Customer Service and Jet Blue February 21, 2007
Blog entries about customer service seemed to be following me around yesterday so I figured I’d write a blog post about it.
First, I read “Seven steps to remarkable customer service” over on the extraordinary blog, Joel On Software. Joel is the head of Fog Creek Software which makes the excellent FogBugz bug tracking software. The post is specifically about support for software products, but is relevant to anyone who does customer service in their job (which is just about everyone really, isn’t it?).
His first tenet is perhaps the most valuable: fix everything two ways. He writes:
Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to prevent this particular problem from ever happening again.
After reading that I immediately came across an example of a company attempting to fix a problem two ways. Due to ice storms, JetBlue has had to cancel a large number of its flights (23%) over the last week or so. People were stranded in airports. Folks sat on runways for 8 hours. Your classic planes, trains and automobiles nightmare. Jetblue was and is under a barrage of criticism for the their poor handling of the situation.
So what are they doing? Trying to fix the problem two ways.
To address the specific customer problem, they are reimbursing the people who were caught up in the delays. Here’s the payment schedule according the Consumerist:
• Delays 1-2 hours: $25 off a future flight
• Delays 2-4 hours: $50 off a future flight
• Delays 6+ hours: Free round-trip ticket
To solve the long term program, JetBlue has announced a Customer Bill of Rights. Here is a list of some of the changes that have been taken to prevent this kind of event from occurring again:
• All non-airport crew members of JetBlue will be badged and ready to go if needed to be called upon
• Increasing number phone lines open for changing reservations
• Tripling the size of the group that schedules pilots and stewardesses
To announce the Bill of Rights, CEO David Needleman posted a video on YouTube explaining the plan of action (embedded after the jump). The YouTube video has been viewed 33,000 times so far. A nice use of social media I think, although they should have done a better job with the web during the crisis itself.
All of this sounds great but won’t mean much if the changes don’t work. We’ll see.
Anyway, give the piece from Joel on Software a read.
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The entire DadLabs production crew recently spent 18 hours in the jetBlue terminal at JFK. It was Valentine’s Day.
So we’re bitter. But when life gives you lemons, make poetry.
So we are inviting you, creative DadLabs passengers, to help us shake our puny fists at the man. Submit your poetry that decries/commemorates the recent airline meltdown in the comments here. The bitter editors at DadLabs.com will then select the best poem in each division and and award it a $50 gift certificate at our DadLabs store.
Our poetry contest has two divisions:
The jetBlue Haiku
Show the airline your 5-7-5
http://www.dadlabs.com/humorou.....haiku.html
Great blog! JetBlue seems to really understand the importance of using “new media” to get their message out. I have really been impressed by the way they have handled this situation from a PR standpoint.
I had a great experience with JetBlue just this week and I wrote a blog entry about it. If you get a chance check it out!
http://thenierenblog.typepad.com
I booked 2 flights. 1 on Thursday night for IAD 12/18/07 and the other to Newark 7/24/07. I got my confirmation in the e-mail. But I do not have confirmation of my seats. After 3 calls now I’m told I will be sent the seats through the mail..Could take up to 2 weeks. Hello! Is that any way to do business?