August 31, 2007 10:36 am : Comments 000
As originally posted on Strumpette.com on August 29, 2007.
Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Words Can Really Hurt You
I recently had drinks with a very prominent journalist – never mind his name, trust me, he’s a biggie – who made a rather remarkable admission: “I rarely give interviews to reporters and when I do it’s always via email because I want a paper trail of exactly what I said. Reporters never get it right.” He then went on to tell me about a colleague of his who staunchly believes that the only time you should talk to a reporter is when you are promoting a book.
Encouraging, eh?
That conversation was in the back of my head the other day when I saw an article in the New York Observer about Joanne Lipman, the embattled editor of the much-hyped new business magazine Portfolio, and again while reading New York magazine’s current piece on Matt Drudge. Neither journalist, of course realizing they were in the crosshairs, granted a verbal interview. “Ms. Lipman would only respond to questions by e-mailing a statement,” the Observer noted in its article, and the other one talks about how the reporter tried unsuccessfully to get in contact with Mr. Drudge for the piece.
If there’s a kernel of truth to the journalism tenet that three makes a trend, then it is worth noting that at least that many of the best and the brightest journalists prefer to interact with their professional brethren by keeping their mouths shut and their typing fingers busy, at least when the news isn’t pretty.
Once considered the avenue of last resort because of questionable “optics,” written statements are clawing their way up the hierarchy of preferred responses when a crisis strikes. The Internet can be thanked/blamed for this shift, which some may consider an about-face in how best to deal with a crisis from a media relations perspective. Savvy PR folks, not wanting to entrust their crisis response messages to reporters who may or not use them in totality or in proper context, are increasingly capturing the opportunity the Internet presents to appeal directly to important audiences with the right details presented the right way at the right time.
Of course, there are times when it is better to simply not participate at all when a reporter is known to be working on a negative article. While there may be an initial knee-jerk response to attempt damage control by granting an interview request when you know a harmful story is in the works, it takes a seasoned professional to recognize when the potential cost outweighs the potential benefit, when doing so only serves to “feed the beast” and makes the bad situation grow.
A classic example of that scenario would be the disastrous Katie Couric article that New York magazine ran a few weeks ago. I am not privy to what went on behind the scenes or what (and whose) thought process led to her sitting down with that reporter, but I’m guessing some part of it included the hopeful notion that they could halt or at least slow down her sliding popularity and program ratings by giving a candid interview where she showed more of the personal “Today” Katie and less of the rigid “CBS Evening News” Katie. Essentially, they hoped it would remind people of the good ol’ days when she reigned the airwaves and our hearts. Instead, she came off rather disconnected and -like, which was the last thing she needed in the wake of the embarrassing blog plagiarism incident.
Ms. Lipman clearly understands the value of knowing when to hold your tongue. Although the Observer cites countless unnamed Machiavellian staffers apparently bent on destroying her, Ms. Lipman chose not to speak to the reporter. I suspect Ms. Lipman knew full well that she invariably would have been on the defensive had she granted an interview and ultimately provided more fodder and legitimacy for what almost certainly was a negative article. It is my hope that the unpleasant personal experience might make Ms. Lipman more reluctant in the future to allow her writers the generous use of unnamed sources to malign the magazine’s profile subjects.
John Mackey, the CEO of organic grocer Whole Foods, is another person who seems to understand the value of not participating in a story. If you look at the critical page-one story the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) ran in connection with the FTC leak about Mr. Mackey’s questionable business-related online posts using an alias, it’s hard to see how he could have possibly helped his cause by granting the Wall Street Journal reporters an interview. I doubt Mr. Mackey could have said anything that would have ultimately improved the tone or tenor of that article. The same can be said for Mr. Drudge and the New York magazine feature. Indeed, without Mr. Mackey’s cooperation, the Journal’s profile of Mr. Mackey overall was rather benign. And as for Mr. Drudge’s profile, I couldn’t help but feel a certain degree of compassion and sympathy for him, though I’m fairly certain that wasn’t the reporter’s intent.
Of course prolonged or absolute “radio silence” rarely – if ever – is advisable in a corporate crisis. Stakeholders rightfully demand information and corporate accountability when things go wrong. How best to serve those needs depends, as always, on the particulars of the situation. At Whole Foods, they astutely opted to address the alias brouhaha in a controlled public forum – its own website. Similarly, Brandweek reports that Mattel refers reporters working on toy recall stories to statements on the company’s website. Both companies clearly realize that sometimes there is simply too much at stake to “outsource” message delivery to a reporter who may or may not agree with your position on the most salient details.
Worth noting is a comment Mr. Mackey made in a Fortune Q&A published in the July issue (presumably conducted before the FTC leak): “The great thing about blogging is that I don’t need you journalists to interpret me anymore.”
Hmmm� I wonder what Ms. Lipman and Mr. Drudge would have to say about that. I suspect I already have a good idea how Ms. Couric feels about blogging these days.
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August 29, 2007 7:03 am : Comments 001
What Makes the Tail Grow?
There was an interesting story in The Wall Street Journal yesterday about the search engine optimization (SEO) industry. The article used simple language to give concise, straightforward pointers without going overboard with the technical details. Overall, a recommended read for anyone who regularly creates content for the web.
