American Airlines has a cat-astrophe on its hands
Like most crises, this one was predictable and mostly avoidable. With the volume of passengers and cargo handled by major airlines, missing or damaged luggage is common. A missing pet should set off crisis management alarm bells all over the place but apparently not at American Airlines.
The story began when Karen Pascoe and her longhair cat Jack arrived at New York’s JFK airport for a flight to California six weeks ago. That’s when the fur began to fly.
Before boarding, American Airlines lost Jack from his carrier and after a futile search airline staff reassured Pascoe they would find and return Jack so she continued her flight. Finally, 66 hours later, she got a call from a baggage manager who said they were still searching for the fleeing feline and “the last time this happened, it took about a month to find the cat.” It seemed an inept even cavalier first response.
AA now has a full blown social media cat-astrophe on its hands.
The troubles of Occupy Wall Street pale in comparison to the 15,368+ concerned members of Jack The Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK on Facebook. Why are people spending hours on emails, flyers, posting, phone calls, organizing and walking the streets for a cat that is not theirs?
Good question. Even more important, why did airline customer service managers not see this crisis coming on their radar?
American Airlines has communicated few updates but pledged to continue its search. It created a special Facebook page (UPDATE on AA’s search for Jack the Cat – September 9, 1:42 PM EST) to channel comments by Friends of Jack (FoJ) away from its main Facebook wall saying:
“As we know the dialogue will continue on Jack, we are dedicating this Note page update as the appropriate forum for discussion, where we welcome all comments and conversation about Jack. Beginning Monday, September 12, in an effort to allow space for more general travel conversation to continue on our main Wall page, and on other customer posts, any comments related to the search for Jack should be made to Jack’s dedicated Note page (below this note). We will delete any comments about Jack that are not made to this dedicated Jack’s page.”
Surprisingly, AA has posted no updates here and no responses to 700+ comments since Sept 9th. It continues to delete FoJ comments from its main page, aggravating even moderate followers.
What at first seemed a reasonable social media strategy is being undermined by poor or no execution. No further expressions of regret? No changes to pet handling procedures to prevent future incidents? It’s hard to see how non-responsiveness is better than frequent updates even if they were of the “no news to report” type. That would at least demonstrate caring, concern and continued effort even in the face of criticism.
Further, the incident has not been acknowledged in its newsroom, on Twitter or any other social media channel I could find.
When and if poor Jack is found, alive or not, the two possible scenarios in the media and social media are predictable.
Bad PR Lessons
There are already a few useful lessons and should-have-dones so far in this incident:
- Apologize early; express regret publicly
- Recognize the nature and likely response of your critics/opponents
- Communicate frequently; tell people what you’re doing even if it’s to report “no news”
- Use social media properly; it’s a two-way channel
- No excuse for no response
- Integrate communication channels
- Change procedures; tell us, even if temporary pending review
- Prepare for all outcomes.
In any crisis, there are four fundamental human needs that need to be addressed:
- Are we (or our pets) safe?
- Are you responding appropriately?
- Do you care?
- Can we trust you (or what you say)?
When Jack’s “incredible journey” is over, the crisis management for American Airlines will just be starting. It’s one thing for management to feel they need to focus on running a safe, billion dollar airline. It’s quite another to show you don’t care in a business built on caring about the details.
Based on response to date, this feels awfully like another iconic case called “United Breaks Guitars” or other epic social media fails.
Selected Media Coverage
Here’s a quick selection of media coverage for reference:
Unhappy Jack! American Airlines’ Meowing PR Headache [The New York Observer]
Jack the Cat Has Been Lost at JFK for Over a Month; Cat Lovers Continue Awareness Efforts [The New York Observer]
Why Do 15,000 People Care About a Missing Cat At JFK? One Word: Facebook. [BetaBeat]
Lots more crisis management and online crisis pr resources in The PR Coach Library. Sign up for the blog for regular PR tips, tactics and insight or get it via your favorite RSS reader.
Author: Jeff Domansky
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Bonnie, that’s a sad ending to the story. Let’s hope the airline learned some lessons about careful handling of pets. Thank you for the update.
I don’t see that people heard the sad ending to this story. Our Jack, weakened by dehydration and malnutrition, fell through a damaged ceiling tile (in a state of extreme weakness) in the same terminal he in which he was lost. He had been hiding there and around there for 61 days. He was identified by his microchip (one would never believe it was him on physical examination, he was in such poor shape), and rushed to Blue Pearl Veterinary. After two weeks of the best veterinary care, Jack was humanely put to sleep. He could not be saved. Many hearts broke that day. Bad PR? That is the least of AA’s problems having the worst consequences for their customers, whether they can speak for themselves or need our help to communicate with humans.
