Service Recovery

Essay by sush1234University, Master'sA-, August 2014

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

With this month's downing of MH17 and the March disappearance of MH370, it seems that if Malaysia Airlines didn't have bad luck, it wouldn't have any luck at all. Malaysia Airline's recent tragedies have indelibly stained the reputation of an airline that has one of the best safety records in the world. Until this year, Malaysia Airlines had experienced only two fatal accidents in 68 years of operation. In fact, the last 19 years have been fatality-free. And the airline regularly receives stellar marks for service and comfort from airline ratings agency Skytrax.

The issue has been aggravated with the loss of consumer confidence compounding the company's ongoing financial troubles. It is incredibly rare for two catastrophic events to happen to the same airline in such a short period of time, but that's how things shape up when things are not going your way.

In crisis management, they call it the "black swan" - an event that is extremely rare but has enormous consequences.

As major revival plans are considered for Malaysia Airlines after its second "black swan" in four months, it can regain the trust of passengers by service recovery of these service failures. The airline was losing money even before the disappearance of MH370 in March, but the shooting down of MH17 over eastern Ukraine has caused an unparalleled blow and taken it into unchartered territory. Now it's expected only drastic measures will be able to secure the survival of the troubled airline, with turnaround options tipped to be presented this week. Their inept response to the first failure (MH 370) brought a storm of criticism from family members and the public. Spokespeople gave out inconsistent or late bulletins; families received painful news via text message.

Key problems that were there which needed to be addressed for a...