Crisis Communications and American Airlines
In the past weeks and months, the airline industry has had to address a series of challenges that left managers little time to execute, and almost no room for communications mistakes.
Consider American Airlines, which faced communicating with hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights were canceled while the airline performed emergency safety inspections. Under a harsh spotlight, the company had to juggle operations management, media relations, and, of course, the ubiquitous apology.
The highly technical nature of the FAA complaint, combined with the emotion and personal reaction we all have to travel snags, compounded by the sheer number of flights canceled, left very little breathing room for American’s management team. Observing American’s unenviable position has led me to the following lessons on how to communicate today during a crisis, especially when it extends over several days:
Communicate right away, do it sincerely, and do it from the top.
People want the facts, they want a meaningful apology, and they want to hear from someone in a top position. But internal pressures often delay leaders from reaching out directly to the public. Saying “I’m really, really sorry” can be a welcome band-aid for wounded customers, but it can become more of a twisted dagger -- say for families spending their holidays at airport motels -- if it comes too late.
More so, jaded customers are increasingly expecting meaningful actions to address their inconveniences. And when customers don’t receive the treatment they expect, the damage they inflict can be near-instant. People will blog their opinions within seconds of forming them, spinning their own experiences out into the world well ahead of the corporate PR machine. For example, even one generally sympathetic blogger lamented, “Because American canceled all its flights out of Salt Lake City, all American employees went home, so there was no one there to help with my ticket.” Not exactly the image American was looking for.
Some of American’s “valued customers” received apology emails from Dan Garton, Executive Vice President of Marketing. The apology would have been much more effective coming personally from the CEO, rather than a marketing manager who probably had very little to do with the decisions that affected so many customers. And when CEO Gerard Arpey did eventually apologize three days into the crisis, it wasn’t soon enough.
Take a personal tone and focus on what’s relevant.
Clear, consistent, and compassionate language is paramount. While American succeeded in some areas of communicating their case, they were not always strong or specific enough. As another blogger said of CEO Gerard Arpey’s apology, “he didn’t apologize for the inconvenience to customers, just for his failure to ensure safety standards are met.”
American’s choice of language has been described as “sanitized.” Consider, for example, alerts on the American Airlines website announcing, “Aircraft Inspections Affect Some AA Travel.” One executive cited handing out press releases as a way of reaching people on the ground. Another apology email to customers was sent en masse, losing the personal touch with phrases like, “If in your travels you were among the many who have been personally affected.” This kind of tepid and generic approach rarely satisfies anyone.
Communicate with your customers wherever your customers are.
American’s relatively level stock price last week attests to effective communications with the financial market. However, as Roger Frizzell, American Airline's VP of corporate communications, told PR Week, stranded passengers are “probably the one audience we had trouble reaching.” Those weary travelers may represent a small percentage of the total population, but in terms of the long-term strategy of the airlines, they are a critical audience; their treatment could affect a much broader swath of customers and potential customers in this connected world.
Ensuring that you deliver the facts and resources customers need is, of course, essential. But understanding and engaging with individual customers online -- both through relationships with the blogging community and by making individual posts to blogs -- is also paramount.
The news world is becoming increasingly fragmented and personal. Becoming adept in providing information quickly through both official and unofficial channels is critical to balancing any adverse news coverage. It is also fundamental to reaching customers and stakeholders -- and protecting the company’s reputation and brand.
Kathy Bloomgarden is co-CEO of Ruder Finn, one of the world's largest public relations agencies, and the author of Trust: The Secret Weapon of Effective Business Leaders.
For more on the airlines see:
The Airline Industry Whistleblowers
British Airways' Terminal 5 Disaster
Delta-Northwest's Interactive Public Relations
American Airlines Needs a Newsroom
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I received Mr. Garton's apology. I hoped to post a copy of it on my blog, but noticed the disclaimer at the bottom that stated that the message was copyrighted, and any unauthorized reproduction or transfer of the message was prohibited.
Why prevent distribution of an apology? What is the motivation for keeping it a secret?
- Posted by Bob
April 20, 2008 7:08 PM
Several years ago I was part of the management team dealing with the Schwan's ice cream salmonela poisoning.
This is exactly what we did; we went on National TV with our owner/president who addressed our customers in a personal and caring manner.
No negative reprocussions, no class action, only increased business.
- Posted by kyle
April 22, 2008 9:21 AM
This is a joke, right? I not only received no communication, but also had to find out that the second leg of my flight was also canceled after arriving to the airport the day following the grounding. I will, in the future, pay more to fly a different airline than American.
