Snow can be a wonderful thing, until you try to get from A to B and your journey is disrupted, or worse cancelled. We’re only a couple of weeks into the winter and Stansted had to close last week due to the dreaded white stuff. A good opportunity to take a look at how one of the major airlines operating out of the airport, and its passengers, used social media during the closure.
A report by Good Relations and Watermelon Research, which surveyed 100 businesses, from SMEs to major multinationals, found that ‘The majority of in-house comms professionals are not prepared to deal with crisis situations by using social media’. As social media becomes more and more prominent, companies need to realise the importance of social media as a solution for crisis management and how it has become the front line of any crisis. Our analysis has shown that one brand which definitely needs to invest time in doing this is Ryanair, which was the most affected airline last week.
Stansted literally came to a stand still (see what I did there?!) when snow showers and freezing conditions resulted in the one and only runway being shut for several hours causing severe delays and some cancellations to flights.
Using the Sentiment Metrics monitoring tool, our research has shown that customers used social to find out information in real-time. Cue the complaints about how the crisis was handled. Its passengers were really frustrated by the lack of information being provided by the airline to update travellers on the situation. So much so, that one Twitter user resorted to using strong language:
(Sorry for the bad language, but Ryanair- you can learn from this!)
Even other airports were providing more information than the one at the centre of the commotion!:
Other social media users discussed the length of queues which had accumulated after having to reschedule flights, with one posting a photo as evidence:
Tweeters also expressed their irritation by claiming that both the airport and Ryanair were unable to deal with snow, which was becoming more common in England:
Phil Baker took it one step further by ridiculing the company, famous for its add-on prices:
This is just one example of what can happen if your crisis management plan isn’t effective or, dare I say it, even in place yet! If Ryanair had been more prepared and kept people in the loop, no doubt the social media engagement surrounding last week’s flight disruptions could have been very different.