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How many “experts” does it take to offer commentary and advice on a customer service catastrophe?
The apparent answer is, “All of them.”
This post, however, isn’t about what United Airlines did right or wrong on flight 3411. It is about the lessons you should learn and changes you need to make today to avoid alienating your current and potential customers in the future.
Why You Should Care
This was an incident no one wanted to happen. That reality should scare everyone who leads a business or team.
You can’t write off the entire incident as a few bad apples. The staff and crew working United 3411 didn’t wake up on Sunday, April 8 thinking, “Let’s make the world hate us because of our bad service.”
Likewise, the airport security officers weren’t looking for someone to injure. The passenger involved certainly wasn’t thinking, “My trip will be complete if I can be dragged off my flight and need reconstructive surgery.”
Lessons You Should Learn
Your business is an unfortunate turn of events on a slow news day from being the next viral sensation. Here are five lessons to take away from what happened on United 3411:
1. How you do things is important.
Airlines have involuntarily bumped passengers from flights since at least the 1950s. In 2016, the numbers are less than 1 in every 10,000 passengers. United Airlines removed passengers at a rate of 0.43 times per 10,000 passengers. American and Southwest Airlines both had higher bump numbers and higher customer satisfaction ratings last year than United. When it comes to managing the customer experience, how you do it is crucial.
2. You can follow the rules and still be wrong.
United CEO Oscar Munoz probably earned points with his staff when he supported them for following procedures. Unfortunately, he made things worse with the public. In this case, the problem wasn’t that people didn’t follow the rules. It was that the rules were out of touch with what it takes to create a compelling customer experience.
3. Your reputation matters.
United’s current blunder is amplified by its past. The company refused to allow two teenage girls to fly on a non-revenue employee/family pass less than a month before this incident. Even though United was within its rights, public reaction was brutal. In 2009, singer Dave Carroll posted a song on YouTube titled, “United Breaks Guitars.” To date, it has logged over 17 million views and spawned two additional videos with over 2 million and 900 thousand respective views. Dave Carroll has even written a book and speaks around the world on the customer service lessons from his experience. Every screw up is magnified when you have a questionable reputation.
4. Your true culture is revealed in the tough times.
Munoz has taken responsibility for system failures that prevented front-line leaders from exercising common sense. His acknowledgements reflect a deeper problem – a culture where the company’s leaders believe that rules take precedence over common sense and compassion. Every company can show a positive culture when things go right. Your response when things go wrong is the true test.
5. If your name is on it, you own it.
None of the flight staff, crew, or security officers involved in this event were actually United employees. The flight was operated by Republic Airlines, a regional partner. The security officers worked for the Chicago Department of Aviation. It doesn’t matter. United Airlines is on the side of the airplane. They own every piece of the interaction. It’s the same with your company. It is still your responsibility if there is something wrong with your product or service … even if it was someone else’s error.
What To Do Now
The first thing you should do is to say a private “thank you” that your company has not spent the past week feeling the public’s wrath. After that, here are three ideas:
1. Rethink what’s important.
Results still rule, but the days of blind devotion to profit at any cost are gone. Flawless execution is the minimum to be in the game. Continuously improving the status quo will keep your product and service relevant, but even that is not enough. Every consideration of what’s important must include valuing people – all people including your customers, team members, and the whole of society.
2. Refine every process and system.
Process and system create habits, and your habits define your culture. Reexamine every area of your operation to ensure that it consistently and flawlessly turns your intention about what’s important into action.
3. Refocus on leadership at every level.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper famously said, “You manage things. You lead people.” The challenges you face to flourish in the future require more leadership than management. Now is the time to double down on your commitment to growing and empowering leaders to do what’s right.
The present should be guided more by the future than the past. You can learn from the United’s recent missteps to flourish. Isn’t it time to begin?
Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on helping organizations achieve positive results in a world of accelerating change. To bring Randy to your organization or event, visit www.penningtongroup.com , email info@penningtongroup.com, or call 972.980.9857.
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This was one Easter egg hunt that went to sky-high proportions.
Around 45,000 eggs filled with candy were dropped from a helicopter to the delight of thousands of children in Canada on Saturday.
The elaborate dusting of vibrant-colored eggs took place at a field at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
At the organizers’ go, screaming children up to 12 years in age raced onto the field to scoop up the Easter treats.
More than 100,000 pieces of chocolate and 3,000 other prizes were concealed in the eggs, Shawn Gabie, who helped organize the free event, told Canada’s CTV News.
The event was inspired to “give back to the community during the 150th year anniversary celebration of Canada,” he said.
The event coordinators divided the kids into three different age groups, which had their own scheduled egg drops, according to the event’s website.
Gabie, speaking to the Ottawa Citizen, said that nearly 3,000 children registered for the event though the final numbers weren’t yet known.
Even with the expected rush of children, however, no one was hurt and everyone left with a tasty treat, CTV reported.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would not say outright whether sexism played a role in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) silencing her on the Senate floor in February, but noted that she was treated differently from her male colleagues.
During the confirmation process of then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), now President Donald Trump’s attorney general, Warren read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King that criticized Sessions, drawing the ire of McConnell, who then barred her from the floor.
When asked on “CBS Sunday Morning” if sexism was involved, the Massachusetts senator shook her head.
“I think what was really going on is people knew there’s a problem with having Jeff Sessions as Attorney General of the United States,” Warren said.
But she noted that four of her male colleagues — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) — were allowed to read the letter on the Senate floor the following morning.
“All I can say is, the next day, four men stood up and read exactly the same letter, and they all got to finish,” she said.
In a Boston Globe interview published Saturday, Warren claimed that in the two months since the incident, McConnell has been ignoring her.
