From crisis comes solutions…Jetblue is set to do a complete overhaul including improved crew communications and a customer “bill of rights,” that will ensure the customer is always compensated for poor experiences. Like I said, I believe in Neeleman.
Archive for February, 2007 Page 2 of 3
I’m part of the entrepreneurial generation ..We are financially savvy, independent thinkers, embrace change, and seek high levels of achievement. Most importantly we seek work that makes a difference and has meaning. Interesting read.
The Entrepreneurial Mind: Remarks at Forbes Enterprise Awards
The best way to start becoming who or what you want to become is start declaring yourself as such to the world. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, start introducing yourself as one. It won’t guarantee it, but it will help you get there.
Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Declare Yourself An Expert, Then Work Backwards
(the filled JFK terminal yesterday)
So I thought instead of just complaining about all the things that went wrong the last few days for Jetblue, I thought I could maybe offer some solutions from my perspective. Now I can’t even imagine the complexity of their situation, and I know they are doing the best they can, but there are some things that I think they could’ve done to make the situation better.
1.) A flight status that means something: As I mentioned yesterday they could have made me and others a lot more tolerant of their problems if they had simply been honest with the flight status system. My flight consistently was marked as “on time” yesterday morning, so I went to JFK only to walk into what seemed more like Thunderdome than JFK airport. It wasn’t until the boarding time of my flight that it was finally announced we were on a 3 hour delay. Then 2 hours later, it was cancelled. Jetblue, your customers tend to be fairly tech savvy (although I’ll admit a large % of people still avoid the automated check in machines like the plague…That has to be frustrating). Take advantage of this…deliver information to them electronically. Keep your flight status on your website updated, maybe even offer text message or phone call alerts. Save my time and minimize my inconvenience, and I’ll appreciate you even in your worst moments (like yesterday).
2.) Communicate with customers, Proactively…. I’m a trueblue member, and I would imagine that most of your flyers are. This means you have my email address, my phone number, and even my address. Use this. Send me an email and/or a text message when my flight is delayed or cancelled. I called your phone number yesterday all day only to hear an automated voice telling me you can’t take my call at this time. This annoys me greatly. I get upset and frustrated that I may end up paying for a flight that didn’t get me anywhere but a crappy lunch at “mex and the city,” at JFK. You know my number, send me an email that tells me what I can do about my canceled flight and give me the option to be CALLED when someone is available. If I want to be called, all I have to do is click a link and select either my phone number with my trueblue account OR enter a new number to be reached…then you call me. From a technology standpoint this is very easy to implement, and quite frankly it gets you incredible customer satisfaction for your buck. It looks like you really care enough to reach out to your customers because you are calling them, when in reality it’s all automated to the point that your customer service reps can’t tell the difference. When it’s your problem you should work to communicate with customers, not the other way around.
3.) Don’t make people wait in the plane….I know there’s some reason for this, maybe you can’t get in line for takeoff without leaving the gate, but this is never a good idea. I know that other airlines are just as guilty of this, but it doesn’t make it right. Take a stand, no USE this. Say you’ll never let customers wait on a plane for more than 3 hours before takeoff regardless of conditions. Jetblue delays are definitely more tolerable than other airlines simply because of the TV in each seat, but that only goes so far. It only takes one long, painful wait to erase all the good you’ve done for that passenger in the past.
4.) Say what you can do, and do it…There’s nothing worse than sitting down in a chaotic airport with absolutely no idea what’s going on, and no reliable place to get information from. In situations like these, someone needs to choose a direction, tell everyone what it is, and stick with it. It’s way too annoying and costly to go with the “wait and see,” approach in an emergency. They were aware my flight wasn’t going to be on time 3 hours prior to telling me, and probably knew they wouldn’t even be able to get it off at all yesterday. So instead of hoping for it, just shut it down. Tell me it’s cancelled way ahead of time. Look at your other unanswered questions and answer them. There’s no time for right or wrong, only action and direction can help at that time. It’s much better to have a direction and make everyone aware of it, than to hope it all works out. Even if it’s not what most people wanted, at least you free them from the pain of being in limbo.
I still am a big Jetblue fan and really admire and believe in their founder and CEO David Neeleman (loved his book), and I realize the weather will always cause flight delays and cancellations, but there are so many things you can do to make life better for the stranded passengers. Frustrations and delays are inevitable and uncontrollable, but how you deal with them can make or break you. The cost of fixing and satisfying currently inconvenienced customers is only a fraction of the cost of trying to win them back.
