Oslo airport shut-down…lessons learned?

Two days ago, Norway’s major airport, Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) practically shut down due to weather conditions, so-called “freezing fog”. The usual rate of 32 take-offs per hour was reduced to 10 (at the best) and tens of thousands of Christmas travelers were stranded for up to more than 24 hours on what is probably THE busiest day of the year. What acerbated things was how the airlines dealt with the situation: No information to waiting passengers, no food coupons or refreshments, endless lines in front of ticket counters…

Who’s paying the price?

I know, the airlines may not be required to give you food coupons or refreshments for no reason, and many stick to the legal requirements for fear of overrunning costs, but they seem to forget the golden rule in business: If you take care of your customers, your customers will take care of you (your bottom line), and you cannot build customer loyalty with negligent service, and it is during crises like this a airline can really show how service-minded it actually is. Especially in the case of SAS, which recently launched a massive ad campaign around the theme “we are re-launching service”…well, so much for the ad campaign…

The season…to be merry?

The airline industry is a highly competitive market and even established airlines like SAS have been forced to give in low-cost carriers and reduce their own prices. But slashing ticket prices often causes slashing service too, in order to keep expenses down. However, the long-term costs of loosing passenger loyalty compared to the short-term costs of dealing with an emergency cannot be underestimated. An airline like SAS may be in a monopoly situation at many airports in Norway, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to care, since your passengers have no choice anyway. Not only is customer loyalty important, customer attitude towards you should also matter, and the only way to achieve a strong brand name is through customer trust. And much of customer trust comes from exceeding customer expectations.



In terms of supply chain management in times of crises this means that you need to be able to handle the situation better than your customers expect you to handle it. Think ahead, be prepared,  and most of all, be prepared to go a long way to satisfy your customers, even if your terms and conditions do not require you too. Now that may not make your supply chain resilient per se, but it will definitely be a major contribution  to making your brand name and reputation resilient.

Merry Christmas!

Links

Related

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , , , , ,

ARTICLES and PAPERS
Economies of integration
Logistics is no longer what it used to be and logistics today plays a much more important and strate[...]
Supply chain vulnerability and resilience
Today's post is a review of a conference paper written by Francesco Longo and Tuncer Ören in 2008 an[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Appetite versus Attitude
Finally, and long overdue, another review in the Gower Short Guide to Business Risk book series. Thi[...]
Book Review: Cooperative Strategy
Cooperative strategy is the attempt by organizations to realize their objectives through cooperation[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Vulnerable or valuable supply chain?
More than a year old now, but still holding not so few words of wisdom is the Pricewaterhouse Cooper[...]
Risk management - Vocabulary
What is risk management in supply chains? The more I study supply chain risk management, the more co[...]