bodory

Another point of view on AF crisis communication : http://www.leblogducommunicant2-0.co...ry=/dfCmEocxU5

IMO a bit AF-apologist but before everything, too much French-centered. Not surprising then.

bodory

By the way, 4 people have been arrested this morning by French police re violence last week. It seems they are ground agents at AF Cargo (source : Le Monde).

JOUY31

As a French customer, I am quite satisfied with this e-mail communication, which is in line with my expectations and reinforces the image I have of the company, the brand and its staff, something that was quite necessary after last week's violent incidents. The fact that the opening statement on the video is made by one of the two victims of the attack is also a strong point and I am grateful to listen to his courteous and dignified speech after the humiliation he was subjected to, which was seen across the globe. Of course, other target audiences may have a different perspective and different needs.

orbitmic

My guess is that this has not so much to do with national affiliation as with individual perceptions of what the events represented and what management means. I am French too but my reaction is entirely different from yours. I suspect both of us have never had any doubt that what happened is merely the action of some rogue and unsavoury individuals against others and is entirely unrelated to AF's nature and identity, why should it. Beyond that, however, your perception seems to be that AF are hitting the right note, while mine is that they are actually using those sad events as a pretext to suggest something entirely unrelated as well with the event, ie a suggestion that the management's proposed plans are (substantively) necessary.

jsfr

We tend on Flyertalk to overanalyse...

As a French regular flyer, I was expecting a mail, and I did not expect it to tell me anything I did not already know - given that this has been all over the news for the past week. By immediate, non-analytical reaction was the they were reinforcing that:

1) It was only an isolated incident of a few individuals and not representative of Air France
2) That Air France (management, Employees, partners, etc. remained unified and a team
3) They continue to look for solutions in the best interested of preserving the integrity of Air France and evolving and improving (service and "profitability")

Those were the three things I suppose that I wanted to hear, so it did hit a positive note with me.

For the non-French regular travellers, I have been getting a lot of "ribbing" from many of my colleagues, the foreign press playing up the national clichés rather than telling the facts, I think the travelling public needed to hear from Air France - I particularly like (analysing now), that it was signed Frederic Gagey and teams.

For the non-French non-regular travellers. Well, if they are not French and don't travel regularly, who cares? Given the need to communicate to the first two audiences, I suppose they just went with the largest mailing list they could find.

orbitmic

The problem is:
1) is obvious
2) is simply not true
3) is only true if you believe that this is what the AF management has been doing for the past 10 years and that they are in a good place now, because "continue" is very much the operative word here: there is really nothing that has changed in either the management's or unions' attitude of late, and chances are that nothing will any time soon.

jsfr

1) Not obvious if you are not in France and/or not following the news. A number of my colleagues think the actions of last week were representative of AF employees and that on Air France they might have a Pilot who can't control his temper
2) OK, not really true, but as a customer the message I wanted to hear....
3) Here I disagree - certainly not for the past 10 years, but there has been a definite improvement over the past 2 years in product (flat J, medium haul Eco...), union relationships (most unions have agreed to some concessions, and there have been less strikes, certainly less than LH and BA) and profitability (well, losing less anyway)

As a message to the general public, and not us Flyertalk people, I think it says what needed to be said, and is actually a reflection of the current situation.

NickB

I agree. To me, it was just a way of saying: we are as stunned as you are by this, which is a way of saying this is definitely not what we expect in France and not representative of AF staff. As jsfr notes, there have been enough reactions of the "I am scared of flying AF now" to show that not everybody regards this as obvious as we do.

For the rest, it is pretty standard comms stuff that you would expect them to say.
I would have thought that those who fiind these problematic would probably find 99.99% of communications in the business world problematic. Maybe I am atypical, but I tend to take these kind of communications with two lorry loads of salt and listen to them with no more than 1% of my ears opened so, unless it is something outrageous/unusual/etc..., it tends to go past me without disturbing me in the slightest.

orbitmic

I understand where you (JOUY31, jsfr, NickB) come from. I guess my reaction might be due to my finding too many parallelisms between this message and the one the exact same people sent as a consequence of the strikes (something like: "we know how much you have been inconvenienced by the strike. Thanks for sticking with us. Our plan is what AF needs"). I accept that I may over analyse but I object to the mix of an apology of sorts with what I see as a political statement about the rightfulness of a proposed set of measures. It may indeed be quite standard, but it bothers me nonetheless.