Ooops, I meant to actually say “sensitive” rather than “sensible”.
I guess the idea is to at least give an honest answer. Some people won’t appreciate it, but at least you’re responding rather than seemingly running away or hiding.
David, thanks for a thoughtful comment. Your customer service experience is also similar to my experience. Some clients are not going to like the facts or the message no matter how it’s delivered. The reality is that the cat is likely not going to be found after months. I think had AA been more forthright in its social media and other communications, it would at least not face so many critics or have compounded the difficult situation.
Off-topic, I guess those “rules” work well for you. They don’t for other people including me, especially if the customer insists on something arguably unreasonable and unrealistic.
But that’s not the point of this topic, of course. Just an aside.
One thing I’m curious, though: in my previous customer service work, I’d say about half appreciate being told something like no news but still working on their issues, while the other half get angry when told that. Maybe it’s a failure in how I communicate, but I wonder how else “should” I say when I try to be honest yet sensible to their feelings about their business issues?
I ask this in light of AA’s not posting updates on their trying (or at least hoping they’re trying) to find the cat. If they’re truly doing their best yet really haven’t had any luck, would consistently posting like “nothing new but we’re still looking” do any good or just invite more unwanted trouble?
Anyway, I finally got around to commenting here since I check this blog from time to time. Coming from someone who’s worked at least six years in customer service for two companies in two different industries, and who’s recently taking a growing interest in PR and social media.
I am seeing a consistent theme with PR if this case. Are we to understand correctly that you believe the situation with Jack could be better handled and solved by using social media and communication? If so, nothing could be further from the truth. PR “Public Relations” sometimes involves rolling up your sleeves, jumping into the trenches, and getting dirty. Using social media to talk is not public relations. Getting out, shaking hands, picking up the tools alongside those you are trying to reach is PR. They need to demonstrate they deserve public trust, not by communicating better, but by getting the job done! In this case they should find, and should have found Jack. They should have also taken immediate voluntary steps to make sure this never happens again. A quick assessment of standard operating procedures shows no changes have been made, and there is presently no plan or desire to make changes.
American never had to make a single post on any social website, nor did they ever require the use of a computer. What they needed was to lead in PR, roll up their sleeves, give their employees thumbs up to help search for Jack, and bring Jack home. To find Jack would have been worth more than they’ll ever know.
They waited more than 8 days to even acknowledge that Jack was missing. More than 8 days before they even looked into his disappearance. That’s not good PR.
You could never convince me of your point of view, reducing the roll of greed of multinational corporations and the changes forthcoming. This incident has everything to do with shareholders since shareholders have a say in operations. Global economic changes may very well dictate operating procedures in the future.There are far too many similar incidents like this that have been perpetrated by American Airlines (and others) to mean anything other than the fact that the established precedent policy is to minimize any problems with customers and companions. They are wrong.
I’m not sure who Paolo works for, but not giving any attention to a lost pet in a situation like this and “time to move on,” spells business death. Happy customers are good for business and businesses have no revenue without customers. Never ever ever dismiss or minimize a customer – EVER! Something that is lost to this present generation are two statements I can remember from decades ago: Rule #1: The customer is always right and always first. Rule #2: If the customer is wrong or is not first, see rule #1.
American Airlines made the wrong choice. They should have rolled up their sleeves and jumped in to find Jack. And the customers would have been right and would have been first. American would be on top of the PR ladder today. Such a shame… Such a waste…
I loved your article. I look into Jack’s eyes and know that I must help him get back to his Mommy and his brother, Barry. The Airline clearly caused this situation by piling on cat carrier on top of the other and Jack’s fell, the door opened and Jack escaped. I worry that Jack may feel abandoned and that no one is looking for him. I worry about Barry, who is wondering where is Jack?? Thank you for writing this about Jack and the effort to find this dear cat.
Julie, I hadn’t seen your post and recommend PR and marketing pros read it for an earlier view of this story: “A cat-astrophic lesson in social media for bank marketers.” Too often when marketers lead, PR bleeds as we learned from Kenneth Cole, Bing and countless other social media fails. Thanks for sharing it.
Bonnie, thanks again for commenting and providing insight into the story. It’s important for PR and communication pros to understand what brings groups together. It’s equally important for us to learn the PR and social media lessons so that we, and our organizations, do a better job of communicating.
