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February 20, 2007
Behaving your way out of a jam
If you're in the communications world, it is important to pay close attention to the actions of David Neelman, the CEO of JetBlue. You're witnessing a case study in the making for how to respond to a company's poor performance in the face of a weather-related debacle.
You know the story -- a snow and ice storm in New York on Valentine's Day caused horrible disruption to JetBlue's flight schedule out of JFK Airport.
JetBlue was slow to cancel flights. The airline lost control of its communications system -- crew, reservations, everybody. Passengers were stranded on runways for up to 10 hours. One passenger was asked if she would every book JetBlue again. Her reply: "Not in this lifetime."
Whew! Neelman could have blamed the weather, air traffic controllers, anything.
But he didn't. It was clear that this leader accepts all the scorn being thrown his way. He didn't flinch.
And he took action.
Yesterday, Neelman announced that JetBlue will being paying passengers a fee for being kept waiting by the airlines.
The airline will double the number of reservationists on duty during storms, and will cross-train 1,300 airport workers for different jobs in emergencies.
I have had bad episodes with almost every airline. I'm not a fan of flying anywhere. But Neelman's forthright acceptance of responsbility, and his rapid remedy response might save this relatively new carrier.
David Neelman once again has proven something I tell my clients from time to time: "You can't communicate your way out of a situation you've behaved your way into."
As Neelman demonstrates, you have to behave your way out of the jam.
Let's see how this plays out.
Posted by Ken Eudy at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)