You Tube Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnnJeV-Gtas&mode=related&search=
After reading in the Thomson Handbook section on rhetorical content I realized exactly how important it is. This will need to be addressed in responding to the situation with jetBlue last February. The tone and sincerity of the letter will be the most important part. The customers need to see that this company is truly sorry and doing everything in their power to make sure something like this never happens again. If this letter takes the wrong tone people will just throw it out and jetBlue’s message will not be heard. This is another reason that the first sentence will be a very important part of the letter.
The video I found really shows the frustration of the people that were victims of the long flight delays. It was shot from inside one of the planes as it was boarding just before takeoff after a 14 hour delay. You can hear the voices of several annoyed customers expressing their feelings of the situation. You can hear how disappointed they were will everything the airline had done that day. They mention the people in charge at the ticket counters that were leaving for long periods of time and returning with little to no more information than what they had before. You also hear a short discussion about the lack of pilots for the prospective flights and how that aggravated the customers. This helped give me an insight into how the customers felt and what I can say in my letter to address that issue. I now know the specific grievances they have and I can point out what part of jetBlue’s Customer Bill of Rights will address those grievances. I will also need to point out what jetBlue was doing to help them only days after the incident by handing out around $26 million in refunds and vouchers for future flights. I think the letter will need to end reminding the customer what makes jetBlue unique from other airlines and express how this have given them the opportunity to grow and serve the customer better.
Comments
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I think your right. I think it is very important to end the letter reminding customers about what makes jetBlue unique. However, you have to keep in mind that anything you say about customer service will not be taken seriously because these people just had first hand experience with how things did not work out for them. So i think it is very important in your letters to focus on what jetBlue is doing to change and make things different. If you don't focus on the change they will assume nothing will change and that is not a good thing. So remember to focus on how things will be different in the future for jetBlue customers.
Reply
I am in agreement when you stated that the sincerity of the letter is most important. It is here where one can build credibility, or in this case rebuild, to people who are skeptical. A few days after the storm passed over, they had their work cut out for them and they had nothing to lose. When your staff leaves for long periods at a time and coming back with no answers to the passengers questions, there definetly needs to be a restructure process as to how the company conducts their operations. It was almost as if they were a brand new company entering the market. I also read that the company handed out some $26 million in refunds and vouchers but the passenger who started the www.jetbluehostage.com website stated that she did not think she was compensated well enough. I know that does not say much but it is just some food for thought.