If you’re responsible for Public Relations at Qantas you’re either looking for a place to hide or hoping you could restart 2010. In the first 3 days of the year, the reputation of the Qantas brand has been pummeled in both the traditional press and on twitter and the blogosphere after a number of unfortunate technical glitches and delays. The first three news stories listed on Google News provide a quick glimpse of the carnage.

Whether you’re a large company like Qantas or a smaller outfit, a single negative story can have a detrimental effect on your brand and ongoing business. Online, these stories tend to linger and can easily be found on search engines such as Google. If you’re a restaurant, a single blog post about’ a bad meal’ or ‘rats in the kitchen’ can be enough to turn customers away, even after you clean up your act. For many businesses, ignoring a customer complaint, negative story or review online is no longer an option.

Having a series of negative stories over such a short period of time would be be devastating for most. While the Qantas brand will survive, there’s no doubt the business could do a much better job of managing its reputation and responding to these issues online. Here’s just a sample of some of the comments posted on Twitter over the past 24 hours:

And…

While it appears that Qantas has done a reputable job offline to answer some of the issues head on, they have been eerily silent online. To date…

1. There’s been no mention of any of the issues on their website. This would have been a great opportunity to make passengers aware of the current issues and prepare them for the wait (and to let them know what Qantas is doing about these issues…)
2. There’s been no mention of the problems on Qantas ‘ Facebook Page. As far as new fans of the airline are concerned, life is just perfect at Qantas.
3. The business is invisible on Twitter where most of the critical comments have been posted (there have been 1,000 mentions of Qantas in the past 7 days alone – the majority being very negative).

So how does Qantas tackle these thorny issues? Obviously, there are always going to be technical problems, weather, or uncontrollable events that cause delays and inconvenience travelers. It’s inevitable, if you’re in the airline space. Ignoring these issues and hoping that they go away is, however, not the answer. If this is part of the strategy then heads need to roll to make way for a new way of thinking. It’s just not acceptable for any business to ignore what their customers are saying and pretend that life is rosy.

If we were Qantas, here’s what we’d do:

1. Use the website (specifically the home page) to tackle the delays or technical issues that pop up alerting travelers of the issues before they arrive at the airport. At least then travellers  have a chance to prepare both mentally and physically and might prove more understanding to the airline’s plight.
2. Update the Qantas Facebook Page with alerts. Don’t be afraid to mention when bad stuff happens. It’s inevitable, so be proactive. You will be praised if you tackle the issues head on.
3. Monitor the comments on sites such as Twitter and formulate a plan to provide feedback to your customers. V Australia does a great job of using Twitter for customer service and reputation management.
4. Hire knowledgable people who understand the online and social media space and get a plan in place quickly.
5. Create a long term PR strategy that tackles good and bad coverage in both the traditional and online forums at the same time (integration is key – it should not happen in isolation).
6. Fire your Public Relations company if they haven’t already brought up two of the five strategies mentioned above in the past year. If your agency isn’t up to date with the online world then it’s time to consider other options (we’ll even help point you in the right direction). Qantas has pioneered online sales in Australia so there’s no reason why the business shouldn’t take the lead when it comes to online PR.

Ultimately, there needs to be buy-in at the top starting with the CEO, Alan Joyce. As the brand ambassador, his input and support is critical for the business to take control of its brand reputation across all media. While it may be too late do much about the current crisis, there’s no reason to sit on the sidelines any longer.

What are your thoughts? What would you do if you were Qantas?