Social media gurus will often argue that the only way to be transparent and engage with customers is to ensure you are in every possible channel available.
This is perhaps even more appropriate when something goes wrong. Reach out to customers on Twitter, Facebook et al and be honest and open about whatever happened.
The presidents of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air went one further this morning when they both starred in a YouTube video to apologise for a serious IT failure affecting both airlines and passengers.
Around 12,000 people were affected and 140 flights cancelled or experienced delays as a result of the failure of a central computer system used for flight planning.
Such public apologies are not only rare but extremely difficult to get right (see the notoriously awkward clip by ex-Eurostar CEO Richard Brown following the chaos of Christmas 2009).
So did Glenn Johnson and Brad Tilden, presidents of Horizon and Alaska respectively, get it right? Or was it a PR/social-driven exercise that fails to hit the mark?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_cce6kkCY