CyberFootprint

Ryanair’s public image has taken several hits lately. It is at stake since the unfortunate incident from February 19th. It all began with Jason Roe. Jason thought he detected a glitch in Ryanair’s online ordering system. He left a detailed account about his discovery on his blog.

Some Ryanair employees then found their way to Jason’s blog and left a couple of nasty comments. While they were at criticising Jason, they took a stab at WordPress too.

what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they’re mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!

Very mature. Apparently, the staff didn’t get the HR/PR memo about netiquette.

This was the official response of the airline:

Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.

I now know which airline certainly deserves neither my attention, nor my money. This is not a way to treat a customer. On the contrary, the carrier should be grateful to Jason for discovering a problem with their system. I guess that Ryanair has a lot to learn about social media and CRM.

If you think that Ryanair’s problems end with this escapade, you are mistaken. On February 27th, the airline put forth a modest proposal. The customers may be charged for using a bathroom in the airplane.

This is the exact quote from the carrier’s CEO, Michael O’Leary:

One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future.

I’ve written about flexibility and consistency recently, but at the time I didn’t assume that other variables like insensivity, foolishness, and rudeness could enter the picture. I guess that Ryanair lives by the credo that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

What is your experience with airline customer service? Have you ever experienced customer care like this? Feel free to comment and share it.

Update: Check out the new blog The Opposite of Ryanair.

Image credits: paolo màrgari and Dangerous-Dave.com