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Posts Tagged ‘poor PR’

Saudi Airlines; The Smell of Corruption

06 Jun

It is very low even for a lousy service provider as Saudi Airlines; in a response to the serious accusations of spending more than SAR 5 billion in petty cash; yes, you read it correctly, SAR 5 billion in petty cash, Saudi Airlines, according to this piece of news, decided not to distribute Okaz, the newspaper published the report, on board of its flights!

Not only that, on Sunday evening, a number of Saudia staff appeared on a popular TV show  bashing the company with even more serious accusations. Honestly, this is the first time I ever witness, or at least remember, such a public organization going through such tough scrutiny … in public!

The fact of the matter is that Saudi airlines did not give its observers much of a choice. Its services are deteriorating in a very shocking and alarming pace. I had written several posts about them already, let’s hope they won’t limit access to my blog if they ever provided online access on their flights!

Now, two aspects to this story:

  • Corruption: petty cash should be … you know … petty!!! there is no chance that SAR 5 billion can be considered petty. You can start up new businesses, from scratch, with such amount of money. So there must be something wrong going on. The accusation about the food quality is another disaster. Benefiting on some cash on the side is something, and playing with human well being is another thing altogether. Again and again, the smell of the miserable managerial style within Saudia is smothering us all. The surprising thing is that everyone is smelling it except the huge number of VPs and managers resting in peace on the top of the organization!
  • Transparency: the decision of banning the newspaper because of its report is another miserable example of a low quality management. It is a classical PR failure. However, it should not come as a big surprise. It is not new to find that companies with power use that power to control what is published on the media about them. It is a common practice everywhere in the world to use advertising budgets and alike to color the public image of any organization in the media. It is just good to know that it is widely used in the local market as well. It is really unfortunate to realize that the poorest service providers in the country are the one with the big cash; you know whom I am talking about, right??

Last question before I leave you here, I wonder what the new Saudi Anti-Corruption Commission would do about this?

 
2 Comments

Posted in Communication, Communication, Public Relations, Saudi business

 

Suing a Blog over a Review

04 Feb

Writing a review on your blog talking about your ‘personal’ experience with a company, or a restaurant could drag you to the court if that company or restaurant managers decided that they do not like your ‘personal’ opinions about them. If the lawsuit filed by the franchise restaurant “Benihana” in Kuwait against the blogger of ‘2:48 AM’ got through its course in the legal system, then this could be the first in the Arab world blogosphere, as far as I know at least!

The story started when Mark, the blogger of ‘2:48 AM,’ decided to visit the newly opened restaurant with his wife. Thereafter, he wrote this review on his blog about their experience at the restaurant. Although the management of ‘Benihana’ seem like they do not know a thing about social media and blogs, somehow they managed to reach that review and to them, that was a huge slap on the face. Go ahead and try to read the comments on that post, you will find that number of different people tried to attack Mark and counterattack his reviews. That until you realize through one of Marks replies that he found out that the different names are only one (same IP address) and it seems that it was a move from the management of ‘Benihana’ to shut him up. The story does not end here, when Mark pulled the cover of the multiple names, someone named Mike Servo came along indicating that he is the GM of the company and started harassing Mark by threatening with a legal action. You can find the comment of this so called GM on the same page under the name Mike Servo.

Now, Mark has announced that he was served with a court order (here); so it is official now that people running ‘Benihana’ Kuwait do not know a bit about marketing, customer service, PR, or social media marketing.

The story is now breaking out and it has been reported by many media outlets. Talking about bad publicity, this is what Benihana exactly got. From marketing perspective, I do not think there is a more dreadful mistake than reacting to an unsatisfied customer with an attack. Doing that you will not only lose the customer, but you will lose hundreds of customers who will hear or read about it. It is a bad word of mouth, and a bad social media marketing altogether.

The reaction of the Benihana really amazes me, not because all of the drama in the story, but because it is coming when everyone, on all levels, especially in the Arab world, is starting to realize the power of blogs and social media and how strong its arm could be. It is really a classical, old fashioned, unprofessional, and even a foolish managerial mistake.

Benihana restaurant exists in my city, Jeddah, as well. I am not a big fan of Japanese cuisine myself, but I will make sure to pass a note to all my friends and family members who are into Japanese food. It is unfriendly place, this the image I formed about Benihana, given that I’ve never been there!!

