Celebrity CEOs are sometimes worth their weight in platinum. Gates, Jobs, Bezos, Buffett and others have set a high watermark that brand them as much as their company. Even the late Dave Thomas helped resuscitate hamburger chain Wendy's when McDonald's and Burger King threatened the then-higher priced chain.
David Neelman, a serial entrepreneur and airline exec for virtually his entire adult life, was joining their ranks as he led low-cost, non-union JetBlue Airways into the public consciousness. Focusing on frills passengers wanted and mixing second-tier airports with some strategic hubs, Neelman had JetBlue poised somewhere between the low-cost carriers and the legacy major airlines.
Then one service catastrophe after another hit the company in early 2007. JetBlue was the country's eighth largest carrier when a series of winter storms caused it to cancel more than 1,000 flights in February. The cancellations disrupted travel plans for more than 100,000 passengers, and Neelman found himself on the short end of the blame stick. A hasty departure upstairs to the Chairman's seat was arranged for Neelman, and the CEO duties were handed over to another airline veteran, David Barger.
The cachet of free televisions and big seats was no longer the differentiator it had once been. MaxJet began operations to Europe, quickly followed by the launch this week of Virgin America. Both pose huge threats to the cool factor JetBlue enjoyed among younger travelers. Even Wired blogger Dylan Tweney extolled the virtues of Virgin to the world's geeks.
So where has JetBlue gone wrong? Wall Street pundits still are concerned about the company 's cash flow and the growing liability lines on the company's balance sheet. Key financial metrics like ROA and ROE continue to slump in negativity territory.
And then there is the customer experience.
Consumer Help Web was going to try the airline out for a big search engine conference in San Jose this month. We know the web, we understand online airline booking and were willing to fly into Oakland direct from our DC area offices. The price was competitive with the majors, even though United has a hub in DC and nearby San Francisco.
Then the roof caved in. JetBlue's web site returned pricing for a direct flight and prompted us for payment. There were no seat maps so we had no idea whether people would be traveling on full or open flights, or worse, whether someone would be in a middle seat for three hours.
Being good consumers, we called. And we continue to tell ourselves that the grumbles we've heard about JetBlue are traced back to poor customer experience. To begin with, we never should have had to call. But the results were astounding when we did.
"You'll get to choose a seat when you pay," the bored sounding CSR told us on the phone.
No amount of appealing to reason, rationality or the promise of winning new customers could convince her to research the flight and tell us. We moved from asking to declaring that we would not use JetBlue. They would join another unnamed airline on our blacklist.
This comment was met with indifference as well. Finally, we did the only thing most consumers can do before purchasing when they don't feel like investing the time to climb the corporate ladder. We asked that the call receiver make a note of our dissatisfaction and let her manager know that we were unhappy. The thinking here is that if the manager hears that enough, the word makes its way up the ranks.
Not at JetBlue though. Our call receiver refused to tell her manager. The best way to complain, she said, was to visit their web site and use the complaint form there. Three of us here have customer contact center experience. We agreed that we could fix this nonsensical approach in a morning with two coffee breaks -- it's just that easy. We might even do the training free if JetBlue asked nicely.
This wasn't an isolated incident, you see. We tried calling back again and were met with the same brick wall.
Poor customer web experience.
Atrocious call center training.
Nonsensical complaint policies.
JetBlue may have televisions and big seats, but in the battle for customer's hearts and minds, that only works once. Think back to the last time you said to yourself, "I hate doing business with that company, but they give me what I want." It's not a phrase most people say ever and certainly not often.
In the turbulent wake of rising fuel prices, increased competition and a major service quality meltdown, JetBlue may be the next airline finding itself short of customers, cash and finally, solvency.
Labels: airline, customer satisfaction, JetBlue
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