Brand British Airways Losing Sheen: Systemic or Incidental?

On Saturday the 27th May, British Airways (BA) flights from Heathrow and Gatwick Airports were grounded. You may ask why? Well, there is no straight answer. There are a few explanations:

• When it just happened, many reporters were quick to conclude and blame the Indian outsourcing to major Tata Consultancy Services,
• Then it turned out that the CEO himself was on a recorder video blaming a power surge frying the IT systems so much so that the crew lost flight, baggage and customer communication information (that can’t be good),
• Then it turned out that the power company, Scottish and SouthernElectricity, which runs the network in west London its systems were “operating as normal on Saturday morning”.
• Finally, they revealed that that someone who wasn’t supposed to pull a physical plug did so.

This can get confusing soon (which is it, do we even want to know, just fix the damn problem), but let’s not get angry. When disasters like this happen a company like IAG, which owns BA, does not always know what is the right thing to do. Let’s cut them some slack, it’s not the first IT systems failure for an Airline, last year Delta’s was worse. However, take it from me it is not about the disaster, it is instead about doing the right thing. The right thing to do is to fix the problem, then apologise, and then exceed the customers’ expectation. Nothing more needed. Manoeuvring the digital landscape in a crisis situation or otherwise can be tricky. (Just so you know, I haven’t been reading good things while I do my due diligence for this piece. A bonus conversation between a few flyers at the end of this article, just to build some more perspective)

Reports have estimated GBP 150M bill in lost money in this disaster. Well, I’d say would it hurt if you add another 10M to that bill and ensure that the customers are happy at the end of it all. Easier said than done, I am sure. Imagine this, a free ticket or a discount on your next one isn’t enough when your honeymoon was cancelled because British Airways managed to fry its systems this weekend. Mr. Cruz (CEO), good luck explaining why Peter couldn’t take his newly wedded wife, Hannah to the Bahamas this weekend. Moreover when you know there are 75,000 more travellers like Peter who had their plans disrupted.

Okay, so you know where I stand on this debacle. Let me say that again, just find a way to exceed customer expectation and wow them. This is not only a disaster but an opportunity to come out stronger than you went in. Enough about this, but this article is not about what can BA do now, instead it is about discussing whether BA anyway had it coming? This is where things get interesting. Humour me.

Here’s an article that you will find amusing, where Miss Mitchell is urging BA to regain it’s reputation for quality. You would notice a few things:

• BA trying to compete with the low cost airlines such as the likes of Ryanair.
• A BA flight delayed by 6 hours due to running out of toilet paper. (Yes seriously!)
• 3 sandwiches available for 110 passengers on a flight.

This article was written in March this year. This conversation is more about positioning, cutting corners, cost cutting, etc. Well, Mr. Cruz was brought in so BA can compete with low cost carriers but is cutting costs the best way to go about it. May be not. Customers, in general, are okay about an airline that says you get no nonsense style of flying rather than someone who says there are all bells and whistles available but the quality and delivery of those is worse. More so, BA’s long time loyal customers still expect the same national pride they had back when the carrier was run by the government. They still ask as Miss Mitchell put it perfectly, we don’t want incoming foreign visitors hunched in a tiny seat, tummies rumbling, speckled with damp from their own urine, going: “This is Britain, eh? I’d have thought they had things like loo roll and bread.”

Having said all of this, my memories of flying BA as a kid to my summer vacations in London have now been tarnished. If you were to visit their twitter handle today, their profile says, that they are there 24by7 to help their customers. Well, in the week of such a disaster their last proactive tweet was on May 29th and I write this in the afternoon of June 1st. This doesn’t give me confidence. And in that last tweet Mr. Cruz is presenting a sorry figure still unsure of when things would be spick and span. This isn’t about what happened this weekend, it is instead about the positioning decisions the BA has taken in the last decade and the subsequent decisions it made.

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As promised, find below a few conversations that take the cake while discussing what they’d like to see from BA.

A comment by a BA Flyer. God knows they can use some reputation management.

I had the misfortune to fly BA to Spain recently, sat beside some oiks eating a massive Burger King takeaway, wiping their hands on the seats at the end. I doubt even Ryanair would inflict such an awful time on people. Down to them withdrawing meal service — talk about penny wise, pound foolish.

Dragging BA into the gutter will some day be a classic MBA case study in brand destruction.

Emotional tags that we can assign this: Disgust and Grief

A comment by another flyer. He’s had it sorted.

I went to Hong Kong recently on a BA A380, I think that is a pretty new aircraft? It was clean, service was very good and the cabin crew were lovely. I’ve flown Virgin long haul they were no better no worse. Never had any problem at all with BA.

Emotional tags that we can assign this: Trust and Serenity

A small conversation between a few flyers.

Flyer A: The problem is, not enough people are willing to pay for ‘quality’ in economy class.

Flyer B: Not true. As I say in my comment above, I regularly fly to Greece and I receive “quality economy” at a reasonable price from Aegean. If they can achieve high standards of customer care and a professional cabin crew that treat you like a human being, why not BA ?

Flyer C: It’s the little things that don’t cost a whole lot of money.

Flyer D to Flyer A: That’s not necessarily true — I’ve always saved the extra if I can, to enable me to fly BA because I always felt they were worth the upgrade. Very disappointed in their recent changes and won’t be looking to fly with them any more.

Emotional tags that we can assign this conversation: Starts with Apprehension, then moves onto Interest and then closes with Anger.