Let’s face it: flying freaks people out. We’re land creatures, for Christ’s sake! It’s unnatural.
A story that rats out an airline for freaking people out even more unnecessarily, then, is the stuff of nightmares — the updated, real life Snakes on a Plane, this time called 2017. In it, you can be shoved, dragged, yelled at, or hit with a stroller thanks to small misunderstandings and minor misconduct for the easy, one-time price of a standard economy ticket.
With the heightened media criticism facing them this year, airlines know they’re being watched. PR teams everywhere are either scrambling to make sure there are no slip-ups, so to maintain an appearance of being better than the next guy, or scrambling to recover from one of the many ugly and shocking iPhone videos surfacing on the nightly news. They’re ready to do just about anything to make sure you — especially you, The Business Traveler — keep flying, from assuring passengers’ safety to screening movies in your hometown. When it comes to recovering from a P.R. nightmare in today’s competitive markets and with many corporate giants in the mix, airlines are working hard to go the extra mile.
The Short-term Plan (Saving face, groveling a little)
The future of airlines’ success — a.k.a. minimizing customers lost, maximizing customers gained — can be determined hugely by how the corporation immediately responds to a crisis. In a day where technology grants people instantaneous answers, P.R. teams have to act fast — at what YouGov BrandIndex’s (a consumer perception research firm) CEO Ted Marzilli calls “social media speed.” Or else, well, you’re doomed.
1. Re-instilling safety
The number-one priority for airlines — especially post-9/11 — is to pledge the highest degree of safety and security for their customers, who are all, for the most part, at least slightly on edge throughout the whole experience of flying. By the sheer nature of being thousands of feet up in the air, passengers’ experiences, both good and bad, have the potential to be amplified.
In other words, when an airline employee gets tired or upset and lashes out at passengers, things tend to go from bad to very very very bad very quickly.
According to Paul Charles, a seasoned veteran in communications for travel corporations, for The Guardian, “there’s something about airlines and airports that fascinates the public and the media, and means these stories are often given greater prominence than perhaps a crisis in another sector.” Charles also suggests that in these cases, due to the rate that news travels across social media these days, and out of sheer decency, airlines must absolutely release statements on these incidents within the hour. Since flights are taking off nearly every minute across the globe, there are a lot of people out there who need immediate reassurance of their safety.
2. Using some human decency
On that note, since they’ve evoked one of the most influential and consuming human emotions by scaring their clients, airlines’ PR teams should pay a little mind to human decency in addressing issues.
Chris Ann Goddard, president of CGPR Public Relations, suggests that the perfect recovery tactics for airlines should include “a heartfelt apology, release of a specific plan for addressing the mistakes, clear communication with front-line employees and a statement sent to frequent fliers and loyal customers.” Especially with the massive scale of media today, these statements should always admit the company’s wrongdoings, rather than placing blame on the police, witnesses, or victims in the incidents. You’re speaking to the public at large — in other words, your customers — not to your friends, family, or staff. This is not the time to be petty or nit-picky about the details. This is the time to step up, accept the blame, and swear nothing like it will ever happen again.
This was where United slipped up big-time this past April. Following the incident in which Dr. David Dao was dragged from a plane for refusing to give up his seat, United issued multiple statements attempting to defend the actions of their employees, who may or may not have been in the right for notifying police of a stubborn passenger. “I want to commend you,” wrote United CEO Oscar Munoz of his staff, “for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”
While this kind of defense is sweet, sure, it reads as an offensive in the eyes of the general public. Joleen David, president of SKAR Advertising, claims in a statement to the Omaha World-Herald: “It doesn’t matter that you can point to the fine print on your ticket and say, ‘We have the right to do this.’ The question you have to ask yourself is this: ‘Is this the right way to treat a human being?’ If your answer is anything but ‘yes,’ then you need to change your policy.”
3. Following the numbers (all of them)
Immediately following the April incident, United’s consumer perception levels “ dropped to their lowest levels in 10 years.” On a -100 to +100 scale, in which 0 is pretty neutral and average, they went from a +3 to a -40 in a week. And while Delta was able to bounce back from a similar drop in 2016 (from +9 to -33, and now back to 1), after a computer error resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights, United is still going to be a unique case, as their slip-up was the result of human actions, rather than technological glitching. Since most Average Joes can relate to struggling with a computer that won’t seem to cooperate, most individuals believe themselves to have high moral standards, and can’t sympathize with dragging an elderly man on the ground, even with all of the circumstances explained.
