PR Implications of the Volcano Crisis

: Image by cogdogblog via Flickr

Claire Thompson, Freelance PR Consultant, Waves PR

On the PR Implications of the Volcano Crisis for the airlines.

I ran a very quick and unempirical (manual) search to see how the airlines are faring on the PR front 24 hours after they won the right to put flights back in the sky* following the volcanic ash cloud which grounded flights – ie looking at their management of getting people moving and handling stranded passengers.

The airlines were highly variable in how well they communicated to stranded customers what actions passengers needed to take, and not one had really harnessed the opportunities and speed offered by social media outlets for communication, although there were rumblings in that direction.

The (customer) expenses issue came to the fore as a result of RyanAir’s early refusal to meet it’s legal obligations. Whether this is going to impact anyone’s reputation long term is a moot issue.

The financial implications loomed larger in many communications than the stranded customer issue, largely because so many of the official communications were aimed at financial markets (for regulatory reasons).

Yet amongst the biggest issues for travellers was the lack of information, whether at airport or online (before making way to airport). I’ve always been shocked at how airlines communicate with passengers, with some poor check-in representative telling each person in turn at the check in desk what’s happening and getting more stroppy by the moment, rather than grabbing a flip chart and writing up basic information, leaving only specific problems to be dealt with at the check in desk. Unprofessional? Frankly if they wrote it on the back of a cigarette packet it’s better for customers than queueing for hours to be told to go away.

What the airlines unanimously failed to grasp is that they and the passengers were in it together, and were all on the same side in wanting to get moving. They failed to empathise with their customers’ plight. Worse still, they may not have expected a volcano eruption, but other things ground airplanes – from coups in countries to security alerts. There is no excuse for them not to have known the rules regarding customers’ rights regarding expenses.

Most will now be in a worse off position financially than had they negotiated accommodation and food locally for the large numbers of stranded passengers, and, moreover, would have had more control over communicating with them as things started to move.

Whether they’ll learn from this remains to be seen. The damage to reputations will vary according to airline: those that view flying as a price driven commodity will probably care about little of this. Those who pride themselves on service could do worse that have a look at the efforts that Iceland Air appear to be making, communicated via it’s Twitter account.

The longer term implications have yet to pan out. The airlines were already in financial trouble, and have been hit hard by the volcano’s eruption. There are rumblings about the undue haste with which which the airlines pushed for flights to be resumed. Only time will tell if they have achieved the right kind of balance between service, safety and finance, but good communication doesn’t have to be expensive, and loyalty is a very, very hard thing to buy.

Ultimately for the airlines, it may come down to this: what price reputation?

So here’s the low down by airline:

BMI

British Airways

Delta

EasyJet

RyanAir

Virgin

And just to lighten things up, from the Huffington Post:

* The only communications examined were comments and responses on Twitter (because they can be relied on to be vociferous!), Airlines own sites and the first few results on a Google search. The time that communications were reviewed was between 10am and 2.30 this afternoon (ie to around the 24 hour mark) and covers English language only. It was limited in that other platforms, such as FaceBook and YouTube, and press articles/blogs, were only reviewed if someone had cared enough to post a link. And the impact on share prices wasn’t touched upon. In short, this is only a snapshot at that particular point in time – a temperature taking toe-tester!

Stranded BA passengers sent to back of queue (guardian.co.uk)
Airline shares climb after UK airspace is reopened (guardian.co.uk)
Smart Social Media Branding: Virgin America launches Toronto on Twitter, at 50% discount [couponcode, still valid] (simpliflying.com)
Iceland volcano: stranded passengers face long battle for compensation (telegraph.co.uk)
Battle looms over stranded passengers’ hotel costs (guardian.co.uk)
Ash cloud costing airlines £130m a day (guardian.co.uk)
Volcanic ash cloud: British Airways fly in the face of ban (telegraph.co.uk)
Ryanair U-turn, will pay stranded customers’ bills (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Airlines Ask European Governments For Compensation (RYAAY) (benzinga.com)

Tags: crisis management, PR, public relations

communications, PR practise | claireatwaves | April 23, 2010 12:10 am

3 Comments

By claireatwaves, May 14, 2010 @ 10:58 pm

Footnote:

Article has been translated and reappeared elsewhere:
http://theonliner.lv/lv/lidojumu_kompaniju_pr_aktivitates_vulkanu_krizes_laika_case_study.html/?ssid=6446f2eecfb53c62286b93ad2a3e5017

I was flattered – this, apparently, is Latvian!
Claire
By Autism Symptoms, June 16, 2010 @ 6:47 am

Keep up the good work, I like your writing.