It seems that video footage of passenger conflict on aeroplanes is becoming a regular occurrence.
Less than two weeks after United Airlines was widely condemned for the damaging way it handled its crisis, when footage emerged of a bloodied man being dragged off one of its flights, American Airlines has found itself in the media and social media firing line.
But it has handled its crisis much differently. In fact it showed United what it should have done.
The Airline found itself in the spotlight after a video posted on Facebook captured the moments after an employee allegedly hit a woman with a stroller, narrowly missing the baby in her arms.
Another passenger confronts the employee reportedly involved and an uncomfortable exchange ensued where he ends up challenging the passenger to “c’mon, hit me”.
It was potentially very damaging footage, particularly coming so soon after the incident involving United Airlines, which has put more focus on the way airlines treat passengers, and at the time of writing has had more than six million views.
But, perhaps learning the lessons from that PR tailspin and the subsequent fall out, it responded quickly with an excellent statement, which has prevented the crisis from escalating.
Here’s what it said:
“We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip.
“The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.”
So what makes this response so much better? Well, it included a lot of what we refer to on our crisis media management courses as the CARE technique – It showed Compassion, Action and Reassurance and backed these points up with Examples.
The statement talks about being ‘deeply sorry for the pain’ it has caused the passenger and her family and says it is taking ‘special care’ of her for the rest of her trip. Compare that to United, who chose to focus on how the incident had been ‘upsetting' for its own staff and appeared to initially blame the passenger.
The American Airlines response also showed how it has taken action, stating than an investigation has already started and confirming the employee in question had been suspended.
And finally, there was plenty of reassurance, talking about how the incident did not reflect its values, or its customer care standards.
The other great thing about this particular statement is the language is simple throughout – there are none of the boardroom phrases like ‘re-accommodate’ used so disastrously by United.
Airlines appear to be continuing to find out the hard way that smartphones and social media are turning incidents with customers into potential PR disasters.
The key to handling them successfully, as American, showed, is to respond quickly, admit mistakes and show compassion, empathy and action.
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