Shooting the customer is a bad PR strategy

No matter what business or industry you're in, attacking your customers in the media is never a good strategy. Sounds like common sense, right? Perhaps someone should tell that to Spencer Smith. Mr. Smith is the VP of customer service and communications for Pacific Coastal Airlines, a Vancouver-based, family-owned airline. In the wake of two fatal crashes involving the company's planes, Mr. Smith lashed out at 'hypocrisy from customers' as contributing to the accidents in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail.

"There's some hypocrisy from customers. Everybody says safety is a really important thing up to the moment you tell them they are not going anywhere because the weather is bad."

This isn't exactly the kind of accountability I'm looking for from a business (particularly a business that holds the lives of its customers in their hands as part of their day-to-day operations). To be fair, I suspect that this was probably the most controversial/compelling quote taken from a fairly lengthy interview with Mr. Smith. The bad news for him (and the airline) is that it's the quote that made it into print and reflects poorly on his organization. It's quite possible that he had some very responsible, articulate messages he provided to the reporter. But those messages were left on the cutting room floor when he uttered the words above. A spokesperson doesn't have control over the quotes the reporter ultimately selects for the article. They do, however, have control over what they actually say in the interview. A general rule when answering a reporter's question is to think for five seconds and speak for ten. That five-second 'delay' feature can help you steer clear of situations like this.