Dear Liat...

Dear Liat,

Your response to Richard Branson highlighting the customer complaint letter your company received was your opportunity to turn bad press around and put fortune in your favour. Instead, you took a 'comedic' and somewhat trivial approach to challenge Virgin Airlines while brushing your customer off. 

The Caribbean responded to your PR challenge in shock and embarrassment. I agree. That 'challenge' was the best example of what not to do in a public relations campaign. In smart and due fashion, you have removed these response videos and alas, you still have ONE last chance to turn things around. 

Your challenge to Richard Branson should have run something more like this:

Hi Richard,

Thank you for marketing us to the world. For that we’re entirely grateful. Now, we want to propose a challenge to you. After this video please tell us: Who had the better customer service: LIAT  or Virgin?

Dear Mr. Hicks:

We sincerely apologize that your flying experience with us did not simply take you from point A to B.  We agree that our high standards of our services were not met in this instance. As you probably already know, our market stretches from The Dominican Republic in the North to Guyana in South America and we are the reliable link that brings the Caribbean Region together. LIAT has pioneered many of the Caribbean destinations and its brand has now become a household name. To prevent re-occurrences we have set up a few modifications to our system. And while we continue a full investigation of this occurrence, we invite you to fly complimentary on LIAT for the next 6 months. We truly value your time with us so we hope to create new memories that override your previous experience.

To all of our valued customers:

We have several upcoming initiatives to improve our services and brand as a whole. In the upcoming weeks we will be re-branding these are exciting times. We have begun the upgrade of our fleet to AR 72-600 cargo and by 2014 we expect to have a total of 12. In addition, you’ve asked for it and we’ve listened, our loyalty program is on the cusp of its launch. We look forward to improving. Thank you for being on this journey with us.

PS. I would be the perfect addition to your re-branding and future public relations campaigns.

What are your thoughts on Liat's response to its customer and the challenge to Richard Branson?
Sound off below.


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