JetBlue’s Customer-Relations Disaster
June 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
A little over 15 years ago I was the Director of Corporate Communications for a major international airline. It used to upset me to no end when the stupidity of others caused a load of merde to fall into the laps of my staff, who then had to deal with the mess.
That all came back to me yesterday on a JetBlue flight when I encountered a classic case of management asleep at the switch. Come to think of it, that may not be the best analogy for a company that flies planes.
Anyway, on Monday I took JetBlue’s 6:00am flight (ugh…) from Ft. Lauderdale to New York. Despite the hour it is a good time to fly since you waltz right through security. This time, however, as I was going through and chit-chatting with the TSA agent checking my ID, she said to me “Did you know, JetBlue is moving to a new terminal tomorrow?” Huh?
I couldn’t believe it. I saw no signs in the airport alerting passengers about the move. I saw nothing on JetBlue’s website when I bought my ticket. And there were no announcements at any time. To make matters worse, my car was parked close to the boarding gate at Terminal 1 and they were moving diagonally far across the airport to Terminal 3. At the gate I asked a few lethargic fellow passengers about the move and they knew nothing about it either.
Then on my return to Ft. Lauderdale yesterday — after a near-disastrous experience turned around by a great crew (see yesterday’s blog) — we were finally alerted at touchdown that JetBlue was now in a new terminal. This was immediately greeted by shouts of “merde!” — which is a French word which people translated into English and at least 12 other languages – quickly followed by a cacophony of calls to friends and relatives now waiting in the wrong terminal. Ms. 7A, of course, (see yesterday’s blog) immediately started speed dialing every time zone from the Middle East westward.
When we entered the terminal we were greeted by a band of Jimmy Buffet wannabes, strumming away to a crowd half of which were asleep, the remainder apparently awaiting immigration papers for the local old-age home.
On the terminal shuttle bus back to Terminal 1, I met several JetBlue cabin and terminal staff, all very upset with the change as well, since they now had to take the bus back to Terminal 1 everyday to retrieve their cars, unlike my one-time hassle.
For the next hour I couldn’t stop thinking about it — all the good done by one great crew in the air negated by a few inept on the ground.
Jim Ferri