“I’ve spoken to him, but he has not spoken to me,” she said. “I say hello to Mitch every chance I get, and he turns his head.”
McConnell, who used an obscure Senate rule to remove Warren from the floor, admonished her by saying: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
The line soon became a rallying call in protests against Trump.
On CBS, Warren, a vocal critic of Trump, dismissed calls that she should run against him in 2020, saying that she was focused on her job in the Senate.
“This isn’t about the election in four years. This is about what happens this week,” she said on Sunday.
Warren told CBS that she had been studying Trump and his businesses for years, which included watching his reality show “The Apprentice.”
“I actually watched ‘The Apprentice’ for a couple of seasons,” she said. “It was an interesting show, the first season. By the second season, I kind of got tired of it. Sort of the same old shtick.”
“Eh. He was the shtick!” she added.
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WASHINGTON/PYONGYANG, April 16 (Reuters) – The United States, its allies and China are working together on a range of responses to North Korea’s latest attempted ballistic missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said on Sunday, citing what he called an international consensus to act.
“We are working together with our allies and partners and with the Chinese leadership to develop a range of options,” national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“This latest missile test just fits into a pattern of provocative and destabilizing and threatening behavior on the part of the North Korean regime,” McMaster said.
He said the president has asked the national security council to integrate the efforts of the Defense and State departments and U.S. intelligence agencies to develop options if “this pattern of behavior continues and if the North Korean Regime refuses to denuclearize.”
“There is an international consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just cannot continue,” McMaster said.
The North Korean missile “blew up almost immediately” after its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said.
Hours later U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in South Korea for talks on the North’s increasingly defiant arms program. His visit comes a day after North Korea held a grand military parade in its capital city of Pyongyang, marking the birth anniversary of the state founder. What appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles were on display in the parade.
Tensions have been steadily rising as Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programs seen by Washington as a direct threat.
Trump on Sunday acknowledged that the softer line he has taken on China’s management of its currency was linked to China’s help on the North Korea issue.
“Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the NorthKorean problem? We will see what happens!” Trump said on Twitter. Trump has backed away from a campaign promise to label China in that way.
South Korea said the North’s latest show of force “threatened the whole world.”
But a U.S. foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence on Air Force Two sought to defuse some of the tension, saying the test of what was believed to be a medium-range missile had come as no surprise.
“We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch,” the adviser told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“It’s a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure. We don’t need to expend any resources against that.”
The adviser said the missile’s flight lasted four or five seconds.
Pence, addressing an Easter service with American troops in South Korea, said the U.S. commitment to South Korea was unwavering.
“Let me assure you under President Trump’s leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger.”
Pence was beginning a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of U.S. commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension.
The U.S. nuclear-powered Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the region. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2p1yGTQ)
China, which Trump has urged to do more to rein in North Korea, has spoken out against its weapons tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It has repeatedly called for talks while appearing increasingly frustrated with the North.
China banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export. China’s customs department issued an order on April 7 telling traders to return North Korean coal cargoes, said trading sources with knowledge of the order.
TENSIONS RISE
Trump’s decision to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield this month, in response to what he said was Syria’s use of chemical weapons, raised questions about his plans for reclusive North Korea.
Pyongyang has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States.
“The president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons,” McMaster told ABC.
But McMaster, who was speaking from Kabul, Afghanistan, acknowledged the likelihood of NorthKorean retaliation if Washington uses military force in an attempt to stop its weapons programs. “What (is) particularly difficult about ― about dealing with this regime, is that it is unpredictable,” he said.
“It’s time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully,” he said.
South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops and holds a presidential election on May 9, warned of punitive action if the Sunday launch led to further provocation.
“North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the same region this month, ahead of a summit between the United States and China in Florida to discuss the North’s arms program.
But that missile, which U.S. officials said appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud, only flew about 60 km (40 miles), a fraction of its range, before spinning out of control.
Tension had escalated sharply amid concern the North may conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test around Saturday’s 105th anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il Sung, what it calls the “Day of the Sun.”
China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the “situation on the Korean peninsula” by phone on Sunday, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. Yang said the two sides should maintain dialog.
FLOWER SHOW
In Pyongyang, there was a festive atmosphere at a flower show, with families out, taking pictures with North Korean-made smart phones. There was no mention of the test failure by the KCNA state news agency.
Company worker Rim Chung Ryol, 30, said he had not heard of the test.
“If it is a failure, then failure is the mother of success,” he told Reuters.
Factory worker Ri Gul Chol, 37, also had not heard about the missile test.
“But whatever Kim Jong Un decides and instructs will succeed and all the citizens will support him,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Joseph Campbell and Philip Wen in DANDONG, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Daniel Trotta in NEW YORK and Caren Bohan in WASHINGTON; Writing by Nick Macfie and Warren Strobel; Editing by Robert Birsel, Keith Weir and Diane Craft)
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President Donald Trump expressed disbelief Sunday that people still want him to release his tax returns and insisted someone must have paid for Saturday’s nationwide protests demanding he do so.
In a series of tweets Easter morning, Trump questioned the validity of post-election demonstrations against him and called for an investigation into who must have “paid for the small organized rallies.”
Saturday’s protests were among the biggest anti-Trump demonstrations since January’s Women’s March and totaled tens of thousands of people in around 100 cities.
Organizers estimated that over 25,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., and another 20,000 people assembled in New York City.
Held on the date when Americans’ taxes are normally due, the protests chided Trump for being the first president in four decades not to release his tax returns or comparable financial information ― a standard established when former President Richard Nixon released his returns after he was audited.
His refusal to release them, critics say, indicates a possible cover-up of tax avoidance, financial ties to the Russian government or other monetary misdeeds.
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