Crisis Communications: Why is it so hard?

Whenever I read an article where crisis communications is poor, I sigh. Is it really that hard? Are honesty, transparency and timeliness impossible during a crisis?

There are companies that actually do crisis communications right (hello Tylenol circa 1982). I'm just shocked at the recent string of poor communication from companies during major problems. First Toyota, then BP and now Qantas.

For those who don't know, Qantas is the national, and largest, airline of Australia. Last week, one of their new Airbus A380 planes had an uncontained engine failure and made an emergency landing in Singapore. An uncontained engine failure basically means the problem with the engine is not, well, contained within that engine. So parts of the engine were falling onto the ground and damaged the plane's wing. This had the potential for catastrophe.

Luckily, the plane landed safely with no passenger injuries. Qantas felt this problem with the engine might be prevalent on the other A380 aircraft and proceeded to ground the entire A380 fleet out of caution. Better to be safe than sorry.

So how did they have poor crisis communications?

Well, grounding the entire A380 fleet means customers can't get to where they are going. Surely the airline has spares planes, right?

However, the A380 is the largest passenger plane in the world. It has room for over 400 passengers, much more capacity than any other aircraft out there. A fully booked A380 means you need two large aircraft as a replacement. Qantas doesn't exactly have a ton of spare jumbo jets waiting in the hangar. This stranded people across the world.

Qantas didn't use their social media channels to communicate with passengers. Tweets requesting information went unanswered. The Qantas web site just said there would be major disruptions to service. The Facebook page left a link to their web site. No constant updates, no special number for passengers to call; just the barebones information. Reports on the web also seem to say stranded passengers received conflicting information on when they could reach their destination.

It also didn't help when another jumbo jet experienced an engine problem shortly after the A380 issue. When it rains, it pours.

Compare this to the runway overrun of an American Airlines plane in Jamaica almost a year ago. I witnessed the reaction unfold in real-time. Despite the accident happening after business hours, American provided Twitter and Facebook updates and constantly updated their web site with new information. The airline established a special number for passengers or family members to call for information.

If Qantas has a crisis communications plan, clearly social media is not part of it. In the world of web 2.0, a company needs to be on the top of its game during a crisis. Lapses in communication only serve to disconnect and frustrate customers. Even if Qantas had little information, updating would show they are paying attention to the issue.

Oh, and the airline just got fined for, "fixing air-freight tariffs." A whopping 8.8 million euros. Talk about a rough week.

Luckily for Qantas, the problem seems to be with the engine manufacturer (Rolls Royce). The airline's poor communication response will be put on the back burner. Hopefully Rolls Royce has their crisis communication plan in motion, especially since Singapore Airlines just grounded some A380s which use the same engine.

(I'll definitely update this blog more. Stay tuned!)