Reputation Management Online

Ryanair is one of the most popular airlines in the world. It certainly flies more people than any other airline in the world. It is also one of the world’s most unpopular airlines judging by surveys of passengers. What’s going on?

Ryanair was not the pioneer of budget airlines, but it has been the most aggressive purveyor of the technique and perhaps the most famous example of the type, outstripping rivals like Easyjet. It has build its budget philosophy around low cost rather than cheap and in being upfront about what you are paying for. They pioneered the technique of charging taxes separately to highlight what the cost of taxes is and in the form of Michael O’Leary they have a voluble and cheeky CEO on whom few critics have landed a punch.

In the past few years the Ryanair story seems to have darkened as their business model is increasingly driven by extras that enable them to continue to advertise cheap flights and yet still charge passengers a lot more via online check-in charges, payment processing charges. It would seem as though the costs of providing the services have been squeezed out and now they are seeking to have their cake and eat it. Advertise low fares but charge the customer a lot more.

Their customer service philosophy is different and highly O’Learyesque – don’t delight or even please customers: just get them there cheaply and on time.  It is airline travel as commodity service rather than high value service.

The problem for the Ryanair reputation is this: they are losing their reputation for being low price. They may continue to proclaim, “we are lost cost”, but increasingly for customers the experience of being double charged for one payment, having to pay for checking-in calls that into question. A straw poll of my friends revealed that none were happy with Ryanair.

• all felt that some charges were deliberately exploitative of customers.
• Ryanair staff were rude and that the system was designed to confuse and punish customer mistakes.
• None would fly Ryanair by choice, only because they were the only airline flying to a particular destination.

They do not mind paying for food or baggage. They don’t mind queuing for seats and they don’t mind having to check-in online.

Ryanair portray themselves as an engine to drive down costs, but the accounts reveal that profitability is really about advertising low fares and then charging as much again on top. As more and more customers recognise and discuss this, one senses that the Ryanair brand will be associated with being a cheat.

The Ryanair strategy on reputation management is strike first and offer a withering character assessment of the critic. Increasingly it does not wash with customers. Ryanair will need to look more carefully at how it charges as rival operators exploit the Ryanair reputation gap. For Easyjet, this represents a huge opportunity if they can continue to drive out costs but deliver an honest service and establish themselves as customer champions.

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