There was one pretty major point that didn’t really get covered though: How do you choose the right terms to get the right traffic. While it is all well and good to go by their easy-to-follow steps for optimizing your content, you won’t get very far if you haven’t made the right choices with respect to your search terms. In fact, you might have a hard time seeing the results at all.
When counseling our clients, the one concept I emphasize more than any other is the idea of the “Long Tail“. The term Long Tail was coined (or perhaps capitalized and made popular) in a Wired magazine article in 2004 by Chris Anderson. In search engine optimization, it refers to the notion that, while a lot of people may start off searching for one common term, they keep refocusing their term to be more specific until they find the results they desire. If you can optimize for these less-obvious terms, the amount of searchers lessens exponentially but the actual traffic you get goes up (and most likely the traffic will be a higher quality with more turnover).
For example, optimizing your site for “Public Relations” may sound like a good idea at first if you want to be sure people looking to work at or hire a public relations firm in the city can find you. Chances are you will change your mind when you Google that term for yourself and see the ocean of results amongst which you will be swimming.
Given the imprecision of the “Public Relations” search term, it is going to be rather hard to get your site to rank well – and if you don’t rank well for that term, you won’t get any traffic at all from your effort. On top of that, even if you do rank well and get a lot of traffic, most of that traffic won’t be particularly useful to you anyway because the searcher stumbled onto your site by searching too broadly and most probably isn’t really looking for what you have to offer. That’s not to suggest that you shouldn’t bother optimizing for the broad “Public Relations” term. After all, it could still bring in some useful traffic. Just don’t waste too much time on it.
For example, consider how you will narrow down search results if you optimize for “New York Public Relations Firm“. Now that you have honed in tighter, a much higher percentage of searchers coming to your site will be the right ones, people actually looking for your services. This idea could be carried further with terms like “New York Public Relations Firm Website Design” or “New York Public Relations Firm Blogging” as examples. And with less competition for the term, you have a better chance of obtaining a high search rank.
The goal is to try to find the right combination of select terms that the people you target would likely search under, but that not every site out there would already be optimized for.
Tools
There are a ton of tools out there for the purposes of search engine optimization and a lot that can help you decide on quality terms, but I am only going to mention a few basic ones.
The omnipotent Google has a great free Keyword Tool to help determine good terms built into their adwords program. It allows you to see how many searches are done for a term in a month and how many people are buying ads for that term, so you can weigh the two together and ideally find good terms where the ratio is in favor of the number of searches. This is not the end-all determinate by any means, but a good first step. Google also has their Google Trends site that shows you search trends for terms over a period of time which can be very educational in this process as well.
The Overture (now “a Yahoo! company”) Keyword Selector Tool is a simple, classic, and easy-to-use tool for gauging the popularity of a term. Once you determine popular terms, you can then search for them to get a sense of the competition, how other sites are optimizing for your choice terms, and then determine whether you have a shot at a strong ranking if you use that term yourself.
Both of these tools are a great start. An added feature – which admittedly can be overwhelming at first – is that they both suggest other related terms to the one you are using. A third all-in-one tool that is not free is Wordtracker. I have mixed feelings about this site. It does help you quickly come up with information from one source; however, the interface is boggey and not very friendly and they use unintuitive terminology which can be extremely confusing. They also like to split up terms based on capitalization, which I find complicates things even more.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and your website won’t end up on the front page of Google tomorrow either. An important first step to creating the traffic you’re looking for is to put some thought into the menu of terms that will bring people to your site. Spending the time to do your homework at the beginning to figure out these terms can pay out huge in the long run. Good luck!
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August 24, 2007 1:29 pm : Comments 007
Well, it turns out Jackie’s faith in Sir Richard Branson and Virgin America was not misplaced after all. I was pretty underwhelmed when I flew out on Virgin America to San Francisco a week ago, but she told me to give them time to work out the opening day kinks and wait until the second flight before passing judgment. I wasn’t expecting a sea-change in a week, but I promised to go to the airport with a somewhat open mind.
But now that I’m back in NYC, I’m singing a bit of a different tune. Make no mistake, Virgin America is still working on its technology issues and my flight was anything but uneventful. But the airline’s handling of the problems that arose is a textbook example of how public relations and employee empowerment can garner strong brand loyalty even in the face of adversity.
Let’s start at check-in. In terms of professionalism, polish, friendliness and efficiency, the Virgin America staff at the San Francisco airport ran circles around their counterparts at Kennedy, as did the security staff at the international terminal where the airline is based. I was at the departure gate within 15 minutes or so of my arrival at the airport. 15 minutes. That’s unheard of at Kennedy.
My flight pushed away from the gate as scheduled at 8:55 a.m. My hopes of an on-time arrival were quickly dashed when, after 25 minutes on the tarmac, the pilot announced that we had to return to the gate because of a “computer problem.” Ten minutes later, we learned that we would be taking a different plane east and, upon pulling up to the gate, were asked to gather our belongings and return to the terminal. Rather than feel annoyed at the inconvenience, I think the general consensus was largely neutral. Many people, myself included, were thinking more along the lines of “well, at least they made the decision quickly and didn’t have us sit out here for a few hours while they tinkered under the hood.”
