Don't attack them when they're down...
Even by the standards of the travel industry last week was a
tumultuous one. As I write, Thomas
Cook’s share price is trading at 67 having been at 200 in January, and Gill’s
Cruise Centre is officially no longer trading at all, having been sold on as part
of a pre-pack administration deal.
On the face of it these two events appear to be unconnected;
Thomas Cook a victim of the Arab Spring, with demand for their charter based
holidays in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco negatively impacted by political
events in the region; Gill’s thrown off course by an expensive relocation to
central London and then struggling to come to terms with the commission
reductions recently announced by major cruise lines.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had major players experiencing
difficulties - think of Airtours and Cruise Control - but it is the first time
it’s happened in the era of social media.
If you were on Twitter at the weekend you may have seen Thomas Cook
trending in the UK
Inevitably not all on-line comment was positive but
strangely, the really negative stuff was to be found on the feedback sections of
the on-line travel press. Every news
update – and there many last week – was met with a barrage of aggressive,
argumentative comments, with many in the industry seeing this as an opportunity
to fire off some firmly worded criticisms.
A few people expressed sympathy for their staff, but Gill’s
in particular found itself on the wrong end of some nasty attacks. Forget relocation strategies and commission
cuts, the view here was that there were only two things to blame for Gill’s
problems – excessive discounting and poor service. ‘Discounting is the road to ruin’ someone
commented. ‘Serves them right’ said another.
‘No sympathy here’ posted someone else, and ‘I can’t wait for others to
go bust’. In the rush to score a few
points it seemed to be all too easy to forget that people were losing their
jobs.
Discounting might not be the strategy of choice for many in
the travel industry but it is a legitimate strategy, and it doesn’t follow
automatically that it has to be accompanied by poor service. Many other retailing sectors have businesses
that thrive as the discount leaders; in fact in many sectors these are the very
businesses that are most celebrated (think Wal-Mart, and Primark). John Lewis readily combines price leadership
(Never Knowingly Undersold) with great customer care.
Whatever the reasons behind the problems facing Thomas Cook
and Gills last week, I have absolutely no doubt that the people there do their
jobs professionally and to the very best of their ability - just like the rest
of us. It does the industry no credit to
attack them when they are down.
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