Assessment 3 - Issue & Crisis

Management Online
Le Tuan Anh, Nguyen Phuong Chi, Can Mai
Hong Ngoc
RMIT University

5/13/2014

The paper comprises a one-page list of potential scenarios, their likelihood and severity of
damage to the companys reputation, a one-page risk analysis of a particular potential
issue and a two-page strategic action plan for a food poisoning crisis of VietJet Air.

List of potential scenarios

Potential Scenarios
Consequence of
individual actions

Denial responsibility

Denial problem

Crash

Inappropriate use of
representative
image
Unfair recognition

7
8

Poor service attitude

of staff
Competitor
spreading rumors

Bad journalist
blackmail
10 Food Poisoning

Detail
VietJet launches new Facebook page to gather publics feedback. While many viewers criticize how hard it is to
get a cheap airline ticket, one person comments : It is really easy to get cheap airline tickets. I got 10 for my
family. Other users researched about the person and found he was an employee at VietJet Air. Media pick up
the story and write further stories about this.
A customer lost her baggage and receive late responsiveness and unsupportive from airline staffs. So she
complained on social media about her case and recommend other to boycott which quickly went viral.
VietJet Air denies its responsibility towards a dispute/conflict between its staffs and a client who uses Vietjet air
service. The company informs that it is the personal problem and let them solve individually. Media picks up
this story to create articles about the irresponsibility of VietJet Air.
An engine failure of Vietjet air flight VJ8661 from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city spread fiery debris across the a
runway at Tan Son Nhat airport before falling down roughly. Media starts delivering information about this
accident.
Vietjet Air creates an advertising campaign using a celebrity who was currently very famous as the spokesperson.
However, this guy used to have a big scandal of being drunk and causing fight at an international airport. The
anti-fans of him dig up the old scandal and the public do not trust Vietjet Airs campaign anymore.
Vietjet Airs official Twitter account posted a tweet specifically thanks the business class passengers for
supporting the airline for a long time. This caused the economy class passengers feeling upset while they think
that they were missed out and were not appreciated by the airline. The anger spread out all over Vietjet Airs
Twitter account.
A customer uploaded on Youtube a short video about Vietjet air staffs impolite reaction towards customers. It
attracted lots of viewers, sharing and comments from public.
A former employee of Vietjet air is now working for a competitor. She writes a blog post about her working
period at Vietjet air and compares to the new one. The public consider her viewpoint as reliable source
because she had worked at VietJet Air.
Journalist write a blog post about programming glitch on Vietjet air website. The company responds to blogger
by calling him an idiot.
A customer who is a secondary school student is poisoned after eating crab noodle in a flight of VietJet Air. A
passenger who is in the same flight, luckily is a doctor, has to work at his best, with the help from the flight crew,
to make the first aid for the victim before the flight makes its landing. The story is recorded and share to social
networks by other customer on the same flight.

Comment [T1]: Good list of scenarios

Likelihood Severity
Medium
Medium

High

High

Low

High

Low

High

Low

Low

Low

Low

Medium

High

Low

High

Low

Medium

Low

High

Comment [T2]: In Vietnam, likelihood

of blackmail by journalists is medium and
high especially for high profile companies.

Risk Analysis - Food Poisoning Scenario

Description of the risk

Potential Impact

Root Causes

Recommended Response

A customer who is a secondary school

student is poisoned after eating crab
noodle in a flight of VietJet Air. A
passenger who is in the same flight,
luckily is a doctor, has to work at his
best, with the help from the flight crew,
to make the first aid for the victim
before the flight makes its landing. The
story is recorded and share to social
networks by other customer on the
same flight.

For the reason of poisoning, it may

due to the allergy of customers with
some ingredients in the food he ate.

There is a need to react quickly towards

the situation and make announcement
officially as soon as possible.

For the reason of media crisis, due

to the delay in dealing with media,
VietJet Air cannot stop the informing
going viral, especially in social
networking sites.

Damaging the reputation of

VietJet Air
VietJet Airs share price may
decline
Declining in ticket sale
Rumor rises
Bad publicity on media

A head of VietJet air needs to make a

speech soon to calm down public and
customers relatives.
Not denying responsibility
Keep updating information related to
missing flight for relatives and public.
Cooperating actively with
investigators.
Ensuring other flights is safe and
passengers are not too panic.
Preventing bad news from being
spread widely to exacerbate.
Send a team of medical examination to
check the quality of the food on the
flight. After checking, announce the
result on media.
Working with media to remove articles
that do not deliver true information.
Full support and follow up the patient
and his family in medical examination.
Deliver several articles on big media
about the strict cooking process of
food on the flight.

