Look out, Corporate America. Customers armed with smartphones and video cameras are watching when you screw up.
As The Associated Press reports, the viral video of a ticketed passenger dragged forcefully off a United Airlines flight is only the latest example of bad behavior exposed in the age of social media. In February, Uber came under fire after a driver posted video of CEO Travis Kalanick berating him.
Not long ago, such incidents might have gotten a mention on the local news at most, and quickly disappeared. But smartphone cameras and social media have democratized information and shifted power to consumers. Companies can no longer sweep complaints under the rug.
“That’s something a lot of companies just don’t get,” says Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. “Companies still operate as if they can hide things and make believe something didn’t happen.”
Not anymore. So what can companies do? Companies can’t eliminate embarrassing gaffes entirely, but can learn from past blunders to minimize the damage.
It starts with training.
Employees need to be ready to react when a situation gets dramatic—and companies should emphasize that anything employees do could be recorded. That’s especially true for transportation, fast-food and other companies with a lot of employees who interact directly with large numbers of customers.
Running through hypothetical scenarios also helps.
“Have a couple things planned, what we should do if ‘X’ happens and what we should do if ‘Y’ happens,” says Lakshman Krishnamurthi, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
