The Not-So-Wow Customer Experience
Wow Air abruptly ceased its operations yesterday, March 29th leaving passengers stranded without any compensation.
What Exactly Transpired?
Passengers flying with Icelandic airlines; Wow Air had a disturbing experience on Thursday. After repeatedly announcing delays, Wow Air finally gave out a statement that they have shut down operations and that passengers will now have to look for other means of travel on their own. Now, I was once delayed eleven hours in Oman on a leg of an already long journey, but I cannot bring myself to conceive the impact this made to passengers!
So why did this happen? Wow Air had been subjected to rising costs of operations and lacked a clear funding avenue to align with their business objectives. After starting on a high note in 2012, its finances proved to be inadequate to continue further operations. It had been trying to acquire investments as a few sources cited that Wow had been looking for a merger with various airlines like IcelandAir, Indigo Partners, etc. Despite repeated attempts, its efforts weren’t met with the results they had hoped, and yet they continued to operate.
The Nightmarish Customer Experience
The passengers who were traveling by Wow Air had no options but to look for other means of flying or delay their plans. Wow Air; known as a discount carrier attracted certain flyers and many customers were faced with the reality of what emergency last minute tickets with other airliners would cost. Passengers not wanting to shell out a fortune had to cancel their plans altogether.
The most unfortunate thing about the incident is that Wow Air is yet to announce compensation for the passengers that faced cancellation. Some experts also warned that insurance policies would not be able to cover the cost of flight ticket cancellations and may not be available for special cases like these. Sources suggest that tickets were available for booking until 7:00 AM the day they closed operations which means that passengers could have made a booking right until the brink of the collapse.
Was There A Better Way to Address the Issue and what can we learn?
The answer clearly is a resounding yes!
We often ask ourselves what a brand stands for. However, I think its just as important to ask when should it stand behind those values? For many of us as individuals, tribes, or organizations we can exhibit the qualities behind our brand when things are working but when we fail – what should/do we stand for.
As the story continues to unfold and we learn more about the challenges the airliner faced I continue to ask the question of what can we learn from this story?
- Failure didn’t occur overnight however the end customers experienced the results of the many decisions that lead to it within minutes. In the worst circumstances possible.
- A breakdown in communication needed to occur both internally and externally for a failure of this magnitude. If operations were at the brink of failure, this wasn’t communicated within the Wow Air internal functions.
- The brand failed to embody its value system and kept their most essential partner the customer in the dark.
- There could have been options to refund, leverage other airlines to accommodate, close booking options and avenues etc. but none of this took place? There was no strategy for failing. A really important question I ask my clients is what’s our doomsday plan. Now, the magnitude of failure always wavers depending on what you do, your industry etc. For example when I worked for a nuclear energy our need to effectively communicate operational excellence (zero accidents) was essential in our brands core values and building trust.
I always think of J&J’s Tylenol as the gold standard in communicating catastrophe and having the ability to make the tough decision of pulling all its bottles off the shelf to ensure consumer confidence in the brand.
I am positive that Wow Air will be the subject to business school case studies in the future but how would you have approached this business and communication breakdown?