Blunder to Blunder to “I wonder” – Guess who?

Qantas struggles with Social Media

Qantas has landed themselves in hot water again.  So if it’s not enough to have your customers already unhappy with you about canceled flights over the weekend before the Melbourne cup – you pour some petrol on the fire to make it worse.

Not possible you say.  Well they did – Qantas launched a twitter promotional campaign shortly after the weekend Qantas canceled flights:

“To enter tell us ‘What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.”

Rather than embracing the promotion customers took the opportunity to vent their frustrations about the inconveniences Qantas had caused them and the opinions they had about the action Qantas took. One tweet in response summed it up:

“Quick note to corporate Australia: when you’re in the middle of crushing your workforce, don’t start a twitter promotion.” @jeremysear

Qantas also launched this promotion:

“Ever wanted to experience Qantas First Class luxury? You could win a First Class gift pack feat. a luxury amenity kit and our famous QF PJs.”

You can imagine they are getting quite some responses from some very upset customers. Considering the sentiment of disheartened customers, an under-performing Global economy, and the rather large pay increase that Alan Joyce received the promotion is not in the best taste. From the sheer volume of tweets and re-tweets there was a somewhat human response from Qantas:

“At this rate our #QantasLuxury competition is going to take years to judge.”

With the company under siege from customers by their own mistakes you have to wonder:

1) Will Qantas recover?

Qantas will need to do a major recovery program both with the public and their own employees. In such a competitive industry such as the airline industry it will be hard to recover. If you go by how cheap I purchased a Qantas airfare over the Christmas period from Sydney to Auckland (the busiest period of the year) more trouble is ahead for Qantas. Thank you for the cheap airfare Qantas!!

2) Who is gaining from this?

A tweet from Virgin Australia:

“We think great service is the cats pyjama’s and love providing it for you. Thanks for all your great tweets!” #loveourfollowers

In response:

@VirginAustralia Hmmmm, looks to me like a sly dig at the competitors unfortunate #qantasluxury #qantasepicfail disaster today! Ha!! @Simo190

Virgin and others don’t have to do much but just keep their powder dry so to speak. Airline social media is at an all time fever pitch. Social media can work very well for you but you also need to make sure you are in tune with your customers. You want to make sure you are on the right side of the big wave – “on it not under it.”

What do you think some of the things Qantas could have done?

Picture by skazama