Comment [T3]: The title is a bit

confusing and dangerous. Better say food
related issue because you are trying to say
it is not poisoning so dont say it.
Comment [T4]: Good
recommendations
Comment [T5]: You might want to
check the quality of the food and the
supplier record; expiry date; storage
condition to be 100% sure it is safe before
concluding it is an allergy case. So you
might want to include suppliers failure and
storage conditions as root causes in order
to prevent them proactively.
Comment [T6]: Why missing flight?

Action Plan
How to avoid the scenario?

VietJet Air needs regular check of food quality on their flight.

Always prepare human resources and facilities for first aid on the plane.
Remind customers to understand fully about the ingredients of food before eating to avoid allergy.
VietJet Air should ensure the cleanliness of all eating utensils to avoid allergy.
Train staff how to deal with this situation

Comment [T7]: Missing link to root

causes as I mentioned above.
Comment [T8]: Better, select food less
likely to provoke allergy
Comment [T9]: Cleanness or lack of it
causes food poisoning not allergy.

Strategic Recommended Response

The company's goal
Our goal is to calm the current situation, minimize the spread of the online negativity towards the brand and ensure that the food poisoning incident will
not damage the credibility and a responsible image of Vietjet Air in the future by immediate checking the foods quality, support the victim himself and his
family, fully investigation, and also delivering accurate and complete information to the public.
Target Publics

The victim and his family: the main victim of the food poisoning incident, who is currently a secondary student, age 13, living with his parents and
one sister in Hanoi. His parents are state officers and are strict and caring about their childrens health.
The general public, including Vietjet Airs past passengers and the potential ones: Variety in terms of demographic and psychographic
information, but are the people who traveled with Vietjet Air before, or have intention to travel locally or internationally by airplane in the future,
have concern about food safety in general, and food safety in flights in particular.
The media: the journalists and other people working for newspapers, magazines or news broadcasting channels that pay attention to the food
poisoning incident of Vietjet Air.

Key messages

The food poisoning case results from the allergy of patients with several ingredients in the food he ate.
The VietJet Air fully support the victim and his family in the treatment.

Comment [T10]: A bit too long goal;

goal is simply WHAT we want; HOW we
get what we want is about strategy.

Comment [T11]: Have media relations

plans so when something bad happens,
you can use these relationships to manage
crisis.

Message templates

Key message 1

Key message 2

The food poisoning case results from the allergy of patients with several
ingredients in the food he ate.
Supporting Information 1-1
The doctor confirms that patient is allergic to a substance in food.
Supporting Information 1-2
Many other customers on the flight eat the same food with the patient but
only he is poisoned.
Supporting Information 1-3
The foods on VietJet Air is prepared in a strict process and comply with food
hygiene and safety law.

The VietJet Air fully support the victim and his family in the treatment.
Supporting Information 2-1
The staff on the plane have immediate first aid for the patient.
Supporting Information 2-2
VietJet Air pays all treatment fee for the patient.
Supporting Information 3-2
VietJet Air gives free a pair of tickets for domestic flights to the patient as an
apology.

The medium
All the messages and supporting information above will be deliver through:

The News Program on VTV

Website of VietJet Air
Some mainstream press like VnExpress, Dantri, 24h, etc.
A press conference

Other recommendations
An urgent crisis management team need to be formed with key factors including Deputy general manager, a head of PR department and a head of finance
department. They will need to make an initially official announcement as soon as possible both online and offline. At the same time, Vietjet Air needs to
prepare for a Press Conference to answer and ease publics concerns. Then there is a need to establish an investigating team to find reasonable reasons.
Meanwhile, the finance department have to contact and work with insurance company to prevent bad scenarios from happening.

Comment [T12]: Have media relations

plans so when something bad happens,
you can use these relationships to manage
crisis.

References
Foodallergy n.d., 'Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan', Food Allergy Research & Education, viewed 13 May 2014,
<http://www.foodallergy.org/managing-food-allergies/traveling>.
Irvine, D 2013, 'Beef or chicken? How high-end airline meals are made', CNN, 19 September, viewed 13 May 2014,
<http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/18/travel/business-travel-airline-meals/>.
VietJet Air n.d, 'About us', VietJet Air, viewed 13 May 2014, <http://www.vietjetair.com/Sites/Web/vi-VN/NewsDetail/cong-ty/%20319/chao-mung-denvoi-hang-hang-khong-vietjet>.