United breaks guitars ... and more than a few customers

A friend sent me a cool video created by Dave Carroll after he had a terrible and expensive experience with United Airlines. As he was traveling with his band, United baggage handlers threw his guitar case off the plane, ruining it. After nine months of frustrating dialogue, United finally and flatly denied responsibility and his claim. He responded by posting a music video on YouTube. You'll find it by searching for "United Breaks Guitars"on YouTube or Google "United Airlines" and you'll find it as the third listing.

Pre-internet, the general rule of thumb was that one friend telling another would eventually reach about 100 people. With friends emailing stories to friends who then forward them to more friends, this now must reach thousands, maybe tens of thousands or more. While I doubt that United really wants that kind of negative exposure, it sure won't result in a noticeable dent in their business.

But as of now, the video has been viewed over 5 million times. And this is increasing by about 30,000 more viewers per day, equivalent to 60 planeloads of a 747. This might actually hurt United.

Like so many have said so often, the internet is great for connecting marketers with their customers. More importantly, nothing connects your customers with your other customers like the internet. We are all turning into evangelists and critics. Marketers need pay attention.

United clearly doesn't understand that the most important principle of marketing -- your job is to create and nurture customer relationships -- has more impact than ever before. In United's case, 5 million and counting.

This can't be good for United's business. If they had just apologized and tried to make good for their employee's negligence they'd still have Dave for a customer. No video; no 5 million hits on a very persuasive critique of their service. I guess they've lost more than enough fares to pay for the guitar several times over.

The internet forces you to follow the most basic tenant of marketing -- it's about customer relationships not transactions -- or pay big for it. Those are your only choices. Ignoring customer complaints is no longer an option.