Jet Blues crisis
After all of the readings this week I do think that Jet Blue handled the crisis in an effective way. I did not however state that they handled it in the smartest way but I would not question their ethics. I would attribute their main problem to a major oversight by the people in charge. Keeping the planes on the tarmac for nearly ten hours shows poor planning and diction making. Jet Blue was focusing to much on satisfying the customer with no delays that they took a big gamble and lost big. They should have put themselves in the place of the customers and tried to approach it from that angle. Once they realized the error of their ways they did everything they could to try to rectify the situation and rebuild customer confidence.
After all of the customers were of the planes and the storms were over is when Jet Blue really began to shine. They did something that no other company has done in a long time. They put the CEO on TV and said they were wrong. That showed that from the moment they got the last person off the last plane they were doing everything in their power to make sure a situation like that would never happen again. I believe that got them tremendous respect from their customers and may have even saved the airline. Jet Blue also came out very quickly with the Customer Bill of Rights. This was a written way to assure people that this would not happen again. By putting it into writing they also gained respect with people because it was there for all to see on their website.
Jet Blue’s’ handling of the situation after they got everyone off the plane was wonderful. They sent out a message that they were human and made a mistake and people sympathized with that. They also sent out the message that they were professional and would not let it happen again. This is why after such a terrible crisis Jet Blue is still competing with the larger airlines in a very competitive environment.
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I agree with you that putting the CEO on TV got them tremendous respect. It would have been a different response, if it was just any other executive apologizing. The passengers were probably satisfied that it was the CEO himself. Other customers who were may be traveling with Jet Blue later could have understood the situation and respected the CEO for what he did. This could cause an increase in their later sales. I agree that everyone can make mistakes, but to agree to the mistake is a big task. And that’s what Jet Blue did. The apology as well as the Customer Bill of Rights satisfied the travelers. I don’t think there was any way or form of apology that was left out for them to apply.
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I completely agree with your point about the executives putting themselves in the customers shoes. No one wants to sit in a plane, on the ground for eleven hours, and they seemed to lose sight of that. In the Luntz reading (Rule 9) he points out that by looking at a bad situation from the others point of view it becomes more personal. Your right that Jet Blue responded well after the chaos, but it is unfortunate they did not do so during the crisis. However, the Customer Bill of Rights and David Neeleman's apology did show as you say, "they were professional and would not let it happen again".
The public announcement made
The public announcement made by CEO Neeleman held the JetBlue accountable for reversing its negative image. The public apology definitely committed all administration and staff of the company to initiate a Customer Bill of Rights, which was an excellent business tactic to win public approval. I believe this means of communication and demonstration of embarrassment has turned the company around certainly make the company more efficient and provide better sercive in the future. I disagree that everyone was happy with the result from JetBlue after getting off the plan. Many passengers were relieved but extremely frustrated and distressed that they missed connecting flights. It took some of the passengers days to get home and plans were destroyed.
External Factors
The circumstances that surrounded that whole Jet Blue crisis had a lot of externel factors involved and things could not be be sorted out to please every one or cater to everyones plans. Most of the people over there were adult and they need to understand that there are times when things get out of control and there is nothing that can be done about it. I do feel pity for their plans but at the same time it is unreasonable to just put the airline management on the spot like that. There are also government regulations regarding the flight hours of a particular plane and its crew so I do feel that Jet Blue did the best they could with the limited resources that had available at that time.