Working for a company that also has its call center operations in-house has it perks. It gives you the capability to experiment with different cross-channel initiatives. Though I am only involved in our company’s online operations, I am sometimes called upon to assist in different offline projects. In the process, I am able to gain a holistic view of how an online and offline campaign can go definitely wrong. Or right.

My first topic? How about the Philippine Airlines Real Deal promo nightmare I had to go through the other day.

Let me point out all of the things Philippine Airlines did wrong.

1. Bandwidth. Bandwidth. Bandwidth. - They sure had none of it on those promo dates. Unless they’ve run the same promo before, Philippine Airlines should have prepared for the unique visits they were going to get that night.
2. Ignore manpower issues - 30-minute waits for the lucky few who get through? Customer service is still a lot better than no customer service at all.
3. Lack of offline support - I heard Philippine Airlines ran a few ads in newspapers a day before the promo dates. Because of item #’s 1 and 2, they shouldn’t have.

Though Cebu Pacific’s regular Seat Sale is a tough act to follow, the Gokongwei owned company has been doing it long enough for most of their main competitors to end up doing the same. If you run any promo, and it makes a thousand people happy, but ends up making ten thousand decide not to patronize your service again, what will you do?

Consumer loyalty in this sector is one of the most important concerns any airline should try to improve and invest in. Henry Sy sure has his work cut out for him.