The JetBlue Post Mortem, Part 2: Damage Control
JetBlue's management did just about everything wrong during their Valentine's Day fiasco. But since then, JetBlue CEO David Neeleman's performance has been nearly flawless from a PR/damage-control point of view. Neeleman immediately accepted responsibility for the mess, and he never ran from it. Forbes noticed this as well:
Neeleman's apologized on David Letterman's show, he took out ads in newspapers, sent an email apology to JetBlue fliers, and even posted an mea culpa on YouTube. This appears to be the first time a big-name CEO has used YouTube for damage control, and The Viral Garden says it was a smart move that could have been a brilliant if it Neeleman had added two extra words:"The quick action is not only essential, it's rare. Just look to Jim Samples, the Cartoon Network's former executive vice president and general manager, who resigned last month after a botched advertising campaign in Boston that caused the city to think it was under a terrorist attack. He was practically invisible during that episode."
"This is a classic case of reaching your customers using their tools in their space. But one thing that the commenters at YouTube pointed out was that Neeleman never uttered those 2 magical words; 'I'm sorry.'"
Steinblog says JetBlue's email apology was a sincere attempt to connect to consumers by not just seeking forgiveness, but also by admitting to shortcomings and promising to correct them:
"It illustrates a key point about what happens when a company blows it. They need to apologize, yes. But they also need to manage the perception of their competence and their benevolence. Consumers (humans) forgive lapses in competence. They do not forgive lapses in benevolence. That's what JetBlue is doing. They are admitting (in a sense) that they were incapable of handling the disruption to their system. But, more importantly, they re-iterated the benevolence that is built into their brand and their product. That's why it is so critical in this memo to remind people about JetBlue's whole purpose: "bringing humanity back to air travel". That's key. They are built around giving people great experiences. They can't possibly lose that, and in this apology, you can see that they are re-affirming that, far more than they are making promises about upgrading their systems.
JetBlue ran a textbook PR campaign for damage control, which should always include these four elements:
1) Accept responsibility for your failures.
2) Apologize to your customers.
3) Tell your customers how you will correct the problems that caused your disaster.
4) And finally, keep your promises to improve.
I suspect many fliers will give JetBlue a second chance since the company has bent over backwards to make amends. But to keep those customers coming back, the airline will have to walk the talk. In other words: JetBlue must demonstrate that it really has fixed its problems.