JetBlue update: Neeleman hits YouTube

In another display reinforcing the idea that JetBlue understands how to communicate in a crisis, CEO David Neeleman has produced a video and had it uploaded to YouTube. Neeleman doesn’t read—in fact, he comes across as very human with a lot of “umms” as he speaks off-the-cuff, probably from a simple outline of things he wanted to cover.

In the video, Neeleman addresses steps JetBlue is taking to ensure the events of last week never happen again. These include…

• Ensuring non-airport crew personnal are badged and on standby should they need to get to the airport to help out if they’re needed
• Increasing the number of phone lines to handle reservation changes
• Tripling the size of the group that schedules pilots and flight attendants; the group was overwhelmed during last week’s fiasco

JetBlue also announced its new delayed passenger reimbursement program, which it has made retroactive to February 15 to accommodate everyone who was stuck last week:

• 1-2-hour delay: $25 off a future flight
• 2-4-hour delay: $50 off a future flight
• Delay of six-plus hours: Free round-trip ticket

The only thing keeping JetBlue’s behavior in this crisis from becoming a case study is the remarkable dismissal of the company’s website as a channel for getting this information—and the company’s reaction—to the public. As I noted in my last post on JetBlue, Neeleman’s pseudo-blog (no comments) hasn’t been updated since February 1; it still has a lead item headlined, “2007 Takes Off in the Right Direction.” The lastest press release covers the passenger bill of rights, but nothing on the site covers the apology or delivers the same tone of humanity and genuine concern and regret that infuses all the other communications. That’s too bad given what we know about the increased reliance on the web by customers.

Update: A huge hat-tip to Dominic Jones for pointing out that the JetBlue home pageis now dominated by a notice that links to a special page set up just to address this issue. It leads with the YouTube video and includes Neeleman’s video apology. Nice work, if a little late. (Remember, we’re functioning these days in the 90-second news cycle.) And the pseudo-blog still hasn’t been updated (or turned into a real blog).

1. I was going to comment on the lack of coordination between the website and the YouTube video, but when I visited about five minutes ago, there was a big banner on the JetBlue homepage linking to this page. It’s almost 3:00 p.m. Eastern as I post this.

   A pity that there’s no opportunity for customers to comment on the above web page, except by e-mail. (Isn’t email the new snail mail?)

   Posted by Dominic Jones  on  02/20  at  11:47 AM

2. Great blog! As somebody who works with senior executives on “crisis management,” JetBlue seems to really understand the importance of using “new media” to get their message out. I have really been impressed by the way they have handled this situation from a PR standpoint.

   I had a great experience with JetBlue just this week and I wrote a blog entry about it. If you get a chance check it out!

   http://thenierenblog.typepad.com

   Posted by AndreaN  on  02/21  at  09:48 AM

3. They’ve just emailed their customer database with a link to the page as well:

   http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/promise/index.html?source=ap_2promise

   I think this is a really great response to failure, and I can’t imagine any other airline I use reaching out in this way.

   Posted by Martyn Davies  on  02/22  at  02:21 AM

4. Interesting - what’s happening at JetBlue. It *used* to be my favorite way to travel. No more. I don’t think I’m even willing to give them a second chance. The thought of being held hostage for 11 hours (or 9 hours or 6 hours) is too scary. I would have had to be taken off the plane on a stretcher.

   JetBlue did more than stumble. They felt down and broke both kneecaps…and I don’t know how long is will take them to recover (a video announcing a customer bill of rights doesn’t cut it with me - that was *understood* from the beginning), but it will be a VERY long time before I consider flying JetBlue again.

   Here’s the intersting thing - their marketing manager (Tim Claydon) spoke in my hometown a few months ago and I pitched him a blog. He ignored me. Hey, Tim, if you’re still there - wanna start a blog?

   Posted by Yvonne DiVita  on  02/22  at  07:15 AM

5. Well, in their defense, his ‘blog’ is a flight log, or flog ... so what’d you expect?

   Posted by David Weiner  on  02/22  at  09:29 AM

6. Did you see Neeleman on Letterman? I think it was Tuesday night. He had such a great opportunity and pretty much blew it. Letterman kept asking why JetBlue had such problems when the other airlines didn’t. Neeleman wouldn’t answer. He kept on with the We’re sorry, It won’t happen again, etc. But he wouldn’t say how he was going to make sure it wouldn’t happen. Perhaps the uTube video is to give an answer - after the fact… Still, better late than never.

   Posted by Christie Goodman  on  02/22  at  08:20 PM

7. I also recently commented on this…I thought this particularly interesting on the heals of (and in comparison to) the apology from Turner regarding the guerilla marketing.  Here’s my take:
   http://communitygrouptherapy.com/2007/02/21/an-online-community-apologyjetblue/

   Sean

   Posted by Sean ODriscoll  on  02/23  at  07:00 PM

8. Agree with David his blog is flight log…

   Posted by Bill  on  02/08  at  09:31 AM