Qantas takes flack for social media response to grounded flights

Australian airline Qantas has been rapped for its ineffective social media response to the recent grounding of its fleet over a pay dispute.

Tweets posted by the company have been slammed as wooden, corporate and lacking in empathy, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Qantas will reimburse the difference between the cost of the new ticket (in same cabin of travel) and value of the refunded Qantas ticket,” read one remarkably concise tweet, failing to offer a human voice at a time of major chaos and upset for many customers.

Word has it that although Qantas generally demonstrates successful Twitter marketing, the social media team had been effectively “gagged” by senior Qantas staff with a corporate message to deliver, yet little experience of using Twitter.

In response, numerous Twitter accounts have surfaced with the sole aim of blasting Qantas, with chief executive Alan Joyce bearing the brunt of the flack.

It’s hard to say how damaging a Twitter backlash can be. One parody account, @AlanJoyceCEO, has posted a healthy 989 tweets since springing up, and has lured 2,740 followers in its short lifetime.

Any social media backlash is likely to fizzle out as the crisis resolves, but we can’t help but feel that Qantas has missed a crucial opportunity to reach out to a global customer base craving open communication.