Communication Strategies for Qantas Airlines: A Case Study Analysis

This report analyzes the communication issues faced by Qantas Airlines, particularly focusing on a social media crisis in 2011. The report examines the background of the issue, which was triggered by a Twitter campaign that backfired due to existing customer dissatisfaction and technical problems. The discussion section provides an overview of the future actions Qantas should take, including improving the communication department, understanding the audience, and conducting surveys. The report also highlights the factors organizations should consider when using social media, such as audience engagement, content creation, and competitor analysis. A communication plan template for Qantas Airlines is provided, outlining timing, audience, key messages, and desired outcomes. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication for maintaining customer trust and managing the airline's reputation.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Contents
Background of the Issue..................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Future actions to be taken by Qantas...........................................................................................2
Factors for an organization when using Social Media.................................................................3
Communication plan template for Qantas Airlines.....................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Background of the Issue
Qantas Airlines faced a communications issue that went out of control in the month of
November of 2011. Just a day before the incident, Qantas made a post on Twitter that would
allow people to win branded Qantas pajamas as well as a luxury amenity kit. To participate,
Qantas requested its followers to hashtag the words “Qantas Luxury” and briefly express their in-
flight experience with the Qantas Airlines (Ashwini Nand, Singh, and Power, 2013). However,
Qantas had a troublesome time in the year of 2011 where there were many technical difficulties,
engine problems which made thousands of customers left stranding after grounding the aircraft,
contract negotiation issues and controversial photographs. Therefore when the post was made by
the official account of the company, many dissatisfied customers started to express their negative
experiences and leave many unfiltered comments on the post (Anand, Sharma, and Coltman,
2016). However, the situation became worse when Qantas without monitoring the feedbacks,
started to congratulate and thank people for their tweets and asked for more comments. This in
turn led many people to question the management system of Qantas on how to communicate
with their clients (Prdisasters.com, 2018).
Discussion
Future actions to be taken by Qantas
Even before the 2011 incident, there were many technical problems and customer issues.
Despite the fact that Qantas suffered from a heavy toll in the year of 2011, the reputation of the
company has improved in the following years (Arjomandi and Seufert, 2014). Qantas Airlines

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are in neck to neck competition with their rival airlines like Virgin Australia, Etihad, Easter
Australia Airlines, Air Cruising Australia and many more. Therefore future actions are suggested
to improve the management of Qantas airless so that the organization does not suffer from
similar setbacks.
1. Whenever any kind of issue occurs, firstly it is important to understand the issue and to
propose a meeting to get together and discuss all the possible ways fix the problem.
Working together is the key factor for any management.
2. It is also essential to know the territory. It is advisable to know the audience whether it is
geographically or preference wise.
3. Conducting the need for surveys and also researching on past surveys or statistical data to
pin down the issues in hand (Mirkhani et al. 2014).
4. Improving the communications department and the management and providing effective
training on how to deal with live customers and take feedbacks.
5. Objectives should be in mind and it should be communicated to each and every employee
within the company to set a target and achieving that target in every month or year.
6. Identifying the strengths and weakness of your own organization is a must. Working on a
SWOT analysis to understanding the loopholes helps any organization to overcome
future obstacles.
Factors for an organization when using Social Media
Many organizations use social media as one of their trump cards to promote their
business.. It has rather became a necessity than a basic means of communication which was few

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years ago. Nowadays, everybody is depended on social media from multinational organizations
like Apple and Coca-Cola to small players in a locality. Some factors are as follows:
1. Social networking sites like Twitter are designed to make conversation simple and
enjoyable for people (Bamber et al. 2013). Many companies use that to their advantage.
Smart organizations use look for healthy sized audience who use the product or service of
the given organization on a daily basis. These organizations target these audiences to
promote their products because the audiences would in-turn promote the company by
posting pictures or describing the benefits of the services on their own personal accounts.
2. Being personal yet professional is one of the key factors to success for an organization if
they are using social media to interact with their clients. Some companies appoint
employees to take feedback on a regular basis. They listen to the feedbacks and address
their issues effectively. Creating content to educate the customers is also a very important
step. Even a 100 character tweet with a major content value is effective if used
accordingly. Customers would always look for content that is beneficial to them. If a
customer has a good experience, it is evident that he or she will share the experience with
his friends or family (Bamber, 2015).
3. It is very important to know the other players in the market. Competition exists for all
business; no matter it is a large or small organization. Therefore it is also important to see
how the competitors are promoting their business on social media and what type of
audience they are targeting. If an organization knows who their target audiences are and
how to hold them, then they are easily ahead of the competition.

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Communication plan template for Qantas Airlines
TIMING
The timing should be effective and instant, whether it is
communicating with the customers or providing service
to them.
AUDIENCE
The target audience should be general however it is also
essential to know the people who prefer their services
more. All business should use their dedicated followers
to promote their services to other people, because most
customers prefer customer feedbacks before using any
service.
SENDER
The communication should be sent directly to the
audience however it is best advisable to use the means of
effective communication so that simple yet important
messages can reach to all of the customers effectively
and on time.
KEY MESSAGE
The key message should always be linked to the benefits
of the company however; it should also be beneficial to
the customers. The best messages are the ones which has
both of the factors in them.
DESIRED OUTCOME
The outcome should be beneficial to the clients and
should provide sufficient content to them. At the end of
the day, gaining the trust of the existing customers and
gaining more is the ultimate goal.
MEDIUM
The message should always be delivered through the
means of effective communication. Nowadays social
media is on the top of that list. However, other means

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can also include radio and television.
MATERIALS
Before social media existed, there were many other
means to promote business and which can still be used.
Such examples include television, radio, newspaper and
mails and such.
FREQUENCY
Messages should be delivered to customers on a frequent
basis. Whether it is once a week or in every 3-4 days.
Content of the messages should be short and simple.