What should Qantas do next? We ask the PR crisis experts
In the 1988 film Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman’s character famously points out that Qantas has never had a crash.
And while that remains true for the airline’s planes, the same can’t be said for its brand. What we’ve witnessed over the past few months has all the hallmarks of a disaster, with beleaguered CEO Alan Joyce pulling out of the wreckage yesterday, and handing the keys to Vanessa Hudson.
She has a mighty rebuilding job ahead of her.
QF has been a steadily cost-cutting disgrace for a decade at least, having to become embarrassed to get simple service etc, I feel for the staff on-board and at check-in. Hiding behind the curtains. Declaration: FF member since early 90’s and Gold Class etc [attaining Platinum increasingly pushed out of reach], yes annoyed is evident. Many I speak to agree. The formally pleasant experience of “our national carrier” is now not so. Like banks, Telstra and the like the domination of one-to-two in business categories needs to be over. Proper open competition; think the USA example of Bell to Baby Bells in telephony, similarly across Europe and soon. Australia needs to grow up and expand to real competitive capitalist driven demands.
Just bring back Jon Travolta plz.
The problems are much, much greater than the ones that are being discussed at the moment – as any frequent flyer would attest. Never mind one, like me, that dedicated almost 50 hours trying to get a problem caused by Qantas resolved.
To really get trust back I would be the first Australian airline to introduce a compensation system as we see in other countries. Yes expensive, but a big, bold move that would generate more media coverage and more good will then any advertising campaign or media interviews would do. And if they would be the first, they can start with what is affordable. Certainly would force a culture change too!
What a great idea. But do corporates think of big things like that anymore? Spend money to make money over the long term by enhancing reputation? I get the sense like most big companies (invariably run by former big firm accountants or if you’re lucky management consultants) everything is based on numbers on a spreadsheet. If you’re a high yield corporate customer you might be respected and they’ll fix your cancelled flight. If you’re not, well… you help offset our fixed costs and that’s it. Where else will you go if you need to see mum in Perth – “Virgin Blue” on their smaller 737 with no “meal”?
Take a look at how the domestic predecessor Australian Airlines was marketed after the 1989 Pilot Strike when Ansett was the leader in the corporate market and deregulation was about to happen. Ads (were they by Mojo?) with a bright appealing show tune (If you could see us now), staff smiling and joking with each other (they actually liked working there back then), customers enjoying the atmosphere… compare to today where they just promote the Qantas brand (and maybe the super premium international cabins) but never the experience of most passengers or with a sense of fun. Go back to being down to earth, rather than aloof (as has developed since the collapse of Ansett even before Joyce).
But this of course needs to be accompanied by real changes in the field. No one other than the elites and maybe officially sanctioned ‘influencers’ (not even average paying biz passengers) feel like Qantas values their custom. It’s not hard or expensive to surprise and delight your customers even if they’re just in economy between Sydney and Brisbane. Even though your yield management system says they’re not a valuable customer, they still talk and vote.