In other words, though varying by the scale and extremity of the incident, most incidents like these haunt airlines for several months, or even years. The public is not so fast to forget, especially when their money’s in play.
Within a week of the incident, shares of United’s stock fell “as much as 6.3% in pre-market trading, dropping $1.4 billion from the $21 billion company.” However, by the end of the month, United was reporting a 7.6% increase in passengers carried compared to April 2016. Stocks recovered, actually increasing in value from before the incident. Lucinda Shen from Fortune Magazine says this is because “airlines have gone through a consolidation craze over the past few years, making United the best — if not the only — option for travelers in some areas.” So, even though people’s hatred for United is expected to run deep for some time (only 3% of 1,300 travelers chose United as their favorite airline in an AirfareWatchdog.com survey following the incident) economists and shareholders can’t deny the company’s high chances at continued financial success, simply because they’re many customers’ only option.
While this is good news for United, it is certainly nerve-wracking for customers. If the company won’t even suffer from an experience like this, what’s their incentive to improve conditions? United’s job now, if they want to improve consumer ratings and decrease the number of cranky passengers just sucking it up, is to turn this idea around, and say “even though we don’t have to, we want to make things better for you because we care.”
The Long-term Plan (Making changes, professing love and devotion)
So, this is where things start to get fun (for us). As the emotion tones down, companies in a position like this have to start groveling at our feet to win back our love and affection. What’s more — the groups that they seem to be working hardest to appease are — drumroll please…
business travelers.
Prepare for the royal treatment, my friends.
1. Targeting young business travelers
Some of the larger airline corporations are hosting events in major cities to try to maintain customer loyalty and assure them of their good intentions despite the media’s portrayals. Southwest and JetBlue are hosting concerts, and JetBlue is stimulating startup growth, through their program JetBlue Technology Ventures. Delta’s teamed up with Vice media to reach young people, and the two are co-hosting movie screenings, musical performances, and food festivals. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, by the nature of the activities, many of these events target young people, in hopes of reaching young business travelers.
Delta’s general manager of brand communications, Amy Harry, says that research revealed that “loyalty to an airline is secured quite early in someone’s career,” making it important that they “break through early.” While the younger generation is more accustomed to doing things on their own, including booking travel, airline companies are having to work harder than ever to make themselves appealing to clients. Further yet, small businesses don’t always have brand-binding travel policies for employees. With the rise of startups today, PR disasters are especially dangerous to airline companies, and smooth recoveries if they do occur are extremely important.
2. Targeting older, previously loyal business travelers
Following the Dr. Dao incident, United vowed to make a number of changes, including only calling in security personnel when there is a very clear safety breach or threat, and requiring that crew members looking to fly book within 60 minutes of departure. Scott Kirby, president of the airline, however, also claimed that they will “start holding back more seats closer to flight departure dates to make them available to high-yield business travelers.”
According to the same report, they will also be putting “larger aircraft on some key business routes” in order to “provide a better level of service on some of the routes flown by United’s most frequent, high-margin travelers — an important customer segment that Kirby wants to try harder to keep from defecting to rivals American Airlines and Delta Airlines.” In terms of business and revenue, this makes tons of sense, as the most revenue lost would obviously be from those who fly frequently, not once-a-year vacation-fliers. They want to keep those who have been loyal to them for years, the loss of whose business will be surely felt.
In the end, it’s about forgiveness
Look, everyone has their own standards to be met before they’re ready to forgive. Some can be easily swayed with a few gifts and a little pampering. Others require admission of fault and a genuine apology. When it comes to handling airline crises, it helps to throw in both if you want to stay afloat (or afly?). People have to rely on a company’s word in the short term, which is especially difficult at a time when airlines have just shot a hole through all the trust they had worked to build. They have to make promises at a time where those previously made became invalid. This is the time to be genuine, to be good people and a good company.
Then, when you’re ready, load all of the luxuries on the business travelers and keep ‘em coming.
(Kidding, but it is important to come through on these promises with excess. They’ve messed up and they need to show that they’re trying really hard to win back your love.)