Lastly, the free spirit statement, I do not personally know any one running ‘2:48 AM’ or any one working in Benihana, none of them nor anyone else has influenced this post in anyway. It is all mine :)

p.s. Thanks to Darine Sabbagh, the Lebanese blogger; I found about this story through her post (here) :)

 
2 Comments

Posted in Communication, Customer Service, General Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media

 

GACA; Stating the Obvious

02 Jul

I am not able to understand the strange desire of some organizations to have press coverages or to have press releases when they do not have anything new to say, or when what they have to say is sooooooooo obvious, to say the least!

You want an example; here is one. Freshly coming from GACA (General Authority of Civil Aviation). In this weird press coverage, I failed to come up with any significant new information or any details of useful rules that will make my life easier as a customer of this governmental organization.

Let’s have some highlights:

  • ‘We aim to ensure passenger safety through the implementation of several safety procedures.’
    • Daaah!! Should we become impressed or something? This is one of your main goals, isn’t?
  • He added that passengers often become angry due to flight delays and cancellations during the summer, but this is because they fail to understand that flight activity increases during the summer and that there can be issues with the climate.
    • And this is the worst of them all. We, the customers, fail to understand that flights usually increase during the summer!!! So it is not that travelers via Saudi airports usually suffer from poor services and lack of organization, we are the one who fail to understand!!!
  • “We are cooperating with aviation companies to arrange a limited number of scheduled flights. We will schedule the number of daily flights in each airport. We define the number of flights according to an airport’s lounges, paths and runaways … Our domestic and international airports are equipped with the latest equipment that allows planes to land from very high altitudes and when the vision is poor,” he added.
    • Yeah … Ok … What are you trying to say??? I did not get it?
  • In order to deal with any potential challenges caused by changes in the weather, GACA has signed an agreement with the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment that would see the two bodies collaborating with each other.
    • Please tell me that this is not a NEW agreement!! Haven’t you been dealing with PME before? and you’re just starting now!

This is only a classical example of a PR activity that does not add any value to the organization, actually, it might hurt it. Stating the obvious is not a goal of PR, and insulting customer is certainly not a PR acceptable technique!!!

 
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Posted in Communication, Public Relations

 

The Burning Heat II

25 May

Few days ago I published a post about the heat wave that hit Jeddah in the past week. I’ve commented on the poor PR performance of both the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) and how they’ve engaged in a pointless debate about whether the temperature was 49 °C or it only was 46 °C!!

The exemplary reaction, came from our neighbors in Dubai. According to this piece of news (Arabic), the UAE Ministry of labor has decided to stop any labor outdoor activities between 12:30 to 15:00 for a period of time extended from the mid of June up to the mid of September. The surprising thing, to me at least, is that this decision is in place since 2005! And in this year, the restricted months have been increased to three instead of only two in the pervious years. And those found noncompliant with the ruling will be fined by the government and their working permits would be suspended.

The point is that they were not debating whether the temperature would be this or that, they just tackled the main point of the whole subject and they acted accordingly. Again, for SEC and PME, please focus on your own missions and make sure you are providing your services in exemplary means.

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It seems that the Saudi ministry of labor followed course and decided to ban working under the sun from 12 PM to 3 PM starting July through the end of August but it is not effective immediately, it is to start on 2011! (the news here). This is good news , but why 2011 and not now; Allah only knows!!

 
2 Comments

Posted in Public Relations, Saudi business

 

The Burning Heat

21 May

From: http://www.al-madina.com

The past couple of days were ‘hot’ in Jeddah, and I mean that literally! And what got things really hotter is the debate between the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the rest of us, Jeddaweis (people from Jeddah.)

SEC claimed that it had major power cutoffs in Jeddah because of the unusual temperature that reached 49 °C. The PME, feeling that SEC just stepped on their speciality came out and said “No … No … It was never 49, it was only 46 °C. (read here, in Arabic)

Now let’s talk business:

  • To SEC, please do not try to blame the weather for your poor performance, I am not sure anybody is buying that. Let’s say that it was really 49 °C … so what??? It is not like you are operating the network from Alaska or anything!! So the summary of the message is: the poor PR performance of trying to cover failures by ‘not so smart’ justifications is not acceptable, that’s beside SEC apparently poor contingency and back up plans to deal with the ‘more than expected’ heat this summer, and please note, we are not summer yet!
  • To PME, your response was like saying ‘do not exaggerate people, hey … it’s only 46 °C.’ We would’ve really appreciate showing some feelings for us, the Jeddaweis who felt that burning heat to the bone! Or even better, you could’ve sent messages to some companies to take some kind of measures to protect their field workers. So the summary of the message is: when you do not have a good PR to share with the rest of us, it is much better to keep it in your drawers and not to play smart on us!

 
7 Comments

Posted in Public Relations