The Jet Blue Experience

Jet Blue has been getting a bad rap lately. Their stock took a tumble because of late/canceled flights and their site has been on the fritz (I thankfully checked my tickets online 3 days before my trip only to find they had disappeared from my account!) But we still love them…why? Turns out that there are many reasons all the way from ordering your tickets to the flight.

Order process - The order process is really easy and they tell you exactly how much legroom you’ll get depending on what row you choose. They set expectations and they actually keep to their promise. How many times do you choose a seat only to find that when you check in it’s totally different?

Check-in - I went to the kiosk to self-check in, use any credit card (not necessarily the one you used to book the trip which you can NEVER remember), they kept track of the original seat that I wanted, and the copy on the screen is just, well, fun. “Hang on, we’re printing your ticket…”. Cute. Then you don’t wait long to check your bag since you’ve already checked in.

Jet Blue TV - You get on the plane and you get TV. Pretty remarkable. But have you ever watched the Jet Blue messaging? It rotates some pretty fun copy. The one I love “Jet Blue – We Care About Legroom” or “Betcha can’t touch your knees to the seat in front of you", and "Tall People Rejoice - Jet Blue cares about legroom".   Maybe that message resonates with me because I’m 6’ with heels on, but if it’s great for me, it’s really great for anyone shorter than that. And we all care about comfort right? Nifty way they communicate it too.

But the next message is really great, gave me a great idea to go back home with. “Telling Tales – Turn to channel 4 to watch real videos by Jet Blue customers!” Customers talk about the comfy leather seats, the TVs, the goodies and the helpful attendants. Now I’m sure all of the people that get “published” tell their friends to fly Jet Blue and to watch the channel.  So you watch, 20 incredible stories about how great Jet Blue is so much that I found myself thinking “What would I have to say? Someone give me a video camera!”

They market themselves on this channel as “A customer service company that happens to perform it on planes. A company built on your word of mouth.” They’ve got it down! It’s hard enough to get people to fill out surveys let alone get in front of a camera and make a video.

I’m not sure if you’ll get anything out of this but I sure did. A great user experience from start to finish can be remarkable and gain word of mouth momentum. And even though they have a captive audience, I didn’t have to watch the Jet Blue Channel, but there were some pretty remarkable stories.

Do you have anywhere where people can give you feedback and you can share it with your customers? There’s not a better selling channel in the world than your current customers. Use them!

Comments

[Maggie]

Customer service company? Hardly. While I agreed to cut Jet Blue some slack after their Valentines Day fiasco I had to face the music (in their case, a funeral march) and throw in the jet blue towel. On St Patricks Day JB cancelled flights yet again due to a storm. When one called their 800 line you simply got a voicemail saying their lines were overwhelmed and that nobody would be able to answer the call ("call us back later"???) and to check their website. Problem was ... I went to their website like a dutiful passenger, only to find that their web servers were overwhelmed as well and no flight tracking was possible. A company the size of JB and one could not get a hold of them by phone, e-mail OR website. Sorry, this is not a "customer service company" regardless of their nifty marketing campaigns and catchy extras. Are we that easily swayed by cute little fluff that we have forgotten what is important?

[Janine]

Agree with the fact that mistakes will happen it's how you handle the outcome from a customer service perspective.

Curious, did anyone get anything out of the ease-of-use and video idea? I sure did! Look out for a promo on this from VR soon!

[Nancy Cunningham]

As an addendum to what I stated, I realize that JetBlue did (after the publicity) reimburse travelers. I am not saying that this airline should close it's doors due to this one incident. What I did say is that when an airline makes a vacation or travel on business a nightmare that it's not a BAD RAP. I don't want JetBlue to suffer forever or even another day due to what happened. I want airlines to understand that passengers don't want to be held hostage in an airplane for the convenience of the airline or terminals. Customer service is from beginning to the end as well. You can be customer service oriented in the beginning and fall way short at the end.

Didn't mean to ruffle feathers. I don't mean to reply that the airline should close down. Get the meaning and don't make more out of what I said than that.....please.

[Nancy Cunningham]

READ the first line of my post. I HAVE NEVER FLOWN JET BLUE! The blog read that JetBlue is getting a bad rap. I commented on THAT. The fact is that the bad rap is relating to the airline incident where passengers were held on a plane for hours. I commented on that, not the airline service over the course of years. My comment states a fact in that your typical customer is going to remember the bad first if they don't feel satisfied or appreciated. Those few of you here that disagree with what I said, I hope you and your friends are enough to keep this PR for JetBlue up and flying.

This isn't about how JetBlue is for 364 days out of a year, it is about that one other day! Remember?

[nancy tuckin]

Sorry commentator #1, but you have no idea what you're talking about. I use JetBlue every time they fly where I am going for work or pleasure and as a very frequent flyer I have to say that they are the one and ONLY U.S. airline that goes way above and beyond what is normally expected of any business. There are dozens of examples I can go on about but I think it would be better if you get on a JetBlue flight first then tell me what you think. As for the snafu on Valentine's Day-Get real! It was a mistake they've expressed regret for already and compensated passengers far beyond what anyone would ever expect. Now that's exceptional customer service. What more do you expect? You want them to close themselves down? Get Real!

[Andrew]

Sorry Nancy...but if you roll back history I assure you that you will never find an airline that has always "appreciated" its customers...in the service industry this is just impossible...I can tell you I have used Jetblue many of times and they have always been great if not the best...I recommend you give them a try one of these days...I think everyone is entitled to make mistakes but its how you recover from these mistakes that makes the difference. Drew

[Nancy Cunningham]

I haven't flown JetBlue, I only hear what's reported on the news regarding the incidents with this airline and others. The heat that JetBlue is taking is (in my opinion) justified in that your customer service is an 'entire package'. If you can't provide good service throughout the process most people are going to take away the impression of the bad first and foremost. I have never been stranded on an airplane for more than 2 1/2 hours (and I didn't like that) but for airlines to hold their passengers hostage for any reason other than 'convenience' to the airline (terminal to plane) is awful. I am sorry that this airline is taking heat for mistreatment of it's passengers but airlines need to appreciate their customers ALWAYS and I don't think that they do.