Apologies for the unexpected delay were offered by the pilot as we taxied back and by the flight crew as we deplaned. In addition, within minutes – literally minutes – of deplaning, everyone was given a $10 food voucher for any restaurant in the airport. Flight attendants worked quickly to join the terminal-based Virgin America representatives scribbling out the vouchers. And, whereas most airlines in a similar circumstance would instruct you for their convenience to stay by the gate to await reboarding instructions, the Virgin America representatives told us that it would take at least 45 minutes to transfer the luggage onto another plane, so we should feel free to roam around for that long.
Virgin had us back on board in just over an hour. After another round of apologies, we were immediately informed that we could choose a free in-flight movie, a free drink (which I presume was an alcoholic beverage), or a free meal to further compensate for our inconvenience. Regretfully, several of the in-seat entertainment systems were on the fritz but, as the plane wasn’t full, the flight attendants did a masterful job moving people around so that people who wanted to use the entertainment system were able to do so. I did learn later that a technician was on board troubleshooting problems (my flight to San Francisco also was plagued with technology problems).
There were four (maybe five) flight attendants working my flight, but two of them – Michael and Sean – really impressed me with their professionalism and attentiveness. They walked through the plane with a certain aplomb and air of confidence that suggested a level of experience far exceeding the two weeks that Virgin America has been airborne. My instincts proved correct: Michael formerly worked at American Airlines and Sean worked at United. The former is also involved in recruiting other flight attendants for Virgin America, which bodes well for us passengers. He’s set a very high bar for new employees to emulate.
Virgin doesn’t offer a lot of blockbuster movie choices on its in-flight center, but I was really impressed to see that it offers some wonderful indie films including “Waitress” and “The Lives of Others“. If you haven’t seen these films, I highly recommend them.
When we landed at Kennedy more than two-and-half hours late, the pilot issued what was definitely a heartfelt apology. It wasn’t the tired, scripted “we know you have a choice of carriers” drivel but rather blunt acknowledgement that some people were less than impressed by our inauspicious start in San Francisco. The words were simple and straight-forward: “We know we failed to meet your expectations and we hope you will give us another chance.” One of the flight attendants then announced we would be receiving vouchers for $30 off on our next Virgin America flight. The gesture was definitely appreciated: I heard the woman behind me say to her seatmate: “I’m going to write a letter complimenting the airline on how they’ve handled this.”
Without question, Virgin America was only handing out the freebies because they screwed up. But fair is fair: Airlines should make amends when their mishaps inconvenience their passengers. But as any frequent flyer knows, that’s rarely the case. It usually takes hours of thumb-twiddling on the tarmac or arguing with the right supervisor with your voice at an ever-increasing decibel level before they’ll pull out the free voucher book for anything. Even the decision to return a plane to the gate seems one not to be entered into lightly if myriad news reports in the last year are to be believed. But not Virgin America – they wasted no time in placating the disappointed masses, earning the respect and appreciation of at least this one traveler.
By comparison, I flew business class to San Francisco on American Airlines a year ago and the airline lost my luggage. I didn’t receive any apologies, much less a discount coupon for a future flight or even a glass of water! I flew on Northwest from San Francisco to New York in June and my luggage was seriously damaged. We’re not talking a little wear and tear here. When I reported the damage, the Northwest employee just kept to the script, repeating in a mantra-like fashion something to the effect that under international aviation rules airlines are not responsible for damage to luggage. No apology, no coupon, no compassion.
I’m confident that Virgin will ultimately work out its in-flight technology problems (though I remain skeptical of its decision to outsource its reservation system technology and would probably advise CIO Bill Maguire at this point to wait until he can prove that the IT patchwork quilt he’s sewn together actually works before boasting about it to the media). Various employees I have spoken with told me that the airline launched before it was quite ready, but thought it best to get airborne on schedule in light of the myriad regulatory delays and hurdles it was forced to clear.
Virgin America appears determined to adhere to a much higher standard of performance and service, and I cannot help but suspect that if Sir Richard could operate the airline unfettered by regulatory restraints, including foreign ownership rules that ban him from taking more than a 25% stake, the airline would probably aspire to an even higher standard. Unlike American, United, Delta, and Northwest, Virgin America actually gives a damn about its customers (or “guests” as it prefers to call them). I’d fly the airline for that reason alone.
When I emailed Jackie from the San Francisco terminal between planes to let her know what had happened, her response was “Of all the flights it had to happen to, of course it would be yours” thinking, logically, that I’d be so turned off by the one-two punch of my two problem flights on Virgin America that I would be forever anti-Virgin America. But because they handled the curveballs thrown at them with such deftness and with such consideration of their core audience – us passengers – I am far more impressed and more favorably inclined toward the Virgin America outfit than I would be had my flight home gone without the hiccups.
And that, my friends, is called turning lemons into lemonade, reputation management style.
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August 22, 2007 7:36 am : Comments 000
Wordpress and Me
A long, long time ago, on an internet far, far away called “2005″, I began developing with Wordpress. I had started messing around a year earlier with Greymatter, which had been originally developed by Noah Grey and was a pretty slick piece of software if you didn’t want to use a database. I had limited experience with databases at-the-time and ended up feeling a strong need to avoid them. I was also avoiding Movable Type, because of its free license limitations; I wasn’t about to make any investments until I had tinkered with enough of them to insightfully size up their plusses and minuses.
