Comments

Welcome back Tom!!!

It is good to have your passion back on this blog. I wonder if it is all really simple as per: Passion (including heaps of downright pigheadedness)= Leadership.

In the story you tell surely JB had a "duty of care" which it did not exercise...

When you and I knowingly don't do something at all, or knowingly don't do something well, and that something is important we usuallly get some sort of recurring nightmare from it. JB will get a recurring nighmare from this... This is the sort of thing that can start the rot that leads to the end of a successful company...

It is a cautionary tale for us all and it leaves me with a warning ringing in my head.

Perform your "duty of care" always and you are on the way to excellence in whatever you do...

Stay well and have fun.

Richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at February 16, 2007 3:45 PM

Amen and amen. Too often we see these large corporations failing their customers at the highest of levels. If JetBlue's Board was on the plane, this issue would never have happened. At some point, companies have got to remember they are here to serve, not just here to make money with no conscience.

Posted by Dave Smay at February 16, 2007 3:57 PM

Tom, I'd be eating prison cookies right beside you. I saw Miles O'Brien this morning on CNN saying he would have ripped open the emergency exit. He questioned how much trouble he would have been in. Another person I was talking to this morning suggested faking a heart attack. After 11 hours trapped on a plane, I wouldn't have to fake it!

A buddy of mine e-mailed me yesterday from his Blackberry as he was trapped on a US Air flight. He wrote: "I figured I throw this tidbit of another reason for an Air Passenger Bill of Rights.

My 11:45am USAir flight is NOW just pushing back at 4:45pm...this after boarding us over an hour ago and then waiting for passengers from the 4:30pm flight to pack this flight."

It got worse. They finally left for the 40-minute flight...and landed in Philadelphia on what he described like this: "Just landed....but we're stuck on the tarmac because our wonderful airport crews haven't plowed and there are no clear gates available!

The runways have about 3" of ice on them...it felt like we were driving down railroad tracks!

Unbelievable."

So, on a plane for over 8 hours...and no apologies, no free flights, no peanuts. I swear, the more way these cattle cars are running, I'd pick driving from PHL to SFO. And JetBlue? Dead to me because of your story.

Posted by Frank Roche at February 16, 2007 4:16 PM

I blogged about this incident yesterday. Since then I've wondered at what point a person is considered a hostage. If I refused to let you leave my office, wouldn't that be kidnapping? If I refused to let you off my airplane, isn't that kidnapping?

Posted by Glenn (Customer Service Experience) Ross at February 16, 2007 7:34 PM

I like Tom Peters :-)

Posted by Just a Fan at February 16, 2007 8:11 PM

The book of "bad airline experiences" will some day rival Ripley's Believe it or Not.

I checked into an American Airlines flight two weeks ago at 5:45 AM and waited 45 minutes to get to one of the 2 attendants. I politely commented "I guess someone from your team did not show up this morning", since that seemed slow for mid-week early morning. The gruff reply was "No, this is normal. The line was moving fast. I was watching. We didn't even have to call anyone out of the line to make their flight"

"45 minutes is fast?" I asked incredulously.

The irate reply, with a sweep of her hand towards the far end of a very large terminal was "yes - usually it goes way down there".

So now I know something I previously did not. A 35 minute lineup for a service that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars is reasonable. Silly me.

Being treated with courtesy is a bonus which apparently I did not pay for.

Posted by Doug Keeley at February 16, 2007 9:54 PM

Hi Tom,

Thanks for posting about this. I was an 11-hour hostage on Valentine's day and started a blog. I hope you don't mind that I put a link from my blog to yours.

For me, this is not the end.

Love,
Gen
www.jetbluehostage.com

Posted by Genevieve at February 16, 2007 10:35 PM

Funny, when one travels to Europe and Asia, at many of the airports an actual Jetway is a luxury. One departs the aircraft from a metal stairway and a shuttle takes you to the terminal.

How hard is that?

Posted by carbonboy at February 17, 2007 4:40 AM

Sure, being stuck on a grounded plane for even 1 hour is a bad deal, being there for 11 is truly horrible. But at least Jet Blue called it something. They mentioned it. They made not of it. While a free flight, etc. won't make up for the 11 hourse of time that will never be recovered. what would Delta have done? anything. just said "sorry" and move on.

According to the disclaimers on the airline ticket, if "mother nature" causes a delay or cancellation the customer is just out of luck. The airline isn't responsible.

At least Jet Blue said and did something. sure it wasn't enough, but what would be enough for being stuck on a plain for 11 hours?

