Travellers' anger, disappointment and anxiety - everyday life for airlines
Photo: Suhyeon Choi at Unsplash.
Delays, lost luggage or cancelled flights, most people have experienced anger and disappointment towards an airline at some point in time. Research from Jönköping International Business School at Jönköping University shows that brand hatred in these situations is not only harmful to airlines.
“Airlines need to understand their customers better,” says Ayesha Manzoor, PhD in Business Administration, who recently defended her thesis on brand hatred in the airline industry at Jönköping International Business School.
The study shows that brand hatred towards airlines is not just about emotions, it is a complex phenomenon involving the emotions, behaviours and thoughts of travellers.
The study examined different types of incidents, such as boarding pass problems, customer service problems, flight delays, baggage mishandling, meal problems, seating problems, staff behaviour problems, technical problems, and late payments and refunds.
Anger, disappointment and anxiety most common emotions
Different types of incidents trigger different emotions in travellers, making brand hate a powerful factor that airlines must learn to manage and possibly prevent. By collecting data from airlines' social media, as well as through quantitative analysis together with follow-up interviews with travellers who had experienced incidents, the study showed that different types of negative emotions (including anger, contempt, disappointment, disgust, anxiety, fear and sadness) were frequently expressed by travellers.
“When an incident occurs, there is initially an emotional dimension that customers express in different ways. Three emotions are expressed more often than others in different types of airline incidents. These are anger, disappointment and anxiety,” says Ayesha Manzoor.
In the case of anger, travellers often showed aggressive behaviour towards the airline. When a traveller was upset it was reflected through expressive complaints, meanwhile disappointment caused more constructive complaints.
Dissatisfaction can turn into comfort
While incidents often give rise to brand hatred the study also shows that brand hatred can turn into comfort and reconciliation. For brand hatred to be turned into something positive, airlines need to improve their post-incident crisis management practices. Airlines must understand the customers' point of view and provide customized responses to them to avoid brand hatred.
“By training staff in complaint handling, introducing policies that focus on reconciliation, and designing communication strategies that take into account travellers’ feelings, behaviours and thoughts, brand hate can be turned into something positive and beneficial for airlines. Customers expect quick responses and a direct solution to their problems. This means that companies need to develop more effective strategies to tackle brand hate and rebuild trust,” says Ayesha Manzoor.
Read the study in full.
External link, opens in new window.
