If Your Company Makes A Mistake, Do What Jet Blue Does: Apologize!
If you’ve been following the news, I’m sure that you heard something about the recent Jet Blue Airline debacle. If you haven’t, here’s a quick recap: Last week passengers were stranded on a Jet Blue flight in JFK Airport for 11 hours. The week to follow, roughly 1000 flights were cancelled, customers luggage were lost and misplaced, and, of course, thousands of people were left stranded away from their loved ones.
So did Jet Blue run and hide and deny everything like so many other companies would have done? No, quite the opposite. Jet Blue quickly addressed the issue and launched a significant apology campaign.
CEO and founder, David Neeleman, was the one who spearheaded the slew apologies and openly accepted blame for the incident. There was absolutely no denying of the issue or lame excuses offered to try and mask the severity of the situation.
Throughout newspapers, magazines, blogs, and new channels, Jet Blue released several apologies and continued to remedy the incident by promising to “never let it happen again.”
Additionally, Jet Blue has offered millions in refunds and flight vouchers to customers. Since starting the company, Neeleman has always been in the corner of the customers and this has never been more apparent than now, when crises such as these arise.
Young entrepreneurs can learn a lot from the Jet Blue reaction and how Neeleman quickly responded. Things are bound to fall apart at some time throughout running your company and that’s okay. We aren’t perfect and mistakes do happen from time to time.
But, it’s all about how you handle the mistake – how you deal with the incident after it occurs. When something goes wrong and your clients suffer as a result of that mishap, you have to respond quickly and be as open about the situation as possible.
Don’t run and hide and try to deny everything. If you go that route, you are bound to lose customers and, more importantly, respect. Be open and admit to your customers what has happened.
Never keep the customer in the dark. Show that you aren’t scared to admit that your company messed up. Show that you are doing everything in your power to remedy the situation. Show that you are taking measures to prevent such a mistake from happening in the future.
When customers see that you are sincerely sorry and that you are taking immediate action, then respect is preserved and your company is in good standings to retain customers that were affected by the situation.
As the founder of a company always remember that you will be held responsible when something goes awry, so takes steps now to plan for how you will respond when a situation arises and customers are left without service.
Pose hypothetical situations about things that may happen with your company and how you would respond. Say, for instance, you owned a hosting company:
Q: What if all of my severs went down for a week, what would I do?
A: I would quickly notify all my clients via email and the company message forum about the situation and credit their accounts with 2 months of free hosting.
By taking the time to pose such questions and answering them, you will be well prepared for future incidences. If you constantly think about the customer experience and build your company around providing excellent service and fast responses to mistakes, you will separate yourself from the pack.
3 Comments
Aaron
February 21st, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Some people have really come down hard on Jet Blue recently but I think that their strong positive reaction is a testament to their true nature.
There’s nothing that angers me more when I have a bad experience than someone that refuses to admit and make it right.
Jet Blue is showing a great example of taking responsibility and showing that you can still be human and corporate.
Entrepreneurs take notes.
Tony D. Clark
February 21st, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Great point, David. I’ve worked with too many entrepreneurs that think they are above taking blame. A little arrogance may help some get ahead, but in the end, it’s the ones who provide value in all circumstances that have lasting success. And the value you provide after a major screw-up is an authentic apology plan, like you’re discussing here.
Damage control and an authentic apology plan are two very different things.
David Askaripour
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Thanks for the comments Aaron & Tony. Yeah, I think Jet Blue set the bar when it comes to an airline messing up and responding effectively and quickly. I think that they are in the game for the long haul.
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