When will they learn?
That’s’ the question which has to be asked following the latest feeble apology to emerge in response to footage of a confrontation between cabin crew and a passenger.
Delta is the latest American airline to find itself facing a crisis media management situation after a mobile phone video went viral.
This incident, which comes just a few weeks after United Airlines dragged a 69-year-old man off one of its flights, saw a family reportedly being told they faced prison if they refused to give up a seat after they had put in a child seat.
Brian Schear also alleged he was also told his children would be put into care if he did not sit with his two-year-old on his lap for the duration of the flight.
Despite him later relenting and agreeing to hold his child, he was told his family was being removed from the place because ‘it’s come too far’. He said the seats were filled by four other passengers waiting with tickets.
Clearly there is a continued problem with the over-booking of flights on American airlines.
But there also remains an issue with how the airlines involved are handling the PR surrounding these incidents.
#DeltaAirlines United:. It would be hard to perform worse than us.
— Mad Piper (@madpiper65) May 4, 2017
Delta: Here, hold my beer.
United: "We threw a doctor off our plane!"
— Ian hauer (@Ianhauer88) May 4, 2017
Delta glances around, spies baby....
Delta: "Hold my beer..."#DeltaAirlines
Here is what Delta said:
“We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we’ve reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation.
“Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to travel issues. This did not happen in this case and we apologise.”
No compassion
Admittedly, this response is not as bad as the one issued by United, but it is distinctly lacking in compassion or empathy. Do the words ‘unfortunate experience’ really adequately describe what took place in the footage? While ‘reached out’ is simply jargon.
The second part of the statement reads like it has just been taken from a crisis media management template. In short, it simply sounds too robotic.
Action
Crucially the statement also does not tell readers about what action is being taken to learn from this incident and ensure the situation does not happen again. When American Airlines found itself in a similar crisis situation last month, its statement told us an investigation had been launched and that a ‘team member had been removed from duty’.
There are other issues with the statement and mistakes we can all learn from.
Timely
The Delta statement was issued on Thursday (4/5) a day after the video was posted. In a crisis media management situation it is vital organisations respond quickly. The longer it is left before responding, the more damage will be done. People do not expect initial statements to contain lots of detail, but they are vital for showing you are aware of the situation and are taking action. From there you can go on to provide further updates.
Visibility
When organisations do find themselves in a crisis situation like this, the apology needs to be visible. In Delta’s case, the statement can be found on the ‘news hub’ part of its website, albeit underneath other latest news items, such as the airline celebrating ‘National Small Business Week’. But on social media, it is much harder to find. Why, for example, is the tweet not pinned to the top of its Twitter account?
@nealboudette "We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we've reached out to them *JL
— Delta (@Delta) May 5, 2017
Surely, that needs to be seen by it followers rather than the promotional material is has been tweeting.
These are crisis lessons airlines needs to learn quickly because it is apparent passengers will be pulling out their mobile phone every time they feel they have been wronged.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our highly practical crisis communication and social media courses.
Subscribe here to be among the first to receive our blogs.
