Interesting piece in PR Week http://bit.ly/dNXXxS which is looking at how BAA’s communications went down with the general public during the heavy snow.
It suggests that BAA missed a trick by failing to talk about passenger safety. One assumes that people would rather be alive and inconvenienced than dead on a runway. So, to refocus the attention on passenger safety may indeed have helped.
However, looking at the stats where the messages given out by BAA are tested for their overall pubic approval ratings, in the face of adversity, the comms team did well. Scores of 40%-76% would indicate that a certain amount of honesty and apology goes a long way.
Admitting you screwed up (even a bit) and you regret it, usually works. Trying to blame someone or something else and wriggle out of it just doesn’t wash and often creates a mountain out of what was once a molehill. Even the Prime Minister started to have a dig at BAA, so when it goes that high up the food chain, half marks ain’t bad!
Perhaps a focus on ‘passenger safety first’ may have boosted these stats, but when you’re being perpetually harangued by the media and irate passengers, the results suggest a very good job done – even though some think they could have done better.
