Just trust us – we’re Qantas
Pure Public Relations founder Phoebe Netto explains how Qantas’ response to its crippling data breach could have been better – and why timing is so important.
In a deficit of goodwill, consumer trust, and transparency, Qantas’ communications department is now attempting to fly through major turbulence as it responds to a significant cyber attack.
When facing an issue with significant unknowns but potential for considerable concern and harm, organisations should always err on the side of providing more information rather than less. Even without definitive answers, keeping customers and stakeholders informed about when further updates are expected and acknowledging that questions remain while actively working to address them helps manage expectations and demonstrates your understanding of stakeholder concerns.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the path chosen by Qantas following the news that nearly six million customers may have had their records compromised in a recent cyber attack.
having run a number of consumer engagement programs about corporate trust and engagement in the times of at–scale PR issues, what qantas did was vanilla and confident PR 101. having seen comms from a first hand perspective the didnt really answer the key question – “how will i be impacted/what does this mean for me as your customer?”
i think they are, probably rightly assuming that cyber leaks, are becoming de rigour. and tbh for many people they are probably right. theres nothing you can do so why stoke the fear – when you’re a brand like qantas maybe you can just say – “dont stress, we got this, she’ll be right mate” in PR speak.
To be honest Qantas’ response was perfectly fine. I love all the experts coming out as an issue is unfolding with all their gratituious advice. The company has 23,000 employees and has a responsbility to their 165,000 shareholders and informing the ASX of market impacts (none of which was covered in this article), so skipping out with irrelevant or commercially sensitive infomation every hour isn’t going to work with a big beasts like QF.