(4 of Jetblue’s 6 baggage carousels were like this at JFK today…a baggage wasteland)
I had a fun full day at JFK airport today courtesy of Jetblue and the winter storm from yesterday. In the past I’ve been a Jetblue champion, often bragging about it to people as the best airline to fly. It has great fares (I can get to Columbus for $80 round trip), is usually on time, and of course it has live tv in every seat. But today I saw a different side of the Jetblue experience, complete chaos.
JFK was complete anarchy. There were people everywhere. People sleeping on the floor. People in every corner, seat, table, even the restrooms were filled to capacity.
There was little hope, if you were in the lucky minority, of even making your way to your gate for departure without being bumped around or stepping on sleeping, waiting passengers. I’ve really never seen anything like it. It seems that Jetblue after being backed up in yesterdays storm completely collapsed.
My biggest complaint in this whole scenario was their flight status system. I understand they are backed up, and even though I don’t like it, I would’ve been OK knowing my flight was cancelled this morning. The problem is, I didn’t know. According to their website my flight was not only still flying, but it was on time. Now I didn’t really believe it, but I didn’t want to risk missing my flight, so I went to the airport. Even after checking in, my flight was still listed as on time. It wasn’t until we were scheduled to board did they mention our flight had been delayed by 3 hours. Now call me crazy, but isn’t the point of the flight status (and presumably the technology investment behind it) to let people know AHEAD of time or PRIOR to arriving at the airport whether or not their flight was on time? If my flight was delayed 3 hours, didn’t they know umm 3 hours prior to departure that my flight was going to be delayed?
Ultimately after 3 hours of waiting for my flight was cancelled. Instead of letting me know, and keeping me fairly happy at home they let me spend $50 on a cab and come in to an already overcrowded airport with NO place to sit (even on the floor). By at least communicating the truth to me, they could’ve made the situation easier by telling me to stay away from JFK. They didn’t.
After my flight was cancelled, I had to go down to the baggage claim area, now known as the Jungle and wait another hour for my bag. It was not clear where or when my bags would show up because there were no announcements and even the nice Jetblue staff on hand were able to answer my questions. All I knew I was not leaving without my bag, because I knew I would never see it again.
I still love Jetblue as an airline, but they really need to get their act together, make this right for EVERYONE involved (everyone thinks they are the ones getting screwed), and make sure it never happens again. It’s clear to me that this situation was never planned for, and they are scrambling to fix things the best they can. Their employees were incredibly nice, and obviously overwhelmed. I was told that the only thing I could do was to call into their customer service center at 1800Jetblue. I called that number, and “due to high call volume, they can’t handle my call at this time.” Another screw up.
I also think the flight status system needs to mean something from now on. For now, I will not trust Jetblue’s flight status until they prove to me it’s accurate.
This is going to really be painful and costly for them to overcome. As one former customer interviewed by CNBC at JFK on Thursday said, “I’ve had many good experiences with this airline, but this one is bad enough that I’ll never fly them again.”
UPDATE 6pm EST: Jetblue’s 800 number is still down and I’m unable to get a hold of anyone.
More Jetblue links:
Darren Herman has a great post up on his blog reminding everyone that a website does not a business make. 95% of the presenters at the meetups I go to need to read this post.
Darren Herman has a great post up on his blog reminding everyone that a website does not a business make. 95% of the presenters at the meetups I go to need to read this post.
Ben Casnocha has excerpts from New York magazine on how to increase the happiness in your life. Worth a read…
Almost exactly a year ago today, I wrote this post:
I expressed my jealous and excitement for the monster snowstorm hitting NYC at that time (while I was in Columbus).
Well I’m trying to stay calm while watching the development of a potential monster snowstorm this upcoming week for the east coast, and my first real east coast storm. It’s too early to tell for sure, but all the signs consistently are pointing to a big nor’easter for early next week. Very excited!
This is my main source of weather updates, this guy loves himself a good storm.
I remembered today sort of randomly Steve Jobs 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, and how much I used to love reading it. My mom also loved reading it, and she actually had a print out that she read from the last few months of her life. She loved that speech. I did, and still do.
So this evening looking for a little inspiration and answers to some questions I’ve been having I turned to the video universe that is youtube in search of the actual speech. Sure enough, I found it and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone:
[youtube]D1R-jKKp3NA[/youtube]
Time is short and death is inevitable for us all. I learned so much from my mom’s death about my life. It really seemed to cut away all the nonsense, all the fears about what’s wrong or right to do, all the worries about doing what others think is right, all the concerns about making money or looking important. It forced me to forget for a moment all the layers of crap I put on everyday when I wake up, and just be, feel, and live. But even now as time passes I forget those lessons, and I continue to put on new layers each day. Why? For what?
Do you wake up in the morning and feel good about what you’re doing each day? I hope so. You deserve it. I know I do.
