Bill Baren Blog

No matter how hard we prepare, plan and create systems - sometimes our customers are not happy with us.

It makes no difference if it is our fault or not, the experience of our customers is sacred and as business owners we have to take responsibility for that. Below is an example of full responsibility done in a powerful and creative way. This is the way to turn a potentially a negative situation into a positive one that converts customers into loyal passionate users.

How can you do that in your business and with you most important-yet-dissatisfied customers?

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 on 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.

Sincerely,
David Neeleman Founder and CEO JetBlue Airways

One of my wonderful clients has quit her job. She is delighted at the prospect of devoting herself full-time to her business and her life’s work. She was arriving at the last big staff meeting, at her now past-employer’s, with the intention of breaking the news of her departure to most of her colleagues. How will they react? Will they be supportive of her pursuing her dream?

She was pleasantly surprised to find that the staff meeting was actually a farewell party for her. Everyone was supportive and encouraging. She was touched. Yes, she is taking a risk. Yes, working for yourself is a scary unknown. Goodbyes have never been easy for her. She now saw that this was less of a goodbye and more of a hello to a new beginning.

Most people make changes in their lives when the pain of their current situation becomes greater then the fear of making a change. People go as far as to sabotage their circumstances in order to create more a compelling excuse to finally make a move. What my client did was extraordinary. She followed her heart and intuition to make a significant change. She did that, rather then wait and then need to escape the increasingly intolerable situation. She went towards the life awaiting her rather then running away from a life that wasn’t working. As a result, she now has all the tools, a great network and plenty of energy for her new venture.

Her colleagues saw that she is leaving from a place of integrity. Her co-workers sensed that she is leaving towards the bright light of possibility. They now have that bit of that hope of something bigger in them, too. When we take courageous bold steps towards the life that is calling us, we empower ourselves to create success on our terms and we empower others to follow in our footsteps.

Our calling can be a subtle whisper. Our calling is sometimes a tap on the shoulder that appears out of nowhere. Our calling is a nagging dissatisfaction with our present situation. Why is it a calling? Perhaps it is a calling because we are supposed to answer.

• What do you often dream about, but haven’t even shared it with others?
• What’s too scary to even contemplate?
• What’s your calling?

It’s a typical Tuesday evening. Sylvia is running a little late to meet her boyfriend for dinner at great out of the way bistro on the Lower East Side. She is lucky to have gotten a seat on this rush-hour NYC subway cart. She is struggling to read Wired magazine, as the ride is especially bumpy today.

It’s amazing that on such a crowded train, she feels completely invisible. But if anyone is paying attention to her, they are noticing that she is beginning to be visibly excited by what she is reading. In fact, she is so excited that she is dying to tap the shoulder of the man sitting next to her and tell him about what she is reading. This stranger is startled out of his subway stupor and is soon engaged by what she is sharing. He learns how taken she is by her new discovery. He is now a believer, too.

She is reading a story about your business!

• Is your product or service remarkable enough?
• Is the story of your product engaging enough to a stranger?
• How easy is it to spread your story?

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