Virgin Atlantic staff criticism: opportunity or threat?

October 27th, 2008 by Lloyd Gofton

As you may have heard, Virgin’s Facebook group; Virgin Atlantic airline one, received some rather interesting input late last week, apparently from Virgin staff who openly criticised safety and  passengers. The BBC carried the story on Friday.

I’m sure this caused a few shock waves at Virgin, and as a result the company may well be reconsidering its policy on staff commenting on social networks as well as its approach to social media as a whole. However, although this sort of comment is never nice for a brand, the subsequent handling of the situation can cause more problems if it isn’t handled correctly.

The obvious reaction, and one that Virgin seem to have followed to some extent, is to take the comments down, defend themselves and launch a manhunt to publically chastise these individuals and scare anyone else into never following their audacious and damaging example.

But, in reality, how does that help the brand and halt any fears that Virgin passengers may have? Doesn’t it actually leave the subject open? Sure, the public statement confirmed that Virgin takes these matters very seriously and has industry-leading safety standards, etc, etc, exactly what you would expect. But wouldn’t it have been more interesting, and potentially rewarding to join in the conversation in the Facebook group and offer reassurances directly to the group as a whole? Or, assuming the comments weren’t against the group’s posting guidelines, even engage with those that posted to discuss the issue?

Don’t get me wrong, if, as some reports have suggested, the comments weren’t publically acceptable they shouldn’t be entertained, but if Virgin is confident that these points are completely incorrect, why not enter the conversation and show how seriously Virgin takes these issues and is willing to stand by its record by engaging directly?

As it is, the comment included in the BBC piece, confirms:”Virgin Atlantic does not tolerate any criticism of its passengers or industry-leading safety standards, and is taking the matter very seriously.” Not accepting criticism seems like an odd response!

      

Tags: bbc, comment, Facebook group, Social media, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Atlantic staff

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Blogging, Content, Digital communications, PR, Social media, Social networking, Useful resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.