lesson for those in the customer service industry. Now more than ever, customers have a voice and it’s very easy for them to broadcast their opinions to the world.

Now I’m not saying that companies have to give in to every crazy request a customer gives them (I worked in restaurants long enough to know this is NOT possible). HOWEVER, this is a classic case where the company WAS in the wrong. I’ve never bought a guitar but I imagine it’s not a cheap thing…so United should have just reimbursed Dave for what their baggage handlers broke.

No one wants to give their business to a company that doesn’t give a shit about its customers…and this situation is broadcasting to the world that United just doesn’t care. Of the 500,000+ people that have seen this video, how many will now no longer fly United? I honestly don’t know, but it would only take a few less tickets booked to cost the same as a new guitar would have.

Just proves the cost of bad publicity I guess…I bet United is listening to Dave now.

Want to check out Dave’s very entertaining video? Here you go:

Richie Escovedo

I watched the video a couple of weeks ago and thought basically the same thing, that United was going to take a hit with this one. And I think in general it is a great example of the potential for damage and worth noting for companies to help understand reputation management.

However, I've recently spoken with people (outside the social web) about the United breaks guitars video and they didn't know what I was talking about. Granted, this was a small sample of people, but I'd say a pretty good cross-section. (One group was the jury I sat with for a couple of days last week)

I say all this to point out that you are right in your assessment that bad publicity has a cost. But I do think there is a limit to that cost based on reach. Just a thought.

Nicole VanScoten

Oh, I don't think it will "break" United either. However, if even 3 people think twice about booking United because of this video, United will loose more than the cost of fixing that guitar.

Really the point of the post was to prove that social media allows people to more easily provide a positive or negative review of something...and in an article I read today, a study showed that word of mouth recommendation is the #1 reason people use a product or service.

Bonnie Caprara

10 points for thinking out of the box, 7 points for lyrics and acting, and 3 points for music (sorry, I'm not a big country music fan). Cute, but I don't think this video will break United Airlines. Perhaps he should think about taking due diligence with his valuables.