Was just watching the press conference on time now, where the Jet Airways management addressed the press on the strike crisis and thought should write about it...
Just to give a brief idea about the impact the current strike is having on airline passengers - Jet Airways is the largest airline in the country, with 26.3% market share. This means almost one out of four airline travellers would be impacted by the strike, in absolute a total of around 35,000 air travellers (both domestic and international) would be adversely impacted. Though close to a quarter of them have either been accommodated in other airlines or the flights still being operated by Jet, but all of them would have go through the harrowing experience of not being sure if their flight would take off or not.....
And for passengers whose flights have got cancelled, the impact would be much worse. Reliability and timeliness would be a top priority for travellers by air. And when one fails on the core promise to it's customers we are looking at very serious long term implications for the brand. A look at the awards and recognitions which Jet Airways has got in the last year shows that the airline has been doing well...
The management while assuring the customers told that the Jet airways website will be the centre of managing the crisis by acting as a main source of information for customers on the flight status, but a visit to the website does not give that impression, apart from a small link to check the flight status there is not much information the in the site. An opportunity lost to leverage the website ??
Overall, it is said about the word 'crisis' in Chinese is composed of two words one meaning danger and other meaning opportunity (though latest entry in wikipideia disputes that ), is very appropriate here. Many companies have gone through such crisis and have come out stronger by showing that they have the customer interest at the centre of their operations, experiences of jet blue and others show that , but will Jet Airways be able to do the same??
Very truly said... The impact could be huge but at the same time Jet also has an opportunity to differentiate itself from others...
ReplyDeleteAlthough cancellation of all flights is a big thing, I feel proper coordination with other airline operators and clear & customer friendly communications to the passengers in the airports would go a long way in preventing the brand from getting hurt.
Keeping this episode aside, I have got feedbacks from a lot of passengers saying that Jet's services are very good.. In fact some of our class mates who went to Singapore and had traveled in both Singapore Airlines & Jet Airways told me that Jet was actually better... Now, that might have been an overstatement but if they managed to get even close, then that was a big thing for Jet... Overall, Jet has been able to create two distinct identities in the form of Jet Airways & Jet Lite...
I had the following observations
ReplyDelete1. The use of digital could have been better eg on company site, social sites etc and actually even on email and mobile to JP customers atleast.
2. The Book, Brands Under Fire , had detailed some thoughts about a brand in such a situation.. I had made some notes from it..
http://futurechat.in/notes-from-brands-under-fire/
3. The other aspect is somehow there has been a legitimisation of the strike culture by the leadership. If one were to look at how airline leadership had spoken of a national strike very recently. So the bigger challenge is now the cultural part within the organisation...
Would like your thoughts..
@partha the Wikipedia entry on Jet Airways also says that they were ranked just below Singapore Airlines as the world's best long haul airline , though the source is not clear. We have to wait and watch on how the Jet manage the crisis ....
ReplyDelete@Syamant, with the increased reach of digital media and mobile, they could have been put to much better use than . I have also had a chance to browse through the book 'Brands Under Fire', but not as thoroughly as you have done and I think people at Jet should also read it...
I am not very clear on the legitimization of the strike issue, by leadership do you mean company or outside?
@Rajesh The strike which was called off ..
ReplyDeletehttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Transportation/Airlines-/-Aviation/SpiceJet-pulls-out-pvt-airlines-strike-call-losing-steam/articleshow/4849074.cms
@Syamant, yes the idea of strike is itself being seen as a easy way to solve outstanding issues, without any thought on the travelers, which is to large extent cultural. A few days back it was the companies now the pilots...
ReplyDeleteEven today, the discussion revolves around whether Mr Goyal would be the first one to blink or the pilots..