Do you remember feeling the excitement of going on vacation as a young child? The journey was a total punishment to get wherever parents decided to enjoy the holidays: the beach or the wonderful forest. It was never quick enough. Never.
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| July 2016 Website screenshot from Vueling website |
My observations are usually on destinations, places and/or attractions; however this time I will offer my comments and on the journey. As the poem from Constantin Cavafy said over hundred years ago. The journey in itself is the reward. Ithaca poem was inspired by the classic Greek "Odissey".
I can’t think about the uncertainty of not knowing at all if you will get there at your destination.
I have to believe thousands of Vueling passengers felt both fear and frustration last week when Vueling cancelled approximately fifty flights over a span of several days. How would you have felt if you were a Vueling passenger in transit for important business or much anticipated vacation time? The lack of accountability and customer focus by Vueling's management left me speechless.
Sadly and unfortunately, Spain is a country where mediocrity is extolled and inefficient top management are protected and keep their jobs. Vueling’s recent fiasco is a perfect example.
As an illustration, I will focus on Vueling's marketing and communication response to the flight cancellations and stranded passengers.
Any
marketing and communication professional who is focused on tourism,
destinations and experiences it is absolutely vital to have an immediate
and clear crisis communication plan through all communication channels. The basic communication channels include:
- Employees: Is your staff trained? Have you tested different scenarios? Di-brief your staff constantly.Why #Vueling staff communicated how badly the company was managed?
- Website.
- Social Media channels managed by the company, meaning any open channel or official account. Ensure an audit on all employees SM (Social Media) accounts are not miss-used. For example,If an employee says on a Twitter account” I am CEO or XYZ" for X company should be clear if is listed as an official account or private opinions.
- Review of #Tag associated to your brand or sector.
- Database communication. What is programmed?
- Media Schedule.
- Advertising in any channel. Can the brand re-adapt its creative content instead of sending your database “special offers, Really? The same week the fiasco happened I received an email promotion about more routes and better prices from Vueling. Seriously!? Have you seen this terrible out of home ad? Example of Bad messaging
Image credit Tweet from Angel Varela
@angelvarelapena
- Site messages at airports.
- Coordination with airports channels.
- Direct Marketing - Email every passenger affected prior- during and after the incident.
- Press releases in multiple languages.
Such communication plan must coordinate different stakeholders that will be affected. Clear point of contact and Lead Commander. Clearly this was NOT the case for Vueling. Immediate clear reaction and message consistency.
Overall, I have not seen a worse Communication crisis handled by a company. Based on the events and failure to address the crisis, I would dismiss the internal communication team and PR agency. As a debrief, I would question the entire marketing department. Clearly, there exits a lack of leadership as well as a gap and lack of coordination through all channels.
If I could write a song such as the famous old case from United fiasco. I would clearly write it. It could clearly be #lacanciondelverano #summersong.
In closing, I have my own experience as a passenger with Vueling. However, I wanted to make this post about a general fiasco and not my personal story.
"As you set out for Ithaca hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery"
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