GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – With the public relations image of their company in tatters after of a paying customer being dragged off an airplane, a Green Bay PR consultant has some advice for United Airlines.
Susan Finco, with Leonard & Finco, cringed when she saw David Dow bloodied and dragged off the plane. United’s initial response was cringe worthy too.
“They didn’t say the rights things, they didn’t do the right things, they were slow to respond”.
Now that United has apologized and is trying to make amends, Finco says the airline needs to publicly state what sort of changes they’re going to make with regard to treatment of passengers.
And get a passenger committee to be part.
“Convene them on a quarterly basis and get feedback from them”.
And don’t mess up again.
“Any future missteps will be magnified ten-fold”.
As far as the lawsuit threatened by the attorney for David Dow, Finco says United Airlines has to do its best to settle this out of court.
Failure to do that, and have this episode replayed again in a courtroom, will only continue the PR nightmare for United.
“Just because they were legally within their right to do this doesn’t mean they should have. And if that’s their defense, it’s not going to go well for them”.
