A lesson in crisis communications – sometimes, you can’t please everyone!

I am now in my second week of my internship and my, it’s been a full on week! My first blog post mentioned “Perth City Snowland” which was a free event held by the City of Perth (at Forrest Place) for children to attend during their school holidays.  Attendees had to come into Forrest Place to collect tickets from 9 am. The intention behind this decision was to encourage families to spend time within the city taking advantage of special offers and discounts for retailers via a “Perth City Playground Pass”.  Additionally, because the event was free, there was no obligation for people to attend should they book online, meaning a higher risk of no shows. Therefore, this seemed like the fairest option.  

Within the first couple of days, Snowland, tickets were running out fast leaving many parents (and children) disappointed. Some had travelled from as far as Bunbury to secure tickets, only to be turned away upon arrival. Queues were starting at 7.30am with tickets selling out by 10am each day. Members of the public were angry, and were voicing their concerns via the City of Perth Facebook page. One post in particular received over 1000 likes and comments in a 24hr period. The criticism was snowballing into an avalanche (pun intended, sorry!) of negative comments and angry phone calls. This created an enormous amount of work for the PR/Communications team who were charged with responding to the comments in a timely and effective manner. Additionally, there was a lot of criticism around the poster of the event (shown below) which was deemed misleading by many members of the public.

The original promotional image. Courtesy of the City of Perth

Upon consultation between the events, marketing and communications team, a decision was made to change the ticketing allocations for the 2nd week of the school holidays (beginning Monday 14th July). An online system was implemented to allow people to book a maximum of 4 tickets. Tickets would be released at 3pm each day for all of the following day’s sessions. Additionally the ticketing of 90 people for each session would be for children only (as participants) meaning adults wouldn't need a ticket. This change was heavily promoted on social media and the Visit Perth City website and it was met with tremendous support from the public. Upon consultation between the events, marketing and communications team, a decision was made to change the ticketing allocations for the 2nd week of the school holidays public. Additionally, an allocation of 20 tickets per session would be held at the event for those people who may not have heard about the ticketing change, to ensure they were not left disappointed.

While this change was mostly met with support and praise, there were still some people who were not happy. This was due to an extremely high demand for tickets, and when they were released at 3 pm, they were being snapped up within a matter of minutes. Statistics from the ticketing company showed that approximately 1200 people were online at 3 pm attempting to secure tickets, therefore demand was substantially higher than supply. To be expected for a free event!

While I was not directly involved in the handling of this situation, I was able to watch as it unfolded, then how it was dealt with by the City of Perth. In my opinion, I believe the Communications and PR team handled the situation effectively. The team was quick to address the problems on social media, taking ownership of the issue and apologising to members of the public. Team members even responded to individual comments on social media after business hours, showing tremendous dedication to ensuring that the public were kept informed of the event changes. It is unfortunate that some people were still not happy after the City of Perth were proactive in making changes to the event in response to public feedback, but I guess that is just the way it is. 

A momentous lesson learnt – sometimes you CAN’T please everyone, despite your best intentions and efforts.

Until next time,

Claire

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