While the saga of Jetstars’ stranded All Black fans became a communications quagmire, with
claim and counter-claim, there is one particular element we would like to reflect upon. It is the way Jetstar’s spokesperson responded to questions about the incident during an interview with Radio NZ’s Morning Report last Monday.
Jetstar’s spokeman Simon Westaway was not prepared to give any ground, let alone apologise. The key messages were: These people were late; we will debate this any time anywhere; we carry 12 million people a year.
To paraphrase: No ifs or buts, we were right; these people were wrong.
This approach even seemed to ruffle Morning Report’s nice guy Geoff Robinson, and was almost certainly the reason for on-going criticisms of the airline, some of which became quite toxic in the online space.
Jetstar seems to have seriously misread the New Zealand culture as, in all likelihood, a local company and a local spokesperson would have been more conciliatory with messages like:
We take all complaints seriously; we will review the matter thoroughly and examine our processes; and If we are wrong, we’ll take it on the chin and talk to these customers about making it right. (Apparently there was CCTV footage that could be reviewed).
Such an approach would have de-escalated the situation which quickly went from simmering to boiling.
If you are going to adopt this staunch, brash approach – no nonsense, no vacillation, let’s move on – just be sure you’re bulletproof… Today (Friday), Jetstar’s own reported actions suggest the airline did make some errors. They are apologising to some customers, offering discount vouchers and reviewing their check-in performance.
Public 1, Jetstar 0
