Don't Deliver Bad News like Delta

It is critically important for leaders to think about how the audience will react to their messaging. In this case, Delta customers were not fooled.

By Steve Moran

I just got an email from Delta Airlines titled “Your Upcoming Travel – Refreshed Product Names And New Experiences.”

The title made me think, “they are trying to sell me something, meaning get money from me, by providing extra value for my upcoming trip.”

Here is what the email said …

“For your upcoming trip booked with us, you may notice that things look a little different as we roll out refreshed product names and new experiences. While your current reservation won't be impacted by these changes, you may see us using new names to refer to your current ticket within email communications, delta.com and on the Fly Delta app. These are name changes only and do not affect our signature in-flight service.”

It turns out that this email is simply a warning that when I see new options and new names, they have created new ways to maximize the ways they can extract more dollars from customers. They use the term “New Experiences” in such a way that the reader might reasonably think, “Cool, something for me.” This is not true. It is all about something for Delta.

Don’t Get Me Wrong

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with raising prices. It is something that companies do frequently, particularly during times of economic transition. But bad news for the audience should never be portrayed as good news or a benefit when it is not.

It would have been so much better for them to be upfront about what they are doing and why.

Something like …

“We find ourselves in a situation where our margins are shrinking, which means we need to take some action. In order to do it as fairly as possible, here is what we are doing.

Then, as a bonus, they could, for at least some tiers, offer real increased value, which would make it better for everyone.

Messaging

Whether talking to customers, team members, or the marketplace, the words and images we use are going to be interpreted by the recipient. They are going to read meaning into them and come to conclusions about what they read and heard.

It is critically important for leaders to think about how the audience will react to their messaging. In this case, Delta customers were not fooled. They understood exactly what Delta was really saying, but in trying to put lipstick on a pig, they destroyed an element of trust that existed between Delta and its customers.

Trust is a fragile and important thing that takes a long time to create and can be damaged or destroyed with a single email.