Soon enough, two things became overwhelmingly apparent:
- Greymatter was done. Noah had pretty much abandoned it and the community had taken over, but there was not a lot of action going on. Also, as I got further along, having to rebuild every single file on the site got fairly tiresome fairly quickly.
- Wordpress was an emerging standard for blogging software. It turned out I wasn’t the only one less than impressed by Movable Type. Plenty of prominent web developers and bloggers began migrating to Wordpress.
And so I installed Wordpress 1.5 on my server and plunged into the world of databases…
My first attempt at a client blog came after pushing and pulling themes and generally learning as I went along. In hindsight, I was lucky to start off with 1.5, as the then-newly developed theme system was unbelievably easy to use. It has only gotten better in the 2.x iterations… well, for the most part.
It didn’t take long to realize just how powerful Wordpress is for a developer. Despite being a relative newcomer to databases, I quickly went from integrating Wordpress-driven blogs into html sites to converting html sites over to be completely driven by Wordpress. Using Wordpress as a content management system (CMS) was making my whole process better and eventually faster.
Before Wordpress, I had been using Macromedia Contribute (Now Adobe of course) to work with clients on updating content. It was easy enough to use and seemed sufficient, but it always felt to me like a bit of a hack. It had a tendency to rely on some ugly code and, without a lot of extra work, tended to be very limiting to a site’s design. Web Standards was all the talk at the time and I had been trying to keep within that mindset because it didn’t take long to see how much better a site was to build and manage with Web Standards applied.
Still Swearing By Wordpress
Two years later, Wordpress and I are like this (see picture).
One of the most important reasons I stuck by it is that I know it. I know it really well. At this point, I have a lot of custom functions and plugins that I have developed for Wordpress that give me a lot of extra functionality, decrease my development time, and generally make my life easier (I am working on getting some of these ready for release in the next couple weeks).
Also, the Wordpress community is a thriving and creative one. Developers are constantly coming up with new plugins and scripts to be used with Wordpress and the forums are enormously handy. The documentation is generally excellent as well, although the deeper you get, the more shadowed things can become.
And Wordpress is fast. I worked with Drupal for a little while, because I kept hearing that it was the only way to properly manage content online. However, I found out the hard way that Drupal has horrible documentation and the community isn’t always as helpful as you might like. More than a few times I would see a Drupal developer respond with something like, “I don’t understand why you are having trouble… Drupal is so easy to use.” Umm, no, actually it isn’t. Of course, the vast majority of the people saying this weren’t exactly developing sites that couldn’t be managed with a simpler interface. My feeling was that there weren’t a lot of people in the community that could truly use Drupal to its fullest potential, and a lot of those who could were busy or offered expensive seminars. Drupal is best described as a content management creation tool, which is to say that it is more about creating a CMS from scratch than it is about being a CMS. In comparison, Wordpress allows users to go from designed to developed to live in a pretty short period of time, which is a rather significant advantage.
Oh yes – and Wordpress is free. At that price, how can you say no? Truth be told, there is quite a lot out there now in the way of respectable, free content management systems and blogging software (Drupal included). The appreciatory donation to help fund your favorite ones aside, there’s really no practical reason to have to pay for any of it.
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August 20, 2007 3:17 pm : Comments 000
Welcome to the latest iteration of StarkmanAssociates.com. The redesign has been in the cards for a while, but as most people in the business of creating websites for others have probably already experienced, finding the time to manage your own website can be pretty rough. Your own communication needs often get back-burnered by those of clients – and rightfully so. After months of development behind the scenes, we are finally up-and-running with our new layout and new built-in functionality.
We received a lot of great feedback on our earlier version (thanks to the S&A creative team led at the time by Dao Tran, who is now admirably serving with the Peace Corps in Macedonia). So why go through a complete overhaul?
As the new creative director at S&A, you could partially blame me. I came in last year with thoughts on a redesign and update from square-one. It was a classic case of wanting to make a mark and change things right away. Fortunately, I sat back and reconsidered my pace after examining the feedback we were getting. After all, “don’t fix what ain’t broke,” right? So I put ego aside and tabled the site redesign until making changes made strategic sense for S&A rather than just its Creative Director.
So I focused on the clients and their needs. We had been working for some time with clients to develop and manage their online presence from several angles, including those specific to Blogging and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As we have told client after client, when done correctly, blogs can be of considerable value to an organization looking to create a more personal dialogue with targeted audiences. Blogs can drive website traffic, boost search engine rankings, and grant customers, clients, employees and other key groups enhanced access to you in a way that is more familiar, less mediated, and more timely than other forms of corporate communications. While a traditional website typically tells people what you and your company do, a blog can show them how and what you think, especially when used to demonstrate expertise on a subject or present a point of view on an issue that is important to your constituents.
It eventually became clear that S&A needed to “walk the talk” and create a site for ourselves that incorporated the functionality we had long been advocating for clients. We needed a site with the advanced features we were already building for clients, such as a content management system (CMS) that would allow us to easily update a blog. We also wanted to be sure the site was primed for heavier search engine optimization to facilitate the blog’s readiness for all the attention we wanted it to receive.
