Trust revisited

In the wake of the epic public transport meltdown in Melbourne last week, I wanted to talk a bit about trust. While the beleagered Connex media representative was assuring us all that they were working around the clock over the weekend to get things running again this week, I was thinking; but who will trust that the trains will actually run?

Trust is the currency of the relationship that a customer has with the organisation. When you obscure the truth from your customers, try to put a good face on things and then in the face of system failure simply abandon them to their fate, it’s easy to see why it might take some time for them to trust you again (if ever).

Now granted, while there were many things last week that were well beyond the ability of Connex to control, the things they could control (such as communications) were handled pretty poorly.

It’s great to have a list of cancelled services on your web site, but not everyone can get to that (especially when it crashes). It’s fine to hand out water and icy poles to stranded passengers waiting in 43 degree heat, but that doesn’t get you home.

These are five things that Connex could have done differently:

1. Save the blame game for after the crisis. Trying to blame others (rightly or wrongly) mid-crisis just makes it look like you are trying to duck your responsibility – and when the only time the CEO emerges is to make those accusations, all the worse.

2. You know it’s bad and going to get worse, don’t put a good face on it, fess up and let people know what they might face. Then, it can be their choice what to do next (and don’t leave it to the media representative to deliver the news; if you are the leader you are the leader in good times and bad, so lead!)

3. After the first day Connex had to know it was going to get worse. Be proactive. Put bulletins out on radio and TV and the internet asking people to find alternative means of travel if they can; put on buses to make up the shortfall of services on major routes for people who don’t have an option.

4. Free travel doesn’t mean much when there are no trains; better to let people make other plans and save the free tickets for when things get back to normal. Encouraging people to use the system only adds to the burden. (And yes, I know that the State Government made that call, but Connex should have thought it through and said ‘not now’).

5. Offer to subsidise parking for the duration of crisis (after all you have a monopoly and with that comes responsibility).

It will take some time before customers trust Connex again, and any time the temperature climbs, so will anxiety that another system failure is waiting to happen.

There have been many corporate crisis over the years and how the organisation responds – how quickly and what they say and do – pretty much determines whether their customers stick with them or not. Whether customers maintain any trust is not driven by how you act when things are going well, but by what you do when it all falls apart and can’t get any worse.

Does your organisation step up early or play duck and blame?

See you next week.

Alignment is Michel’s passion. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia, and Brand Alignment Group in the United States, she helps organisations align who they are, with what they do and say to build more authentic and sustainable brands.