Brief History

1. United Airlines CorporationTeam Research ProjectJared Barker, Robby Kaelin, Kevin Hill, Jacob RobertsDevan Walker, Derek Raymond  MKT 1030Instructor: Christopher Black

2. Brief History • United Airlines was founded in 1926 in Boise, Idaho as Vamey Air Lines mail service. United's target markets mainly consist of business travel and vacationers. Based out of Chicago, United is the world’s largest airline by the number of destinations and scheduled passenger-kilometer flown. United currently has 10 hubs around the world running around 3,300 flights and it also employs 88,253 people. In 2010, after facing bankruptcy, United successfully merged operations with Continental Airlines surpassing Delta Airlines as the world’s largest airline in passenger revenue and aircraft fleet.

3. United Merges with Continental In 2010 Continental Airlines merged with United Airlines creating-what at the time was- "the world's largest airline alliance.” • Promised a smooth transition • The newly formed alliance would be of major benefit to both company’s customers and employees. 2 years later the effects have shown: • Hobbled operations • Angry customers • Soured relationships with employees. The merger has caused lots of problems with both former company’s employees creating a company that is still far from being “united.”

4. Overview and Purpose • Use of: Customer statistics, interviews with employees and customers, news and media reports, and expectations of the company itself. • Conduct and present valid research suggesting reasons for why the merger between Continental Airlines and United Airlines has resulted in a lack of unity between its employees. • Conduct research that will shed light on specific areas of customer service where United's customers are unsatisfied. • Identify current customer concerns with the way that United intends to carry out their marketing plan. • We hope to bring to light not only the complaints of the customers, employee’s concerns, and other major problems within the United Airlines organization, but some possible recommendations which would aide United Airlines as they look to move forward and regain the prestige, confidence, and trust that they once had from their customers.

5. Secondary Research We used statistics, customer complaint websites, and previous calls and complaints given to United in conducting our Secondary Research. • Last year, in July alone, United received more complaints than all other airlines combined. “I Called customer service - recording says wait time would be 1 hour. I held on and in almost exactly one hour, the call disconnected. Not a wonder they are rated the worst airline.”

6. Statistics • According to Customer Service Scoreboard, United received 1700 comments in 2012.90% of those were negative. • For the first half of 2012, United was responsible for 1,740 of 5,159 complaints filed against airlines. That is 33.6%.

7. Reservation/Ticketing & Refunds • Out of the 696 total complaints filed in the Reservation/Ticketing category in 2012, 296 (42.5%) were from United customers. (United and Continental reservations/ticketing complaints only accounted for 24.5% of complaints in that categorya year ago) • 196 travelers complained about refund problems which results in more than 45% of all complaints in this category. (In 2011, there were only 79 complaints for the same time period for United and Continental combined)

8. Customer Care • Meanwhile, not only was United’s 330 customer service-related complaints by far the most for the first half of 2012 (approximately 42% of all complaints), United was the only airline with triple-digit numbers in this category. • Their customers had complained about small airline seats, unhappy and unhelpful employees, mishandled luggage and a severe lack of care or interest in helping the customer with problems they may have.

9. Primary Research • Interview with Supervisor of the company - “I didn’t have the resources, the time, or even the materials to train my employees effectively. In addition to the lack of money, time, and resources, the new hires are typically young, college students working over night due to the time difference. There is a language barrier, a time difference, and a lack of the previously mentioned resources. How can you expect customers to have AMAZING customer service under such circumstances?”  • Interview with a long-time customer - “The employees don’t seem very happy, and I have had a few bad encounters with employees or representatives of the company responding very rudely to simple questions I have asked. They have things they need to improve and work on but if you fly with them long enough they start treating you better.” • Interview with a first-time customer - “I can honestly say that my experience with United was the worst I have ever had with any airline.” “As a former marketing major, I don’t understand how they plan to market their company or their services. They don’t run commercials, are not on any internet promotional sites, and do not do a very good job and promoting themselves at all.”

10. Observation • Having a member of our group work for United, he was able to speak with fellow employees as well as observe their interactions with each other, management of the company, and the customers as they provided “customer service.” • He observed that one big reason for the problems with customer service is because the employees are unsatisfied with their pay, lack of training and how they are treated by the company. These factor in to why the company as a whole lacks “unity.”

11. Data Analysis • The outcome of our primary and secondary research is that United Airlines needs to do a better job at caring for the customer. In many ways it seems like Unites Airlines tries to do as much as they can by doing as little as they can. That means that by using the least amount of money or by using the least amount of personal communication or customer care as possible, they try to do too much. • Improve customer care on the phone, less delays in flight departures and arrival times, better care of the customer’s personal belongings, and an increase in the overall way United treats their customers. • Improve the care they give to their employees. It was beneficial for us to have an employee of United in our group because we were able to get insider information as to how things really are within the company. United Airlines needs to treat their customers and employees with more care and respect, and show them that United is there to serve its customers.

12. Findings • Reservation/ticketing category - United was responsible for 42.5% of the total complaints. • Refund category - United was responsible for more than 45% of the total complaints. • Customer service-related complaints - United was responsible for 42% of all complaints. We can see that out of the 5,159 complaints filed between January and June of 2012, 1,740, 33.6% of them were for United Airlines. It’s almost more than three times the amount filed for runners-up American Airlines 552 and U.S. Airways 511. Delta had 443 and other airlines combined for 3,246.

13. Limitations • Time constraints were key as Finals approach and proved detrimental in our gathering of more research, which would have helped us analyze “United” better. • We were limited to few recourses and no sort of budget. • Social media was a hit and miss and did not provide enough valid information to efficiently conduct or evaluate a survey.

14. Conclusions • The reason for the lack of unity between United employees is the difficulty in merging two major organizations together and being able to compromise and mold into one productive company. • United has poor customer service leaving customers feeling unsatisfied with reservation/ticketing, refunds, size of airplane seats, employee-customer communication, delays in departure and arrival time and mechanical difficulties. • United has no form of marketing strategy in place right now, and in order to progress, the company will need to begin to implement some sort of marketing plan.

15. Recommendations • Better customer service • Bridge the connection between former United and Continental employees/Resolve internal conflicts • Incentive among employees • More employees within the United States, not India, who can better handle complaints and concerns and who can easily be understood