![]() “Practice crisis communications responses. It's okay if you don't have all the information, as long as you're transparent in saying that. ![]() “The Southwest flight attendants’ and pilots’ unions got in front of journalists days before Southwest did, allowing someone else to control the narrative in the media by planting words like ‘meltdown’ early on. “Don't let other parties get ahead of your story,” Shane Allen, a public relations consultant, said via email. Jordan also addressed Southwest employees, “which is a positive, but saying that he is ‘apologizing to them daily,’ again is something that should be communicated separately to employees-not to bone-weary travelers,” she pointed out. Rather than plunging into an explanation of why the delays are snowballing, he simply should have said, “We should have done better, and we will.” Marino noted. And it should have been reflected what the thousands of travelers are experiencing and feeling right now. His apology should have been the first thing he said, not the second. Jordan fell short in a few areas,” she continued. And he acknowledged Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s concerns-although it would have been a grave error to ignore the person who characterized the situation as a ‘meltdown,’ a term the media immediately glommed onto, which essentially branded the crisis,”she observed. He promised that customers will receive refunds and reimbursements. Were I still in the classroom, I would grade it a C+,” Gigi Marino, a communications consultant, said via email. Southest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan “made a decent effort in his December 27 apology. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Getty Images A C+ Effort Southwest Airlines is working to catch up on a backlog after canceling hundreds of flights over the weekend, blaming air traffic control issues and weather. Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Octoin Baltimore, Maryland. ![]() The message needs to be ‘we messed up, here’s what we’re doing to fix it, and this is what you can expect over the next few days.’ Only then can it hope to restore confidence and retain its customers,” Cohen advised.īALTIMORE, MARYLAND - OCTOBER 11: A Southwest Airlines airplane taxies from a gate at Baltimore. ![]() “To rebuild confidence, Southwest’s management needs to go beyond apologies, take responsibility for the chaos and disruption, and articulate in the clearest terms possible what it’s doing to get back to normal operations. ![]() “Repeated apologies from the company’s management have done little to reduce people’s frustration and have provided little confidence in the airline’s ability to restore its service or take care of its passengers,” Cohen observed. “While the airline’s executives have kept largely out of sight, refusing to provide interviews, passenger horror stories, unfavorable comparisons with other airlines, and employee complaints have instead painted a picture of chaos and helplessness at Southwest,” he noted. “Instead of taking responsibility, Southwest’s management has responded by blaming the weather, the FAA, and its own employees for the crisis,” Moshe Cohen, who teaches leadershi, negotiation, organizational behavior and mediation at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, said via email. “Policies and processes are the best prevention-institutional memories are short, people forget, but policies and processes do not,” he noted. ![]()
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