So we scrapped everything and decided to start from scratch, keeping some key issues in mind. While we wanted the flashy new content management system and a blog, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t lose focus on the experience of our visitors. The compliments we received time and time again about the previous version of the site were that the content was cleanly written and the navigations were straight-forward and easy-to-use. We wanted to preserve that focus on usability.
What we set out to build in the end was a site that:
- Maintains a high on-screen readability
- Has a straight forward flow that keeps a user from feeling lost
- Is better equipped to manage our content and search engine friendly
- All with a massive amount more functionality than the old site
We are pretty excited about the results and are looking forward to where this new site will take us.
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August 16, 2007 2:31 pm : Comments 003
Diary of Flight VX0238, Seat 1F
6:25 a.m.
I was quite excited when I arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to catch Virgin America’s transcontinental flight to San Francisco. Admittedly, I was also relieved that I made it in time. I must confess, I’m one of those guys who can’t seem to help but get to the airport at the last possible minute.
My expectations entering the terminal are pretty high. After all, the Virgin Atlantic flight I flew from London many years ago was decidedly the most fun I’ve ever had on a jetliner. What impressed me most was the enthusiasm of the flight attendants. There was a palpable esprit de corps and obvious pride they shared in wearing the Virgin Atlantic uniform. Their happy vibe was absolutely contagious. My partner Jackie, who flies Virgin Atlantic regularly and whose opinions I truly value and respect, still swears by that airline so I’m assuming nothing’s changed.
So back to JFK. It became apparent fairly quickly that I set my expectations a little too high. In fairness, I guess I was looking to replicate my earlier Virgin Atlantic experience simply because of the Branson connection. Even though I know Virgin America is not supposed to be a luxury brand, I must have been subconsciously expecting the proverbial champagne and caviar treatment.
Approaching the counter, it was clear that Virgin America was having more technology problems. The airline’s computers and printers were malfunctioning and a fair-size line still needed to be processed before we were due to depart in less than 30 minutes. Fortunately, I treated myself to a first-class ticket priced at a ridiculously low fare of just under $530 so my wait was less than five minutes. I was a bit taken aback when the woman checking me in apologizes for the delay (an airline employee offering an apology, what a concept).
I expected Virgin America’s check-in agents to be full of energy and enthusiasm and priming passengers for the “Virgin America experience.” Instead, they seemed poorly trained and overwhelmed.
6:35 a.m.
Flying first or business class is a rare perk for me – I only get to do it on the extremely (strong emphasis on extremely) rare occasions when American Airlines lets me use my miles to upgrade on my fairly regular flights to California. One of the best perks flying premium class is the express line through security. Unfortunately, the first class line is closed this morning, but no bother. It takes less than 15 minutes to clear security.
6:52 a.m.
I arrive at Gate 31 and give my ticket to the agent. I’m surprised by her general indifference and cannot help but suspect she once worked at one of the legacy airlines.
6:53 a.m.
I board the plane. Oh, pretty lights. Virgin America planes have what is known as mood lighting, which changes according to the time of day. We start off with a kind of neon blue, which makes me think about disco for some reason.
Finding my seat, I take off my sport’s jacket but there is no place to hang it up. “We still haven’t solved our closet problem,” explains Josue, the first-class flight attendant.
My white leather seat seems smaller than the business class seats on the 767s American Airlines uses on most of its California flights, but my spatial perception could be skewed because the man sitting next to me is bigger than me. I check out the massage function, but it is either broken or has such negligible pressure that it offers no value or relief. Then again, perhaps the feature simply isn’t active during the boarding process.
4:10 a.m. (I’ve switched to Pacific Coast Time)
An agent gets on the loudspeaker to announce the flight has been delayed because of a “personnel problem” that has been dealt with and says we will be moving shortly. Gee, I hope one of the pilots hasn’t been misbehaving.
4:15 a.m.
Alan, one of the pilots comes out from the cockpit, stands in front of the plane with a handset, and announces that our flying time will be five hours and some twenty minutes. He seems a tad awkward making the announcement standing in front of the plane; I later learn he is just a soft-spoken guy.
4:19 a.m.
We push off from the gate and are airborne in minutes. No gridlock at JFK? This is a first for me.
4:30 a.m.
I’m trying to figure out how to use all the technology my seat comes equipped with, but I can’t get my left armrest to close. Josue tries to help, but to no avail.
4:37 a.m.
Eureka! I fixed the armrest. I wonder if this is the first known instance when an airplane maintenance problem was outsourced to an airborne passenger.
5:00 a.m.
It’s breakfast time. We have a choice of French Toast or Scrambled Eggs. I take a pass on both. Josue then offers shrimp or some mini fruit balls served in a small plastic cup. (Shrimp for breakfast? That’s a new one for me.)
6:45 a.m.
I’ve needed to use the restroom for quite some time, but there has been a steady stream of passengers waiting to use the facilities. No signs of class struggle here; anyone can use lavatory at the front of the cabin.
While waiting for the lavatory, I chat with Josue. I haven’t seen much of him so far this flight and he explains why. Although he is only supposed to work the first class cabin, he was asked to help out in economy. There are only two people working back there, but Josue says they really could use a third.
