This letter was waiting in my in-box (along with thousands of other TrueBlue members)
Additionally, there was a link to a video of the CEO expressing his commitment to ensuring last week's events will never be repeated.
http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/promise/index.html?source=ap_2promise
Technology has made it so easy for CEOs to directly communicate with their customers and yet this is the first time I can think of that a CEO has spoken directly to their customer base in such plain and simple language. I think they have done a really good job of managing the crisis and I think they will perform even better as a result.
Dear JetBlue Customers,
We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.
Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue's seven year history. Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and other major inconveniences. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft, and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue's pilot and inflight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President's Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at 1-800-JETBLUE were unacceptably long or not even available, further hindering our recovery efforts.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.
We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive airline than ever before.
Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights—our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward—including details of compensation. I have a video to share with you about this industry leading action.
You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.
We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive airline than ever before.
Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights—our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward—including details of compensation. I have a video message to share with you about this industry leading action.
You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.
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2 comments:
I also received this email. I thought it was interesting for a couple of reasons:
First, it was sent to anyone who has ever taken a JetBlue flight, not just those customers who were impacted by the crisis last week. This was a very smart move as word has traveled fast about what a horrific situation it was (not only by the media but also through friends, family, etc.). I think it was important for JetBlue to apologize to all customers in an effort to regain trust.
Second, the email was very focused on the damage that last week has had on JetBlue's brand. They have worked hard to make themselves a customer-focused airline -- one that takes the pain out of air travel (stay tuned for the presentation on experience audits next week!). Neeleman comes right out and says what they want their brand to be and how they failed in that last week. It's a nice reminder to customers that they HAVE been able to count on JetBlue in the past and a promise that this one incident won't change that for the future.
Overall, excellent move by JetBlue.
Unfortunatley the email evidently wasn't sent to everyone since I didn't receive one and just flew Jet Blue in November...hmm. While I do agree it was a nice effort, they did not specifically address those people trapped on planes for hours which was a #1 news story.
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