Qantas has yet to reveal what it is planning as a special “thank you” to passengers who had their travel plans wrecked by last weekend’s grounding of the airline’s entire fleet.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has demanded that the airline reimburse passengers for their losses – such as hotel and transport costs – following the grounding.
Public relations expert Tim Allerton has told ABC radio that Qantas’s “advertising to date and for the next month or so is an absolute waste of time and money”.
“Where I would be spending the money is on customer service, because one of the major complaints has been people have just not been able to communicate with anyone from Qantas, taking up to two to three hours waiting time to actually talk to a human being.
“And I just think that what they need to do is concentrate on that aspect to regain the trust, regain the rapport, especially with those frequent flyers.”
Allerton, whose comments were reported by The Age, said Qantas had spent “hundreds if not billions of dollars over the past 90 years building up its brand” and the airline could draw on that to win back the loyalty of its customers.
“There’s huge amount of brand equity still in there that they can draw on now they are having a time of crisis so I don’t think we are anywhere near a tipping point in that there is so much brand equity in there,” he told the ABC.
“What I think is going to happen next is that there is going to be a major price war and Qantas is going to try and get back some of that supposed loyalty by offering people very, very cheap fares.”
