Relationships, relationships, relationships: it’s the word that bounces in my mind like a flipper ball while I am stranded and furious at Venice airport, having to wait for two and half hours before being able to board my plane to London. Why so long?

Ferrari 248 F1 2006

My favourite low cost European airline, the one I fly with almost bimonthly, the one that sells tickets only through its website, the one that stays in touch with me and hundreds of thousands of people like me via a weekly newsletter and sends regular sms to my phone, keeping me informed on offers, new routes and prize draws, let me down again for the second time in a week.

Long story short (I am not using this post for an official complain) a couple of months ago they changed times to some of their flights and by chance I bought my return ticket just a couple of days before the change, so with the old timetable (as stated in their confirmation emails).

Now you would think that such a modern brand, so strategically connected with its online client base would have no problems in managing the timetable changes, informing the passengers via mobile text messages and email about the changes and alerting them again a couple of days before the flights.

Ferrari 248 F1 2006

Only thing they did was to send me an sms two months before the first flight (that I had of course totally forgotten about by the day I had to travel), and doing nothing in occasion of the return trip, leaving me wondering about the company reliability.

What’s the lesson we can learn from this and that can be applied to Sport Organisations too?

No matter what our goals and strategy are, no matter how well we are connected with our fan (client in this case) base and what technology we are using, it is still a one to one, human to human, personal relationship that is in place, that needs to be nurtured and maintained with care, common sense and flexibility.

Relationship, relationship, relationship!

Alessandro De Zanche

P.S. The glass is always half full is we want to look at it with positivity though: I am sitting very close to a stunning Ferrari 248 F1 2006 Formula One car so I will get my smile back in no time!