The (United) Brand Experience

If this brand experience is based on a meaningful impact, then I’m sorry folks; this story does not have a happy ending.

I'm typically OK with flying any type of airline and have never found myself to fall under a picky persona. I've flown Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Jet Blue Quantas, British Airways, Air France, Air Italia TAP, Tiger Airways, Porter, American Airlines, Delta, US Airways, West Jet, Continental... (and I can go on but the list will have to stop there for both our sakes...). But amid my flying experience, there's nothing quite like United Airlines.

My first encounter with United Airlines was a year ago. I got on the plane, put my luggage in the overhead compartment after finding my seat and got settled in with a good book (if you haven't read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, then you need to get on that...) in a short while before the flight had to take off.

As more and more passengers began pouring into the plane, a man came up to me and stared at me with a puzzled face. He said, "Sorry, but I seem to have the same seat as you" (or something along those lines). I rummaged through the back pocket of the seat in front of me for my ticket and checked my seat number. I was indeed sitting in the wrong seat (i.e. the gentleman's seat). I looked up at him, smiled and gave my sincere apologies and proceeded to move to the next aisle.

Just as I got up, the United flight attendant was only too quick to come down on me. She barked, "Excuse me ma'am, but you need to stay in your seat." I told her that there was a seat mix-up and just settling into the other aisle. She gave me a scolding look and said, "Well then you will be needing to do so quickly because the plane is about to take off." I said, "Yes I know sorry it was just a mix up but it's settled now." Her last words were, "Well could you please hurry so we can all get into our seats?" Whatever lady. I just didn't have the energy or willpower to argue with such a simple and meaningless issue.

But she wasn't just cold with me. She was barking orders at passengers throughout the plane and everyone's eyes seemed to dart around at each other, wondering what exactly what side of the bed this lady arose from this morning.

For the rest of the flight, the flight attendant just seemed miserable and clearly had no intention of making everyone's flight a more comfortable one. She had a sour face on the whole time and I did NOT feel like even making eye contact with her, never mind asking her water.

After the flight, I figured everyone must have their off days, so maybe it was just that one flight attendant that had a bad day and couldn't possibly represent the entirety of the company. So my next flight I took was also with United Airlines (since it is usually the most convenient way for me to travel between Canada and the U.S.). This flight seemed to be a 'normal' one, where customer service actually existed.

But I spoke too soon.

During the flight, the gentleman in front of me was playing loud music. It was definitely loud to the point where other passengers could hear what songs he was playing, but no one was bothered by it and kept to themselves. But it seemed to be bothering the flight attendant. The flight attendant poked the man on the shoulder and scolded him for having his music too loud when no one was bothered by it. He approached the gentleman in a cold way and immediately walked away without hearing the man out.

An hour later into the flight, the flight attendant was coming around with water, yet did not offer any to the gentleman playing the music. When the flight attendant asked the passengers if they wanted any water, the music dude yelled out "NOT FROM YOU!" The flight attendant still managed to ignore him throughout the flight.

Finally, when we landed, the music man called on the flight attendant and told him how rude he was being. The flight attendant refused to apologize (and as we all should know, in customer service, the customer is always right...). Clearly, this issue just got personal between the flight attendant and the music man. The flight attendant even had the audacity to speak to the pilot because not only did he refuse to apologize, but he walked away from the man because he didn't want to talk to him anymore. Apparently he didn't (and probably still doesn't!) care too much for his customers.

As we walked out of the plane, the pilot dealt with the situation and apologized to the passenger for the flight attendant's rude behaviour. They continued to argue, but the passenger seemed to calm down a little once he noticed that oh look, someone is actually hearing me out.

With those two experiences with United Airlines, I did not want to fly with them again. Why? Because there customer service sucks! If you can even call that customer service. But what I surprised to realize is that it takes only one person to affect the whole brand experience. Even at the micro level, companies really have to be careful about who is on their team. For me, it took two flight attendants to not even want to bother with United. Every time I look up flight, I avoid the word "United" like the plague (well... only when I HAVE to and there's no other choice).

If you look at it in a different way (through a Strategic Experiential Marketing way... wink!), I experienced the "United" experience through:

1. Sense
There wasn't too much sensory stimuli that turned me off from United Airlines... unless we're talking about the poor communication (or lack thereof) between the passengers and the flight attendants (sound).

2. Feel
Oh I felt a whole lot of emotions on this one. I felt I was being treated as an inferior by the way I was being spoken to in a condescending and scolding manner. I felt I was even unable to approach the staff about anything (when they're supposed to be there for you). I felt bad for others who were being neglected when unfriendly flight attendants were responding negatively to their passengers and that I was just another nuisance to be had onboard. They might as well have a slogan that reads, "United. Just stay out of our way." Seriously, who wants to do business with these people?

3. Think
There was nothing engaging about my experience. I thought I was completely disconnected to the brand, even when I was using it. And even the pilot's ability to attempt to solve the problem with the music man in my second experience with United was too late. I felt the entire flight needed an apology, since everyone seemed to be affected by the flight attendant's sour face and pour behaviour. I thought the least they could do was to apologize not only to the man (and give him some sort of special deal for his next flight to encourage them to continue to fly with United), but to apologize to the rest of us who were subject to such a sour attitude. (Sorry, I feel I am getting more bitter as I write this!)

4. Act
I do not really feel the need to interact with this company again, as there are so many other (and better!) airlines out there that don't seem to mind dealing with people in a friendly manner. If United were to show its customers an alternative way of approaching customer service, it would be to have "Be friendly and approach every issue with dignity" its first mantra. This wold be a better alternative than simply neglecting the entirety of customer service itself.

5. Relate
I think for the first experience with United, I may have felt (and this is stretching it...) that I would relate to the flight attendant. I thought, "well, we all have our off days once in a while (and some more so than others), so give her a break." But for the second experience, I have never seen someone act so rude to their customer, and thought that I could not relate to that. OK, maybe he was also having a bad day (and again, we all have those), but it seems like only common sense to deal with such a small issue like that in a calm and collected way (especially since we were more than 30,000 feet up in the air!).

I remember later talking to a friend about a bad brand experience. She started out with, "Oh man, I've had a few bad experiences with brands. But I think my number one would be United. Have you ever flown with them?" Oh boy, have I ever.

Lo and behold, we aren't the only ones that had a bad run in with United Airlines...