Reading Response Week 4
After reading about writing and the proper use of rhetoric, I know how important it is to focus your writing to the audience you are addressing. This is especially true if you are in a situation like JetBlue airlines. From the sources I found, I learned it was important for JetBlue to focus their response texts to alleviate the concern of the passengers. The video posted on the course webpage featured two men who obviously were disturbed about being stranded in the airport for such a long period of time. The other source I found was the video link to C.E.O David Neeleman’s interview on The Late Show with David Letterman. I found this video to be relevant because David Letterman could have been a customer just like any other person. His questions focused on why JetBlue suffered much more than any other airline. Although this interview was not written text, it focused a great deal on rhetoric, and the lack of kairos. In this particular interview, Letterman was forced to ask the same question three times until he received a direct response to why JetBlue was less prepared than other airlines. By avoiding and redirecting the question with a different response, Neeleman tried to benefit himself and the airline before his customers. If he had better use of kairos he would have focused the response to any person who was or will be a customer. This is important and essential to deal with any similar situation.
The audience you are trying to address should be your main priority. You have to tap into their feelings as well as desires. This was a similar approach to how our resumes were written. Our resume must adhere to the audience we are addressing. This seems to be a theme for all business writing texts; to attract the reader so you can grasp their attention and keep them interested. In the situation with JetBlue, it seems that the best approach to writing a text would be to further explain how the situation came about and explain the method you will take to assure it will never happen again. In Letterman’s interview, it seemed that it would have been much more effective if Neeleman just admitted to the problem upfront rather than beat around the bush for so long. The expectations of the customers would be to receive the best care and airline travel possible while flying with JetBlue, and this approach should be taken in all written texts. It is important to address the customers feelings, expectations, and desires in business writing to assure the text is about them and not focused on yourself.
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Comments
Reading Response Comment
I also thought it was important to include passengers that could be JetBlue customers or were JetBlue customers before but weren't affected by the events on February 14-18, 2007. After I watched the video of David Letterman with David Neeleman, I was shocked that David Letterman had to ask the same question three times to get the answer that he wanted. I was also surprised that David Neeleman also brought up the fact that other airlines suffered during those days instead of focusing on JetBlue and JetBlue's customers. David Letterman has many viewers and I would say potential customers of JetBlue weren't impressed with David Neeleman or JetBlue. David Neeleman had the opportunity to apologize to his customers on The David Letterman Show as well as talk about the improvements made and the Customer Bill of Rights but he focused on himself and how he didn't sleep for three days. I'm pretty sure what the passengers experienced was worse than not sleeping for three days.
I liked that you referenced our resumes and how we directed those specifically to the company that we were applying to. I never thought of the resume applying to this like you did. I also agree that it is important to put the customers first and write the text for them and not you, like David Neeleman did on The David Letterman Show. I plan to include both affected customers as well as potential customers like David Letterman in my letter and keep their expectations in mind as I write my letter.
Agreement
I really liked the video that you found about this. I found it pretty amazing that Letterman had to keep repeating the same question numerous times just to get an answer out of Neeleman. To me, it seems as though he still did not have an answer for anything that happened. Yeah, they had problems with federal regulations and with crews matching up with flights, but the way he presented it made it seem like even he did not know. I agree that he would have been better to use that opportunity to focus on his customers. In fact, doing this would have also had an impact on all the viewers of The Late Show, influencing the decisions of those people who now may have become skeptical of JetBlue. From what I saw in this video, he missed a great opportunity to make a good impression.
Reply
That is a really different kind of was for the CEO to deal with the situation I think. I mean we watched his video on YouTube.com addressing the customers or really the whole nation, whoever wanted to listen or watch but that was a really formal and informative speech. But going on David Letterman and talking about what happened that is really brave and pretty gusty thing to do. You can really get a whole different audience by going on the David Letterman show rather then doing the speech that he did I bet. I think that is a really good idea as long as it doesn’t turn into making fun of JetBlue.