Jackie had mentioned that Virgin America had a “name our planes” contest, so I ask Josue if he knows the name of our plane. He thought it was “California Dreaming”, but he wasn’t certain. He later tells me he learned that our aircraft has not yet been named.
7:15 a.m.
Normally when I get on a plane I fall asleep within 20 minutes of boarding. For reasons unknown to me, I have remained remarkably alert. I wonder if the air quality is somewhat better on this flight. If it is, they should make it one of their selling points.
7:30 a.m.
I’m having trouble figuring out how to use all the functions on my entertainment system, but am reluctant to immediately page Josue. Full disclosure: I’m not what you would call technically adept, so my difficulty probably has more to do with me than the system.
There are 15 radio channels to choose from, but I can’t quite decipher their classifications. I’m at a loss to explain “M Pop,” but it features some delightful Asian music. There are play lists from dozens of artists to choose from, ranging from Bob Dylan to Daft Punk (a band I’ve never heard of but suspect they don’t play folk rock). The fellow next to me seems to be having the time of his life making play lists, but I’m happy just listening to my iPod. Browsing, I see that there are some wonderful movies to choose from, including one of the best films I’ve seen in recent memory – “The Lives of Others.”
The best feature of all: The USB outlet on the right side of my seat. Having booted up more than two hours ago, my laptop battery would normally have died by now.
8:30 a.m.
I need to stretch my legs and opt to stroll to the back of the plane. I’m surprised at the limited legroom between the seats in coach, which I will be flying on my return flight home next week. The seats are as close, or possibly even closer, than American Airlines’ coach seats. I’m disappointed to see they are reclining seats, a common feature from the days when there was considerably more room between seats. I would argue that the additional comfort a person derives from putting their seat back is far outweighed by the discomfort the person behind them experiences because of their newfound cramped quarters and lost leg room.
8:35 a.m.
I strike up a conversation with another flight attendant. He tells me the aircraft we are on has had all sorts of issues with the in-flight entertainment system. Entire rows have lost their power, making for some rather disgruntled passengers given that the entertainment system is one of Virgin America’s selling features.
10:00 a.m.
We have already begun our descent. We are going to land on time, maybe even a couple of minutes early.
10:25 a.m.
I strike up a conversation with the guy next to me; he has quite enjoyed his flight. A larger man, he said he is not as comfortable sitting in coach and said that he found today’s first class seat more than adequate. Enjoying our conversation, I forget to record the actual landing time, but I believe we arrived a few minutes before we were scheduled to do so.
10:29: a.m.
Goofing around in the office on Tuesday, Jackie dared me to pocket everything I can find with the Virgin America logo on it. So, when the opportunity arose as we were leaving the plane, I asked co-pilot Alan if he might have a pair of plastic captain’s wings. He doesn’t, but offers to help me find something else with a Virgin America logo on it. We walk into the airport together.
I’m impressed with how much Alan loves working for Virgin America. He previously worked at a regional carrier I’ve never heard of and had applied to work at Virgin America as soon as he heard about it. He says the airline is truly committed to offering customers a wonderful flying experience.
I mention to Alan the seats in economy seemed as close, and maybe even closer, than on the legacy airlines. Alan doesn’t know the dimensions, but said that because Virgin’s seats are considerably thinner, there is less lost leg room when they decline. I mention that the air quality on the plane seemed considerably better and another passenger from the flight standing nearby offers that he was thinking the same thing. The passenger then went off on a tangent about how dirty JetBlue planes are and how much he preferred Virgin America. I found out later that that same passenger received a free voucher for another Virgin America flight because his in-flight entertainment system wasn’t working.
By the way, Alan said he doesn’t know why the air quality seemed so much better except perhaps it was a new plane.
11:40
I arrive at baggage claim and, voila, there’s my luggage. Even though I was delayed getting to the carousel by my chat with Alan and a subsequent call back to the office, I am surprised at how few bags remain from my flight. It seems like Virgin America’s baggage handling is considerably faster than the legacy airlines.
Later that Day
Looking back, it’s clear to me that I arrived at JFK with an unfair mindset. After all, it was still the airline’s first week in the air and it was probably unreasonable on my part to think things would run smoothly. Jackie was undoubtedly right in her comment the other day about there being a reason theater critics let the cast get a few performances under their belts before giving a show an official review.
Virgin America has some kinks that must be worked out, which I am sure they will if anything I’ve read about their customer-centric culture is even half true. Regardless, the airline is undeniably trying hard to offer a very different, very positive onboard experience. Given the general disregard that the major airlines have for the flying public today, Virgin America deserves widespread support for that reason alone. I, for one, am certainly rooting for them.
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August 14, 2007 11:42 am : Comments 000
With a cross-country flight scheduled at the crack of dawn tomorrow, I’ve got air travel on the brain right now. Airplanes (and airports for that matter) both fascinate and frustrate me. But as much as I love to travel, I must admit I am not an easy traveler, as least as far as air travel goes. Nothing seems to stress me out as quickly as unnecessary customer service hiccups and mishaps when flying.
