Virgin's Culinary Journey of Hell

Word of mouth is something that can spread really fast, especially in this interconnected and network-orientated world. Think of it this way; remember high school, and rumors? That's word of mouth! Now apply it to business. On a B2C perspective, it can really affect the brand image of a business. It seems to be everywhere. It is also one of the strongest ways of communicating positive or negative feedback regarding any brand, product or service. In simpler terms: WOM can be seen as a way of getting our customers to spread the word of our solution.

However, we all know that the negative things seem to spread faster than positive things. (Look at celebrities.) I'm most positive that whoever is reading this post has participated or experienced such a thing. However the latest WOM sensation took place in Britain with an anonymous letter written to Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin, concerning a meal on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Mumbai to London.

It seems to be that the passenger, which maintains anonymity, felt the need to complain to Branson concerning his "culinary journey of hell" to London. Moreover, his complaint seems to have raised the bar for the time-honored tradition of complaining over Airline food and has been dubbed "the world's best complaint."

Some of the letter's highlights include:

"Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation."

and

"I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about. Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this."

and last but not least,

"Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in it?"
(read original letter here)

Although we may find the complaint eloquent and hilarious, what we don't know is that "the world's best complaint" triggered a chain reaction of complaints around the globe concerning the food on board the company's flights and Virgin's Press Office has received more than 200 complaints regarding other similar culinary experiences on board Virgin's flights.

Once again we can see the true power of WOM and how it can affect the brand image of a company. This incident is not the first and I can assure that it will not be the last, so what does this mean? LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!!! Perhaps providing the customers with a (brief and simple) feedback sheet at the end of the flight could have prevented that from happening. It is important to remember that someone is always going to complain, and that complaint can be viral.