- Posted by Doug
April 22, 2008 11:50 AM
American not only doesn't have a clue when it comes to customer communication, but their management is totally lost on the concept of fostering an excellent win/win relationship with employees as a means of delivering outstanding customer value. I don't know how many of you have flown AA recently, but, delays or no, it is a painful experience. Their employees, and rightly so, are extremely unhappy and frankly, I suspect, not well treated. When you have a company whose focus is solely upper management compensation and shareholder return and not toward a mutually beneficial relationship with ALL their critical constituents, you will see a company whose long term value is not even close what it could be. A shame, really.
- Posted by Meloyde
April 22, 2008 12:07 PM
Sorry Kathy, but I think you missed the same point about real crisis communications the American PR people did. I waited a week to post something at my blog about the mess at ORD because as a PR guy too, I thouhgt I might have missed something.
But I think American Airlines missed the boat. I was out at ORD on the first day of the groundings to do a little TV commentary since we only work in the aviation industry.
There were thousands of American passengers simply standing around waiting for someone to help them.
I asked one of the PR folks why they couldn't roll some carts out from the grounded airplanes and offer people water and snacks. Buy out all the prepackaged sandwiches and salads from the airport vendors and hand them out I asked. Offer folks a few chairs.
They looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
Crisis communication is about hitting the ground running. And that is something American never did do at least in Chicago. Apparently no one ever thought of adding the concept of triage' to their crisis plans.
As a long-time Advantage customer too, the apology from Arprey the next day was hollow. You're right on that one. He should have been on TV the first day. And the station manager from ORD should have been on the floor talking to the thousands of people in line.
I think too darned many people today simply think that saying "sorry," makes it all better. It doesn't when the words are not sincere. But a company's actions have to line up with the words, and American's didn't.
Rob Mark
- Posted by Rob Mark
April 22, 2008 12:32 PM
A crisis, be it in a boardroom, a home, or on a battlefield is not something that needs to be feared. It is up to the accountable person(s) to understand and control the chaos so that appropriate and timely actions can be taken to avert disaster.
To that, I offer two points:
One. The old adage, bad news does not get better with time rings true here. While there are many layers between the root cause of the required inspections and the CEO, the person accountable in this case is the man in the corner office. He should have stepped up sooner and spoke from his heart. Cases such as Tylenol’s tampering case and Schwans case (as mentioned above) are proof that accepting responsibility early and clearly, while emotions are playing at the hearts of those affected, is what people will remember.
Two. Air travel is a commodity. We as customers shop for one thing. A ticket that will get us from point A to B in the most direct way possible at the lowest price. Safety? On-time arrivals? We expect these to be constants....perform or we will switch.
Perhaps as New York struggles through new legislation that is forcing restaurateurs to add caloric information to menus we should call for legislation that forces airlines to make public its on-time arrivals, safety metrics, and any new FAA findings / citings experienced within the last two years at the point of purchase for any of its tickets.
- Posted by Jeff
April 22, 2008 2:09 PM
If anyone thinks AMR management cares one iota about our passengers travel experience, why would they have taken the 800# out of the American Way magazine where you used to be able to speak to a human being and replaced it with an e-mail address.
More savings to pay for the executive bonuses (performance bonuses if you can believe the sheer hutzpah sp?) is squeezed out by NOT stocking any spare parts. When something breaks, they order it and have the pilots fly around with the broken part "on placard," until the replacement part arrives and can be repaired.
Last week, I had to unload an entire airplane full of passengers who had been left in an unconditioned airplane for 1:15 IN MIAMI. I was going through customs and changing planes for one with an inoperative Auxilary Power Unit. When I arrived it was about 100 degrees fahrenheit on board and old people in the back were worried they were going to pass out.
When I reported it, a passenger service agent replied to my report by suggesting it could not be verified.
Truly sad.
A frustrated American Airlines pilot
- Posted by Russell
April 22, 2008 4:21 PM
Hmmm, I wonder if Ruder Finn is an agency of record for American Airlines.
What Kathy says about top-down communication, that's crises management 101 - not crises management in today's world.
If they were really handling crises management in today's world someone from American Airlines would be actively involved in the comments being posted here.
This piece is just a bunch of fluff, that any journalism student could write.
Let's hear about their blogger outreach strategy. Did they set up a crises RSS feed? Where are they on Twitter?
- Posted by James Clark
May 1, 2008 8:41 PM