Living in New York as long as I have, you’d expect I would be used to congestion and traffic. And when it comes to the city’s sidewalks, shops, and restaurants, I probably am. But when it comes to non-weather delays and service interruptions at our city airports? Fuhgettaboutit.
There was an excellent page-one story in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about why congestion and delays have gotten so out of hand, particularly at New York’s major airports. While reporter Scott McCartney does an excellent job of explaining the myriad industry changes and travel trends that cooked up this fine kettle of fish, what really stood out was a comment from an insurance industry executive from Durham, N.C. who said that, given a choice between more daily flights on smaller planes or fewer flights on larger planes, he’d take the former. Not me.
As a frequent business traveler, I can certainly appreciate the convenience that having a full schedule of flights to choose from brings. I’ve been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic more than a few times when my scheduled flight was due to take-off. (I tend to cut things close, which is why no one at S&A likes to travel with me). Knowing that my carrier had another four flights leaving that same evening did wonders to keep my stress levels in check.
But as Wall Street Journal reporter Scott McCartney pointedly explains in yesterday’s story, it’s not all blue skies with the more-flights-smaller-planes approach. Airlines have used smaller planes to bulk up their schedules to the point where the major airports simply don’t have room for all of them. There’s simply no room at the inn… err… gates. My favorite airline blogger also offers some insightful commentary on this issue.
While the article says that more than 30% of flights nationwide arrived late in June with delays of just over an hour, my experiences at LaGuardia were significantly worse. Heck, if I land at LaGuardia a mere hour behind schedule I count my lucky stars. Perhaps if the southern insurance executive in McCartney’s story was a local, more frequent user of that airport, he wouldn’t be so quick to vote in favor of quantity over quality. Given a choice, I’ll vote for fewer flights on bigger planes if that means the airlines will ultimately improve their on-time performance.
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August 10, 2007 11:16 am : Comments 003
In May, Fortune ran an article about the proper care and feeding of so-called Generation Y employees. Bruce Tulgan, the founder of “leading generational-research firm” RainmakerThinking is quoted saying that “this is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world.” Hyperbole aside, it seems that someone forgot to tell that to the students and graduates of the College of the Holy Cross.
For the past few years, our agency has participated in an internship program offered by Holy Cross that has worked out remarkably well for us. Not only do we get top-notch students with a keen interest in learning rather than just fulfilling their academic requirements, Holy Cross covers the cost as long as we have a graduate on staff. That perk is just one of many benefits for employing Senior Associate Anthony, aka “Mr. Fire Hazard” (the ever-growing pile of discarded newspapers and magazines on the floor surrounding his desk must be seen to be believed). I also hear he can get us a good deal on Boar’s Head mortadella, but that’s another story for another blog.
The Holy Cross interns we’ve had here have been truly outstanding. Without exception, they have been extremely hard-working, eager to impress, and quick to embrace any challenge. We’ve been extremely impressed with their writing and analytical abilities, as well as their level of intellectual curiosity and engagement. They always showed up for work on time, often well before they were expected. It’s become abundantly clear to us that Holy Cross students are a cut above.
But hey, don’t take my word for it. For some additional insight into Holy Cross, I highly recommend Diane Brady’s story in BusinessWeek last March on the lasting influence a compassionate and visionary Jesuit priest named Fr. John Brooks has had on several prominent African-Americans who attended Holy Cross during the Age of Aquarius. One of the people Brady profiles is Stan Grayson of M.R. Beal & Co, who is both a client and a valued friend.
When Brian Giapponi, our Holy Cross intern this summer, first showed up two months ago, he walked into an office of people with extremely high expectations of him. He can thank the performance of the Holy Cross juniors and seniors who previously sat in his cubicle for that welcoming gift. Simply put, he rose to the challenge of their “beat that, newbie” legacies head on and upped the ante for next summer’s intern in the process.
Brian had spent the 2006-2007 academic year studying in Scotland (needless to say, he and Jackie quickly bonded over recollections of haggis, Edinburgh’s architecture, and the stunning vistas of the Scottish countryside). Less than a week after stepping off the plane, he showed up at our office, eager to learn about public relations. He immediately established himself as a valuable member of the S&A team.
Brian is wickedly smart, doggedly determined, extremely gracious, and the true embodiment of a team player – just like his mentor Anthony, who along with Meghann, our director of client services, immediately recognized Brian’s talent via his communications with our office while he was still overseas.
Brian gave us his all � and then some. He frequently showed up early and stayed an hour or two beyond quitting time to finish up work that could have waited until the morning. A Master Googler, he was also a quick study on the myriad PR-specific research services we subscribe to, always delivering on research requests with speed and precision. He is a good sport and took the occasional ribbing well. He was always smiling, always happy to lend a hand, always eager to learn something new.
Today is Brian’s last day with us as he will be heading back to Holy Cross in a few weeks for his senior year. It is our great hope that he has been bitten deep enough by the PR bug to rejoin us after graduation. Regardless of the career path he chooses, he will be incredibly successful and any employer would be lucky to have him.
Brian, you’ve done Holy Cross proud and we will miss you.
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August 9, 2007 1:41 pm : Comments 004
I wouldn’t want to be Bill Maguire these days.
