How will T5 fiasco affect BA Net Promoter Score?
I’m just off to buy some new knickers. I know this is supposed to be a professional blog but it’s pertinent to the situation I find myself in.
Last night I arrived in Vancouver having been on the first flight to this wonderful city out of the new Terminal 5 (T5). You’ve already read the news so I won’t bore you with the details. BA check-in staff were talking openly to us about walking out, baggage handlers were only to be pitied they looked so downtrodden, security men stopped us taking photos of the gleaming, impressive building and no-one involved in getting us onto that plane had the faintest idea about why the system wasn’t working. They’d had no training.
We sat on the tarmac for 2 hours and our wonderful Captain fought valiantly not to take off before our luggage was loaded. It never arrived so we left, the plane humming with stories of other BA flight disasters. The weary staff did their best to hide their shame and embarrassment to make us all comfortable. The T5 branded chocolates may have seemed like a great branding idea at the time but they went down like a lead balloon. Our stewardess just wanted to “flush these damn things down the bog”. Oh dear.
At this point BA’s Net Promoter Score was heading south faster than its stockprice. A member of my party, who flies internationally on a regular basis, says she will “never, ever, ever fly BA again”. As Willie Walsh says - it was not BA’s finest hour. But at this point I thought at least they had a number of touch points to start reversing the negativity. The first was the potential for the land crew waiting for us to help people with their onward journeys. I pictured an army of a dozen uniformed BA staff helping parents with 3 month old children to sort out buggy replacements, to take details of where our luggage should go, whilst warmly reassuring us (through conversations) that all would be well. We were met at the gate by one person who asked us to read a photocopied letter signed by “UK Customer Relations” (no sign of Willie). The letter announced that it hoped to return our luggage within 3 days and that we were entitled to “£35 to cover essential items such as socks, stockings, toiletries, shirts and blouses.” Was this written in 1959 when people still wore stockings and could buy 3 days worth of clothing and toiletries (let alone ski gear) for £35?? This was the straw that broke the camels back after a 13hr+ journey. One of my companions, usually a measured and calm influence in my life, gripped that sheet of paper until her knuckles went white and muttered about taking BA to the cleaners.
According to research by Keller Fay, each of us is likely to generate on average 62 conversations about this incident. Extend this to the 416 other passengers on board that’s 25,792 potentially negative conversations just relating to our flight. Now extend that to the 70 flights that were cancelled at T5 on Thursday and Friday and you get the picture!
Douglas McNeill, a transport analyst at Blue Oar Securities said he believed the financial impact of T5’s ‘teething problems’ on BA would be negligible. He’s missing the point. It’s not just the compensation claims that will cost BA, he’s not considered the huge impact of negative word of mouth that will be amplified across the Internet at breakneck speed.BA needs to start having conversations with passengers now - not fob us off with photocopied letters that ask us not to call them and clog up their phone systems. Imagine how much more personal it would have felt to have also been given access to a blog keeping us up to date with what was happening?
So here I am, in my hotel room, no clothes, no ski gear, no toiletries, off to see if Peacocks exists in Vancouver. Keep you posted as to when the luggage arrives!