Jeff, you might have missed it but soon after this social media cat-astophe began, American Airlines began a Facebook sweepstakes showing a pet as a travel buddy. The promotion entitled “Who goes with you?” asked fans to “take a photo of the person you enjoy traveling with the most and share it with us.” The photo they depicted with the promotion was a pooch. Surprisingly they didn’t show a cat! Apparently American’s marketing department didn’t have a clue about the negative deluge appearing on their FB wall. I posted about this social media snafu on my blog aimed at bank marketing execs. You can see a screenshot of that promotion in my September 8th post entitled, A Cat-astrophic Lesson in Social Media for Bank Marketing Execs. http://jarnsdorf.blogspot.com/2011/09/cat-astrophic-lesson-in-social-media.html
Nicole, thanks for your heartfelt explanation of what motivates the Friends of Jack.
I loved this article. I am one of the FoJ’s that regularly searches JFK. You asked why would we spend our time searching for a cat that is not ours? At first I felt badly for Karen and Jack. I couldn’t imagine having to move out of state and leave my fur-child behind not knowing if he was safe, warm, dry, or fed. When I went to the first search on Sept. 17th I thought we were going to find him until I looked around. There are millions, without exaggeration, millions of places a kitty could hide. Lets not forget it was right before the hurricain so the airport was closed for two days. Places he may have steered away from due to noise and activity were not off limits. He could be anywhere. Angela, another searcher, and I have discussed many times why we continue to look for Jack. At this point he’s not just Karen’s cat. He’s my cat, her cat, your cat, the next lost airline cat, and he’s in the hearts of every FoJ. When I look for Jack I think about the heartache Karen feels every day. I think about Jack’s brother Barry who is wondering why his brother left him. I think about Jack. Does he think his owners abandoned him? Does he think he wasn’t wanted anymore? Is he cold? Hungry? Alone? Does he think about the times when he used to cuddle up with Karen and Barry? Does he know that all these people are rooting for him to go home and how much he is really loved and missed? I have to find Jack. I have to help find Jack. He is in this situation through no fault of his own and he can’t get out of it. As an animal lover and a human being it is my (our) responsibility to help those that can’t help themselves. I will never give up on Jack and won’t stop searching until he is back in Karen’s arms.
How did the cat get loose in the first place? Someone had to have opened the carrier. This is a major problem when going through Security with a pet. There is no reason for Security to have to inspect the inside of a carrier. They can use the electronic wand. But if they insist, they should take the pet and owner to a secure room. I insist on the latter when I am flying with a cat. I also have the cat on a harness and leash in the carrier until we are in flight.
Diana, agree with you on social media lack of response. Don’t know about all AA’s other efforts except second hand. A smart, caring company would make things right and communicate as you and I know as communicators. Appreciate your view.
Sue, with a few exceptions most critics of American Airlines have been heartfelt and respectful. A smart organization would respond and communicate accordingly in my opinion.
Ok I started following Jack & his JFK trip that went all WRONG for him & his family! I my kids but, before 3 boyz I had I very special Cat I LOVED & feared this Nightmare of Loosing him forever! My Heart & Prayers are with Jack & his family reunion-knighting SOON!
Kimmy
Oh, and by the way, AA flew Karen back to JFK the first weekend after Jack went missing so she could look for him, after that they made her pay for her flight. How sick is that!!
I have been following Jack since the beginning, and I have found AA’s attitude very patronising and non-caring. I am sure any efforts they have made to find Jack were only done to placate us and shut us up, and those efforts have been fairly pathetic. When the number of supporters of Jack skyrocketed and people started asking hard questions, they chose to go quiet and ignore us totally. Their PR department should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and they need to understand we will not be going away .
AA does not continue any dialogue on Jack! AA banned me (and many others) because I posted a few messages about JACK!!! Their minimum acceptance of responsibility is unbelievable!!! JACK is lost because of AA!
