Update(Nov. 9th, 2010) :  According to the Vancouver daily newspaper, the couple was contacted last night (Monday, November 8th) and offered full compensation for their ordeal.

. . . like a family scorned.  Expecially a family that understands social media. 

I found out about a problem that a family recently experienced on Alaska Airlines and read the blog that was created by this family after their ordeal.  You can read it at:  http://alaskaairhatesfamilies.blogspot.com/

A lot of bloggers have spoken of the power of social media with airlines over the last year.  It offers a pathway for redress of certain grievances that previously would have been ignored by most airlines. 

First, all airlines make mistakes.  All airlines have employees who handle a bad situation badly.  The rules described by Alaska Airlines in defense of their actions are certainly true.  You’re expected at the gate and available to board at a certain time. 

But there is a difference between a gate agent standing there wondering where a passenger is who should nominally be there and available to board versus a gate agent who is being communicated with by a passenger who is experiencing a problem that will be solved in a few minutes time.  This is when you want your employees (even your contract employees) to show some good judgement. 

Allowing this man to board with his family would have cost *nothing* in terms of departure time and little extra in terms of stress on the gate agent.  When a passenger is communicating with you over a problem, stop and take the time to listen and work with them.   Why?  Because the costs in terms of reputation when that same family starts a blog that gathers national media attention are far greater than the costs of taking a few extra minutes to work this out. 

If you think the costs to your reputation when something like this goes viral in national media, you have no idea of the costs you incur when you respond with “these are our rules, here is a token payment to shut up”.  Again, you want your people at the airline examining these things and showing good judgement.  This was an opportunity to “win” in the eyes of the public and get back a reputation that is pretty good. 

All Alaska Airlines had to do was compensate the costs of the ticket and publicly apologize. This would have won the customer back and won the public opinion back, too.  Defending yourself by citing rules is only going to make things worse at this point and when you do that, you increase the public perception that you don’t play by real world rules and people begin to think that you’re just “out to screw them.”  When you behave that way, it’s hard to conclude otherwise. 

It wouldn’t have been necessary to over-compensate these people.  Just make their increased costs go away.  Make them feel as if they been listened to by ACTUALLY LISTENING TO THEM AND APOLOGIZING. 

One of the biggest mistakes Alaska Airlines made in all this was allowing the social media guy at Alaska address this by citing rules.  Use your executives to cite rules, use your regular PR representative to cite rules but don’t let your social media face get associated with this mud bath.  Social media is about being friendly and service oriented.   Not only did Alaska Airlines damage their general reputation, they damaged the reputation of their social media efforts in a way that now few people will have trust in it as an outlet for anything helpful or useful. 

And social media is only going to get more important in the next few years, not less.

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