Pamela Baggett-Wallis & Persuasion Communication: Crisis Management, Media Training & PR
Capitalizing on 30-plus years experience, Persuasion Communication principal Pamela Baggett works with regulated and unregulated business, associations, attorneys, and government agencies. The goal is to fill a deep reservoir of good will upon which to rely when the inevitable crisis occurs. She also helps identify and develop plans to handle those potential crises.
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BLOG: You have the right to remain silent...
... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Philanthropy: head of the class or dunce cap?
Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.
There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.
The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December. Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got a dime.
This isn't the first donation race between these two.
Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.
As memorable as the $1 million donation is, will it neutralize the negative feelings caused by Chesapeake reniging on a promised donation?
Labels: branding, Chesapeake, crisis_communications, customer service, media relations, philanthropy, XTO
--MORE--... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Philanthropy moves you to the head of the class, or earns a dunce cap
Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.
There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.
The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December.
Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got anything.
This isn't the first donation race between these two.
Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.
Not only did one company give a sizable donation, the other one reneged. Now, how do you feel about the two companies?
Labels: Chesapeake, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service, philanthropy, XTO
--MORE--... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.
Philanthropy moves you to the head of the class, or earns a dunce cap
Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.
There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.
The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December. Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got anything. Where'd I put that dunce cap?
This isn't the first donation race between these two.
Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.
Not only did one company give a sizable donation, the other one reneged. I send a heartfelt "thank you" to both companies for so beautifully demonstrating the right and wrong methods to position your business in the community's mind. The Chesapeake brand definitely has lost some luster.
How do you feel about the two companies?
Labels: branding, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service, good manners, media relations, philantrhropy
--MORE--... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
By now, American Airlines should be handling it better
For the second time in as many weeks most of the American Airlines fleet is grounded, stranding thousands of passengers. If the people at the top care one whit about their passengers, there’s scant evidence of it.Before anyone says “they’re doing the best they can,” let me jump in and point out their “best” is quite an indictment of the airline and its crisis management planning—or lack thereof. As part of the booking process, American Airlines asks first for my cell phone number, then home, then work, AND my email address.
Riddle me this, Batman. Why do they request this information if they don’t plan to use it for notification of delays and cancellations? American Airlines should turn its booking agents into “cancellation” agents to notify people of the problems before they show up at the airport. Not workable? Well, FIND A WAY!
You may sense some antagonism from me here. Well, you’re absolutely correct. I had the unenviable experience of traveling with a handicapped child from Anchorage to Austin, with a three-day layover to visit family in Seattle. We arrived at SEATAC several hours early to reduce any stress. My husband and I both carry Treos so we can receive email and phone calls. The plane was grounded in Houston for mechanical problems, not an act of God. Hence, the airline had to get us home on their nickel.
Long lines formed at the check-in. They were explaining, one-by-one as people got to the front of the line, that the plane was cancelled and they were trying to book us on another flight. Then they told the entire group to go to another airline where we would be given seats. We troupe en masse to the other airline, which did not win any Brownie points either. The second airline told us that AA didn’t notify them and that we had go back to the AA counter. So we all troupe back over there, only to discover the three service lines were now down to one.
In the meantime, I called Southwest Airlines and booked seats for the three of us. But American Airlines doesn’t have a contract with Southwest and refused to pay for the tickets. Instead, American wanted us to stay overnight and hope to get on a seat the next morning. We took the Southwest flight.
Months and months later, with communication by snail mail since they do not have a customer service phone line, American magnanimously sent us tickets for future flights on American Airlines. Like I’d ever fly AA again! But here’s the kicker—they totally botched my son’s name, so it would have been another go-round to get that fixed.
I opted out. And that’s what thousands of passengers are likely to do.
Whew! I feel better now. That’s a three-year-old tale, and I’m still angry. How does an airline reclaim customers after events like that and these plane groundings? Two weeks ago, the grounding was taken with a grain of salt, although the airline screwed up by not contacting passengers. This time, the grounding was because the mechanics didn’t handle the first grounding successfully. Do you trust their air-worthiness now? Free advice: AA should invite some of the reporters who specialize in aviation to show them what the airline is doing to make their planes mechanically safe.
The only way American Airlines can reclaim passenger appreciation and confidence beyond mechanical issues is to totally retool their booking and cancellation process. How about having a back-up phone center on standby to call passengers and handle rebooking on the phone?
Why not call in off-duty staff to handle passengers who get stuck in the airport. To rent buses to take people to hotels? How about putting up big signs at entrances to airport terminals notifying passengers BEFORE they turn in rental cars or even get out of their cabs?
Oh, the infinite ways American Airlines, or any airline, could improve customer service!
As long as reporters can interview distressed mothers stuck in the airport without enough diapers, or even money, to take care of their children, the airlines will suffer continued passenger anger and rejection.
The airline that chooses to make some of these changes in how they handle cancellations and does a good job of publicizing the changes will be the last one left flying.
Labels: American Airlines, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service
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