Hi again. A couple of things to add… The DOT Incident Report was recently published (American Airlines was required to report the event). It is my understand that the report was the first time the owner found out what happened. So the company’s communication has been inadequate on more fronts that just social media channels. Additionally, they may have made reasonable efforts to search for Jack – but most of those efforts were made after word spread via Facebook and public pressure was considerably increasing. Instead of taking action from the start, they neglected to act appropriately and as a result put themselves in a reactionary mode ever since. Not a wise way to manage one’s business. To Lisa’s point – it infuriated people (and still does). Then once the complaints became too much, they simply relegated the Facebook postings to a Notes page. So if anyone wanted to read about the story or see if American had any updates – they’d have to know where to look. The old “out of sight out of mind” trick. Pretty immature from a PR standpoint. The list goes on about how the company mismanaged things from the beginning. And like I said before, it is pretty shocking considering the size of the corporation. And as for Paolo’s note – it seems that this topic fits perfectly into a discussion on a site dedicated to Public Relations. While I may be emotionally upset over the fate of this cat, I work in Communications, so I am fully capable of looking at the issue from a logical business standpoint as well.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. At the very least, folks (and corporations) should learn from their wrong doings and make amends to standing modes of reactions, improvements and mostly to take care ill planned shortcomings and error in actions are not repeated. Of course everyone has a right to comment on their opinion or view. But, thank goodness, we confirm our beliefs when we read some things that are totally disagreeable, reinforcing the actions (or lack of) that we stand for in this world.
Paolo, my view is that the airline could have handled their social media more effectively and demonstrated it cares by communicating better and directly with those voicing concern. Thanks for your note..
Dan in my view, AA made an unfortunate mistake and need to review how pets are handled. Then they need to demonstrate they deserve public trust by communicating better. I don’t buy the other part of your argument. This incident has nothing to do with shareholders or views of global economic Darwinism. Comments always appreciated.
Diana, I agree that expectations were not met in several areas of communication. What compounds an issue is when a company doesn’t respond using the same channels as critics. They could at very least update through Facebook.
This is not a crisis. Not even remotely. It’s a lost animal that is over 2 months old. Time to move on. AA shouldn’t spend another second thinking about this. They should be focused on airline security and getting flights out on time. Wake up people
Lisa, thanks for commenting. I think the company made some reasonable operational efforts to find Jack after an unfortunate accident. Where they have made a mistake is in their lack of social media response.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for writing this article. American Airline as a corporation has infuriated me to no end with it’s sense of carelessness(I say corp because there are some employees on the ground who are trying to help where they can). I just wish we could make AA see this story without auto deleting it off their page
Mr. Domansky – Thank you for publishing what followers of this story have been saying all along. American Airlines started by mishandling a precious pet, aggravated the situation (and surprisingly made it more traumatic) by mismanaging their actions and communications. Shameful and shocking behavior. Once would have expected more from a corporation their size. Great article. Thanks again. ~ a Friend of Jack’s
American Airlines’ PR Catastrophe is getting worse. In addition to an army of very angry customers, there’s a wave of new petitions calling for a worldwide boycott of American Airlines, American Eagle, and all of the parent company, AMR Corporation of Ft Worth Texas and subsidiaries. These new petitions may only draw enough signatures to fill a few jumbo jets, but if American Airlines had a brain between their collective greedy shareholders, they should take heed. Their customers are going away. With the current global political climate changing, I’m sure we could soon see some major changes in the way Airlines operate. Handling companion animals is a significant part of operations. If American continues down the road they are on, I predict there will come a day soon when their doors will be locked, employees and corporate officers in the unemployment line, and American’s entire fleet rusting in peace, parked in the desert. Feel free to look at and sign the boycott(s). They all have the same content.
original petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/892/290/234/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/boycott-american-airlines-for-Jack/
http://www.change.org/petitions/jack-is-still-missing-boycott-american-airlines
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/boycott-american-airlines-for-jack.html
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/boycott4jack
From an FoJ – thank you so much for highlighting many of the issues that have fueled this fire for Jack. AA completely personifies the old adage of. “adding insult to injury”. As if mishandling the cat carrier and causing Jack’s “escape” wasn’t enough, AA now obviously has dismissed it and must be hoping that we’ll all go away. They don’t know Jack or FoJs!
Forgot to add one thing… One statistic… The 700+ comments posted on AA’s Notes page is a low estimate. MANY of us have been blocked by AA and our comments deleted. More PR mistakes, blocking comments on a “public” FB page…
Well done, Jeff! Good research and sound business logic! I’ve posted on the Friends of Jack FB page that we should write an article or case study for the Harvard Business Review. American Airlines has done absolutely EVERYTHING wrong in mishandling precious Jack and those who care and have jumped in to lend a hand… My heart goes out to Karen Pascoe and her family for the gut-wrenching ordeal they are going through. I think I can safely say, on behalf of Friends of Jack, that we can – and do – feel Karen’s pain as our own. I look forward to the joyous day when Jack decides to show his beautiful face and he is rescued! Now that will be a story to tell!
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