Good Job Southwest Airlines
By Kendall Knaak
In the world of public relations, successful PR practitioners know transparency is the key to creating strong brand loyalty. After all, if a company cannot be open and participate in two-way communication with its publics, then how can it be expected to survive?
The Problem:
The airline industry is a perfect case study on how various airline companies choose to handle different incidents of crisis or other unplanned events on a daily basis. Some airlines, like the Asiana flight that crashed at the San Francisco airport in 2013, chose to use the “if we ignore it, it will just go away” strategy. And they are absolutely not alone.
However, Southwest Airlines receives an A+ for its response to a technical glitch last Sunday, October 11, that caused over 350 of its 3,600 flights to be cancelled or delayed.
First Steps:
Southwest Airlines has proven its desire to be more transparent to flyers with the creation of its “Transfarency” campaign. The airline’s glitch was its first test of “Transfarency”.
The first step in the plan was a blog post on its website, reassuring flyers that the technical glitch was not the result of a security breach, but was simply a technical outage. Southwest then proceeded to share every update on the situation on Twitter and Facebook as they found out new information. This showed great responsibility on Southwest’s part and calmed customers’ anxiety over security and flight status.
On Monday, October 12, Southwest confirmed that the glitch had been fixed, and future flights would go on as planned.
Evaluation:
According to a Mashable article on the situation, after the initial Twitter outcry of frustration, flyers were satisfied with the way Southwest handled the glitch. Supportive comments were written on Southwest sites.
After all, accidents cannot be planned. Southwest did the right thing in acknowledging a problem and providing a timeline of updates. Now, the company has greater loyalty and support among its publics.
“Transfarency is a unique approach to treating [c]ustomers the way they expect and deserve to be treated,” Southwest’s VP and chief marketing officer, Kevin Krone, said in a press release. “Being a low-fare airline is at the heart of our brand and the foundation of our business model. So we’re not going to nickel and dime our customers.”
Southwest is really upping its game in the transparency department–something its competition should take notice of. After all, if the public trusts your brand, then it will continue to be a success.
