We’ve all been dragged off that airplane and kicked from the “friendly skies” just like Dr. David Dao was from his United Airlines Chicago flight, which we all watched a dozen times last week on our TVs and phones. We don’t mean literally the same plane, of course. We’re talking about getting booted by high-flying corporate disrespect and greed, an ugly American trait that is getting worse by the day.
How would you describe the feeling in your stomach when you suddenly realize you have to call your utility company or bank with a customer question? Isn’t the experience almost like getting dragged down the aisle of a plane? Overbooked? Is that why robots answer our calls? When did the customer stop being right even some of the time? Just like Dr. Dao who refused to give up his paid seat on the plane, it’s our own fault.
Is this shameful customer treatment and misplaced business priorities just a mega-corporation problem? How would you rate our many local businesses on their customer etiquette, responsiveness and service? How many would you give a five-star rating? Thank goodness, we have many local shops and businesses, which are very accommodating, offering special services and fair prices.
Truth be told, last week’s United Airlines customer service and PR disaster is part of an American epidemic. Making customers happy used to matter more than sheer profits. Dr. Dao’s airplane assault should be a wake up call for all of us.
We are suffering the loss of competition and true free markets. When we mention capitalism, the word greed too often also comes to mind. The concentration of too much wealth in the hands of too few corporations like United Airlines, AT&T, Comcast, Wells Fargo, ExxonMobil and Monsanto lies behind most of the stories of consumer abuse and a “new normal” of low expectations. It’s in our politics, too.
Before the United Airlines episode there was the case of Turing Pharmaceuticals, where the CEO raised the price of its life saving EpiPen by 50-fold, a show of pure greedy monopoly. Volkswagen secretly put defeat devices on its diesel vehicles to cheat on clean fuel ratings and raise sticker prices.
America is now a land where our president once bilked students at Trump University with false claims of instant success to boost tuition profits. This is where ExxonMobil bankrolled fake science claims against climate change and Monsanto is using the same tactic against new findings that its herbicide Roundup is a cancer threat.
Maybe Corporate America never had that great a reputation, but has it ever been worse than it is today?
It would be more troubling if this atmosphere of low customer esteem and slapdash business practices were allowed to trickle down to our main street. When we shop locally, we are rewarding local businesses which make us feel appreciated. Maybe it’s true we could save a few dollars if we shopped at Amazon or Costco, but those dollars would be lost to our community forever.
Maybe not all our local business owners know us by our first names, but we’re treated better than just a number on an airplane seat. When a local clerk tells us to “have a nice day” we often feel like they really mean it.
In the end, how many millions of dollars — if not billions — will United Airlines now lose in profits? Slogans like “friendly skies” only work with true friendliness where people matter more than a few extra dollars.
Let’s all try to win five-star ratings among our mutual customers, employees and business community partners. It shouldn’t be too difficult. We have plenty of bad examples out there not to follow.