Maguire, chief information officer for Virgin America, is in the unenviable position of having to explain to his bosses, including Sir Richard Branson, why the upstart airline’s website has been plagued with problems since it was launched. The airline claimed hackers were responsible for the site’s initial reservation problems, but as I learned yesterday, the site is still plagued with problems. I tried unsuccessfully for more than an hour to book a flight.
Virgin America and Sir Richard, unquestionably one of the world’s greatest marketers, have a real technology problem on their hands if my one experience is indicative of a broader systemwide problem. And their headache could be a headache for Travelport, which in turn could become a migraine for The Blackstone Group, which bought Travelport last year.
News coverage suggests Virgin America is relying on a newly developed reservations system known by the acronym aiRES (airline reservation system), which was originally developed by Travelport in partnership with WestJet Airlines, a low-cost Canadian airline. But as the technology pub Baseline reported two weeks ago, WestJet has pulled out of the project because AiRES couldn’t give it the functionality it required to support its expansion plans. Virgin America and RAK Airways, a discount airline based in the Middle East, are the only other airlines reported to have signed up for AiRES.
As reported by BusinessWeek’s Steve Hamm, Maguire’s bosses wanted him to build a new reservation system from scratch. Instead, Maguire chose to outsource virtually the entire operation, including the reservation agents. Maguire told BusinessWeek: “People just pass out when they hear what we’re doing. They go, ‘What!?’” Well, given my frustrating experiences yesterday, I can understand why those other airline insiders were a tad incredulous.
If the whole reservations kit and caboodle has indeed been outsourced, Maguire and Virgin America are now at the mercy of Travelport to fix the reservations problems because the Blackstone-owned company also hosts the system. “That has probably made things easier because there’s no finger-pointing,” Brian Clark, vice president of planning and sales for Virgin America told Baseline. “If there’s a problem, it’s their problem.”
Something tells me Sir Richard won’t see it quite that way. I can tell you from personal experience that the upstart airline’s would-be passengers sure don’t.
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August 8, 2007 2:11 pm : Comments 002
My longtime colleague Jackie keeps things close to the vest. We’ve worked closely for more than 10 years and I don’t know the political causes she supports (I suspect she leans to the left), the music she listens to (I think its 80s music), or her favorite foods (other than Diet Coke, but I hardly call that a food). One thing I do know: There is no one in business that Jackie admires more than Sir Richard Branson, the founder of The Virgin Group.
I don’t know exactly why Jackie reveres Sir Richard so much, but I suspect it has a lot to do with his undeniable marketing and PR genius, the humble origins of the Virgin empire, and of course, her experiences with Virgin Atlantic, which she frequently flies across the pond to visit her in-laws. I know she’s read his books, watched that reality show a few years back, signed the “Let Them Fly” petition, and dreams of sipping pina coladas at his posh Caribbean resort. As I said, she’s a fan.
And that’s why I am so conflicted about posting this entry. She’s not gonna be happy.
Sir Richard today launched Virgin America, a low-cost domestic airline whose initial routes will bounce between San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington. And Jackie is doing her part to help make sure they have a smooth takeoff. I fly to San Francisco regularly and have occasion to travel that way again next week. As soon as Jackie learned my travel plans, she flagged Virgin America’s low-cost introductory fares to me, no doubt within seconds of them being announced.
Unfortunately, my experience thus far with Virgin America is not quite living up to expectations, given the one-woman shill in the office next-door to me. I tried booking a flight online this afternoon for more than an hour, but the purchase wouldn’t go through. I was forced to call reservations, which placed on hold for more than 15 minutes. By way of comparison, I had someone in my office (thank god for interns) call the reservation centers of the major airlines to test how long he would be placed on hold. The verdict: Without exception, he reached a live person within two minutes.
[SIDEBAR FROM JACKIE: “The intern was able to get through right away because nobody wanted to fly the other airlines. Clearly, their agents were sitting around twiddling their thumbs while Virgin America’s agents were working their butts off. Besides, even the harshest Broadway critic gives an opening show the benefit of a preview run before taking poison pen to paper. If memory serves, even we had a few kinks the day we first hung out our shingle. Harrumph!”]
Further, when I tried reserving a seat online, I noticed the exit row window was available, so I grabbed it without realizing that there was an additional $25 fee for this “premium” seat. I’m certain there was some fine print somewhere warning me of the extra charge, but I didn’t notice it. To Virgin America’s credit, the reservation agent I spoke with agreed to waive the additional charge because of my lost time.
Maybe I’m being unfair and too quick to judge. Maybe the snafus I’ve encountered are just a few aberrant “opening day” hiccups that the Virgin America team will quickly work out. Still, first impressions do count and Virgin America’s customer service kinks did cause me to waste nearly 90 minutes of time [not to mention the hours it is going to take me to talk Jackie down from the proverbial ledge over this blog entry].
I truly hope the airline offers me a more positive experience at 35,000 feet next Wednesday. I don’t think I want to be the one to tell Jackie that Sir Richard’s Midas touch was not enough to protect Virgin America from the same issues that cause such reputational turbulence for nearly every other domestic airline.
Fingers crossed I really, really, love flying Virgin America. It will certainly be difficult working with someone who refuses to talk to me ever again.
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