How a company reacts to adversity reflects the humanity of an organization…and shows its true colors more than almost another situation it might encounter. Repairing the emotional connection well is a hallmark of companies we love. It makes us love them even more.
Via Rail, Canada’s national passenger rail network has shown its humanity, humility and remorse with how they are apologizing to customers for a recent two-day strike which paralyzed travel.
In this apology Paul Côté, President and Chief Executive Officer of VIA extends an olive branch, and an action that is commensurate with the pain they know their customers experienced. They are giving a 60% discount to ALL customers making reservations for trips between July 26, 2009 and December 14, 2009. Steve Del Bosco, Via’s Customer Officer said,”This is our way of expressing our gratitude for the support they [our customers]have shown us over the past week.”
What’s your reaction time in a customer crisis? Are there plans you can set in motion as soon as a crisis occurs?
Do you have a “customer recovery plan” that’s as rehearsed and ready to implement as you plan to recover from a systems failure?
Are You READY?
What is helping or hindering your ability to proactively be ready to recover customers?
Are you kidding me? Obviously you didn’t actually try to book anything or speak to somebody at Via Rail this week because you wouldn’t be praising the company if you had. The Web site booking engine has been down, phone lines unreachable and hundreds of people in lines at stations. Launching a sale for which you are unable to handle the response is not “Apologizing Well”
I was about to cheer for the Canucks when I read DRG’s post. Maybe VIA needs a day or so to get things back to “normal.”
We can’t even blame it on the garbage strike in Toronto – the head office is in Montreal!
Via is experiencing demand which has totally overwhelmed its systems but I hear web and call volume is 10 times normal. No company’s call centre or web site could support a spike like that which is sustained over a five day period. In fact they have again shown “humanity” by extending it for two days more than originally planned to allow customers to take advantage of a deep discount with no strings attached. These tickets are flexible with no change or cancel fees. I don’t know how much more they could do.
Apologizing probably is one of the best things a person — or in this case, a company — can do to appease disgruntled clients.
However, we should also remember that a very important ingredient should be present so an apology could be accepted wholeheartedly: and that is, of course, sincerity.
Apologizing probably is one of the best things a person — or in this case, a company — can do to appease disgruntled clients.
However, we should also remember that a very important ingredient should be present so an apology could be accepted wholeheartedly: and that is, of course, sincerity.
The company should have known what its system can handle. That it was caught unaware doesn’t reflect well on the organization. What it should have done, when it realized it had a problem was not extend the sale — which only extended the period of time in which it frustrated people trying to buy tickets or get in contact — but rather ended it on time, apologized for the experience and promised to bring the sale back again in XX days and use the time to prepare for demand. Or come up with some other way to make up for the situation. This is a case study, but not a good one.
DRG,
Sorry first of all (got to eat my own dog food) that my response is so late. I moved this week from one state to another and went dark. Thank you so much for giving us this reality check on how VIA is handling the backend of their apology. Your point is spot on. Making a grand gesture, and then not being able to deliver on it is not recovering the emotional connection with customers, nor endearing them to you. Thanks again. Jeanne
Asham,
Thanks for joining in the conversation with the fact that once VIA realized how swamped they were with requests, that they extended their offer two more days. It is always so difficult to gauge the response to this type of request. DRG, again, thanks for the counterpoint that extending the sale wasn’t an improvement but rather the extension of more pain for customers. These decisions are judgment calls. And the important thing is, that a company has to have built up a good reserve of goodwill with customers prior to an apology for it to really stick and be sincere.
Strategic Growth Advisors (wish I had a name to address you with),
It’s the intent and motivation behind these types of decisions that show what a company is made of. As you know, that is what translates to sincerity, to doing the right thing for the right reasons. VIA tripped clearly here in the operational execution of its recovery and apology. We’ll all be able to watch now, as we did with Jet Blue to see how they do in the long-term recovery of their customer base. This can’t be a one time gesture on VIA Rail’s part. If it is the “sincerity” question will have been answered…
This is the O effect. Jeanne mentions planning 2 or 3 times in her article. VIA did not plan, obviously. This just shows the need for business to have a social media person as part of its office staff.
Jeanne — I hadn’t paid attention to this strike, so I have no details. So I’m just curious. Do you know how VIA communicated their apology? Did they reach out to the actual customers who suffered the pain personally, or was this expressed in the mass media as advertisements? If the later could they have made an exclusive offer to those affected first(or to those they know are behaviorally loyal)? Did they miss an opportunity to both give special treatment to the best customers, and at the same time avoided the overload?