Comments on: Via Rail Stays on Customer Loyalty Track by Apologizing Well

By: Doug Pruden

Doug Pruden — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:24:00 +0000

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?

By: Mother Geek

Mother Geek — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:44:45 +0000

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.

By: Jeanne Bliss

Jeanne Bliss — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:52:06 +0000

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…

By: Jeanne Bliss

Jeanne Bliss — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:48:31 +0000

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.

By: Jeanne Bliss

Jeanne Bliss — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:43:35 +0000

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

By: DRG

DRG — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:19:07 +0000

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.

By: Strategic Growth Advisors

Strategic Growth Advisors — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:28:43 +0000

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.

By: Strategic Growth Advisors

Strategic Growth Advisors — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:27:23 +0000

By: Asham

Asham — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:13:59 +0000

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.

By: Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:52:17 +0000

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!

By: DRG

DRG — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:48:35 +0000

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”