Thomas Cook – Why Have they Got it So Wrong?

The Thomas Cook crisis has underlined, once again, the importance of good crisis management by PR professionals. It remains to be seen if Thomas Cook will survive. If they do I hope they’ve learned a few lessons. 

I have a personal interest in this beyond PR. My own daughter, more than fifteen years ago, had a wall of glass collapse on her in a children’s play area of a Greek hotel, cutting her face and leaving large jagged sheaths of it embedded in her skin. It was horrifying but Thomas Cook were not interested at the time or afterwards. They told me I had to accept that building regulations were different in different countries. It took me nearly ten years to get them to pay compensation, and I never got an apology. My heart goes out to the parents in this case, which I’m sure is how most people feel. How did Thomas Cook get it so wrong?

The way a crisis is handled tells the public all they need to know about an organisation. Almost every organisation, at some time, will have to manage a crisis. Of course most will not be on the scale of Thomas Cook. However a crisis, managed badly, can quickly destroy a company. A crisis managed well can improve its profitability and the affection customers have for it. That’s because we all accept that mistakes are made. It is how those mistakes are handled that makes us love or hate an organisation.

How do organisations get it wrong?

1. They try to pretend nothing has happened. It is very tempting to hide until the problem has gone away. If you say nothing you leave the platform to your critics. You do have to avoid fuelling the fire and it can sometimes be a delicate balancing act. However often it is that pretence that persuades people you don’t care and that is what makes people feel they need to scream at you until you take notice.

2. They repeatedly deny everything and pass the blame onto someone else. Thomas Cook have taken a long time to accept any blame and the parents are angry about that.  

3. They lie. In any crisis one of the things that is damaged most is the reputation of the company. A key to successfully handling the crisis is to rebuild trust. That won’t happen if the company are found to lie and lies are very easily found out when the witnesses against you can include everyone on social media.  

4. They fail to apologise, because the lawyers or insurance company forbid them. Lawyers and PRs make uneasy bed fellows, but I have worked with some great ones who understand that we’re both trying to save the company. You can apologise and accept that your customers have been treated badly, without accepting legal blame. Malaysian Airlines proactively took steps to help their customers, even offering to refund non-refundable tickets. They didn’t have to do this. No-one has said that they were to blame for the crashes that happened but they knew they had a responsibility. It is this that Thomas Cook has got so wrong. When they did apologise they sent the letter to the media before they sent it to the parents. Does anyone feel that they are sorry about anything except the risk to their reputation?

5. They try to hide the crisis - well if you don’t tell customers they’ll never find out will they? Wrong! Any concerned customer or partner will Google you and find out. It is far better to proactively contact customers; that way you have control over the messaging rather than the media. You’ll also be seen as honest and upfront which will help to rebuild trust.  

A company that has been found legally responsible for the death of two young children should not be presenting a ‘business as usual’ face to the World. It comes across as callous and gives me, as a customer, no confidence that lessons have been learnt and it won’t happen again. But of course I already learned my lesson with this particular company. I wish I’d shouted louder.