Easyjet Responds Badly to Critical Tweet

After Barilla's self-made fiasco, here's yet another case of a company all but demanding bad publicity. First, law professor and The Drum columnist Mark Leiser saw some questionable service delivered by EasyJet at the airport and tweeted about it. Judging by the company's response, it's safe to say they do not take criticism well. Here's the timeline: Flight delayed 90min. Soldier going to miss last connection & @easyjet refusing to help pay for him to get to Portsmouth. Get right into em! — Mark Leiser (@mleiser) September 24, 2013 We can see why Easyjet wasn't happy with that message, but their response made an unfortunate situation so much worse: Manager from easyjet just said I couldnt board flight because I criticised @easyJet on twitter before boarding the flight. — Mark Leiser (@mleiser) September 24, 2013 @smeaters @easyJet manager went as far as threatening to remove my bags from flight. Servisair girl demabded to see tweet before boarding — Mark Leiser (@mleiser) September 24, 2013 "You're a lawyer. You know u can't tweet stuff like that and expect to get on an @easyJet flight." — Mark Leiser (@mleiser) September 24, 2013 This is just strange behavior. Leiser ended up boarding his flight, and Easyjet quickly issued a response after settling the matter with him publicly and privately, but the damage had been done. On the one hand, this incident shows that the company's team is watching Twitter very closely, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it shows that their damage control strategies haven't been sufficiently developed. @mleiser Hi Mark, we are sorry to hear about this unfortunate incident. NO passenger will be denied boarding due to comments made on ... — easyJet (@easyJet) September 25, 2013 See, that's a proper, level-headed response. Here's the first official statement from a spokesperson and the Twitter follow-up: "EasyJet has never denied boarding due to comments on social media. On the rare occasion that we consider denying boarding it is on the basis of disruptive behaviour." Regarding Glasgow issue last night; our airport staff don't monitor social platforms and we did not and will not deny boarding based on(1/2) — easyJet (@easyJet) September 25, 2013 (2/2)criticism of easyJet on social media. We're in contact with the affected passenger, who did board his flight, and will follow up with — easyJet (@easyJet) September 25, 2013 ourteam and him when investigation is concluded. — easyJet (@easyJet) September 25, 2013 A little sloppy, but the message is clear. It's true that early rumors about Leiser being prohibited from boarding weren't accurate and that the company responded quickly. But, again, the lesson is that the best voice to assume when countering criticism is one of respect and patience (hard as that may be at times). Yes, it's a challenging part of the job, but that's why we work in PR, right? We're not Amy's Baking Company.

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Easyjet Responds Badly to Critical Tweet

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