United airlines guitar scandal

Case Study

Please write a 5-7 pages’ paper in APA format and cite the sources I provide at the bottom, and you can also find some additional sources if you need.

My topic is “Customer Service and The Airline Industry: United Airlines”

Outline:

There’s an increasingly big problem with airlines overbooking flights. Hopefully, flight overbooking reached its apex with the horrible scenes of shouting and violence at Chicago O’Hare airport, as a United Airlines passenger was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight after refusing to give up his seat. Overbooking is a part of the customer service. I will focus on United Airlines to talk about the customer service in the airline industry.

1) Introduction

a) Background of customer service in the airline industry

b) Background of customer service in United Airlines

c) Introduce the recent overbooking incident in United Airlines

2) Findings

a) The voices from real United customers about their unsatisfying experience with United

b) The United Airlines debacle isn’t about customer service. It’s about the morality of capitalism

c) The problem with United Airlines customer service is due to the problem with CEOs, and leadership teams, that focus on “operational excellence” as a strategy

d) How United Airline could take customer service lesson from Delta

e) United Airlines made 10 customer service policy changes following the overbooking incident

f) What United Airlines should do to fix their customer service problem?

3) Conclusion

Reference List for Case Study

For my case study, I will talk about customer service and the airline industry. Specifically, I will focus on United Airlines customer service.

Solomon, M. (2017, April 17). From Broken Guitars to Broken Noses: Assessing The United Airlines Customer Service Fiasco. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2017/04/17/from-broken-guitars-to-broken-noses-assessing-the-united-airlines-customer-service-fiasco/#3c2365967e06

This article from Forbes was written by a customer service consultant Micah Solomon talking about the weaknesses of United Airlines customer service and he provided four suggestions against the weaknesses. I think this article is useful to my case because it gives me insights of United Airlines’ shortfall of customer service and some possibilities for improvement.

Martin, J., SJ. (2017, April 11). The United Airlines debacle isn't about customer service. It's about the morality of capitalism. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/04/11/united-airlines-debacle-isnt-about-customer-service-its-about-morality

This article from America the Jesuit Review was written by a Jesuit priest James Martin. It mainly discussed about that the poor customer service at United Airlines was created by the morality of capitalism which puts rules before people and places profits before human dignity. This article is useful because it showed me another angle to view UA’s overbooking scandal.

Hartung, A. (2017, April 19). Why United Airlines Abuses Customers: The Risks Of Operational Excellence. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2017/04/10/why-united-airlines-abuses-customers-the-risks-of-operational-excellence/#e9a85d8bb109

This is another article from Forbes written by a business consultant Adam Hartung. It blames that the problem with United Airlines customer service is due to the problem with CEOs, and leadership teams, that focus on “operational excellence” as a strategy, which mainly focuses on efficiency, cost cutting and business operations that totally forget about customers or anything else. This article is useful to my case because it indicates how corporate leadership teams and the business strategies affect customer service.

O'Rourke, J. S. (2017, April 11). How United Airlines could take a customer service lesson from Delta. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/04/11/how-united-airlines-could-take-customer-service-lesson-from-delta.html

This article from Fox News by James S. O’Rourke, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame, talks about what United Airlines can learn about customer service from its competitor Delta. This article gave me a sense that not all airline companies in the United States are doing bad on customer service. United Airlines should learn from its competitors in order to improve its customer service. This article is useful because it tells me the difference of customer service between different airline companies.

Lazarus, D. (2017, April 12). 'Get off or pay for another seat.' United customers share their bad experiences. Retrieved May 15, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-united-customer-emails-20170412-htmlstory.html

This article from Los Angeles Times was posted by David Lazarus, an American business and consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times. It consists with several emails from real United Airlines customers complaining about their awful experiences with United Airlines customer service. This is useful to my case because I can site some real voice from the customers to talk about UA’s customer service.