Posted by Rob at February 17, 2007 9:26 AM

Genevieve ... good on you! (We will link to your Blog!) So tell us--I guess it's 911--why you guys didn't revolt? Or did you? Were you threatened if you showed excessive emotion??

(Great fast reaction on the Web. Don't you just love it?)

Posted by tom peters at February 17, 2007 9:53 AM

Richard, I love "duty of care." Is that original to you? (If so I will cite you when I steal it!)

Posted by tom peters at February 17, 2007 9:55 AM

1. Radical class action - have endured 3 hours - and the flight attendents were not behaving in a lovemark fashion - more like Gestapo!

Posted by sean_class_action at February 17, 2007 11:13 AM

The interesting thing about Jet Blue is that when David Neelman became CEO he re-built the JB airline by demanding excellence in customer service and also ensuring that the policies he put in place be followed up by all employees at every level in the organization. I believe that over the past few years JB has been extremely successful because of it's customer service philosophies and attention to detail.It will be most interesting to see how this incredible blunder is resolved.I feel that JB will do the right thing in this matter as it has done in the past.
Gary

Posted by Gary at February 17, 2007 12:16 PM

Tom

"duty of care" as I use it here is original to me... I use it as the "fixer" for so much that goes pear-shaped in our world...

BUT HOLD THE PHONE...

Having a "duty or care" to you Tom (and to TP & Company) I have to qualify that claim. I have been using the term for the past 20 years and so I have adopted it as my own. I cannot, for the life of me, recall my "primary" source.

However, I became WELL known for using this term as my "litmus test" for public policy. I was always banging on about our "duty of care" not to under-estimate the "unintended consequences" of our leadership style, strategies on key issues, public policy settings, etc.

My best guess as to its true origins is that it dates back to the Greeks simply because they had such high expectations of their Gods...

Richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at February 17, 2007 9:27 PM

JetBlue failed at every level on Wed. at JFK. Before I left NYC I called to confirm the flight; checked the website; and checked the JFK site. All systems go. Forty five minutes and a $60 cab ride later, the flight is canceled. Their 800 # said it was overloaded and hung up. The kiosks at JFK wouldn't acknowledge any confirmation code nor tell the passenger that the flight was canceled. The manager walking around with the bullhorn said nothing to the anxious crowd. Eighty-five minutes in line to get re-booked for a Saturday flight.

This will be their end. JB has been "profitable" because they didn't have to start paying for planes until last year. And they sent some back. This week will squash their profit - and kill the WOM that was keeping them going.

However, who can you fly that doesn't screw you? Even SWAir cancels or delays flights due to missing crews or flights that are less than half full.

Even if Congress chooses to make a law, who will enforce it? The F-Agencies like the FTC and FCC have a history of doing a poor job regulating big business (see Bells, RAMBUS, Microsoft).

Posted by Peter Radizeski at February 18, 2007 1:16 AM

I wasn't on the jetblue planes and would probably be irate as well.

For everyone that wasn't on those flights, aren't we getting a little full ourselves? Those who own/work for companies that haven't faltered in customer service can cast the first stone.

We're not talking about a corporate giant walking over "the people" in this case. JetBlue is THE industry leader in customer service.

"For the third consecutive year, Jet Blue was the best performing airline according to the 16th annual national Airline Quality Rating (AQR)" study.
http://www.aqr.aero/pressreleases/2006pressrelease.htm

Yes, they slipped big-time on this event. What company hasn't? Are you still doing business with your phone company? Cable TV supplier? Food market? Cell phone provider? Tom Peters?

They have all faltered and apologized (I'm guessing you've made at least one customer service mistake in your career, Tom!).

Has Jet Blue been arogant in their post-event response? No

Ok, off the soap box now.

Posted by Jeff at February 18, 2007 1:27 PM

Jeff, are you in PR at JetBlue?

Posted by Frank Roche at February 18, 2007 3:48 PM

Frank Roche, LOL.....no, but it would make sense based on the post!

My point is that almost none of our companies/organizations can stand the zero tolerance policy being expressed here. Jet Blue is #1 is customer service in their industry, and we want to close them down for one bad (horrible) instance?

How about GE? They have poisoned the the Hudson River with PCBs and it took years and the US EPA to force them to take action.

How about Exxon/Mobile? Articles everyday about an oil spill disaster on Long Island.

How about BMW, Shell, VW, Siemens, Daimler benz, Ford, Bayer et al? All have been linked to the Nazis and the Holocaust (linked, but I can't document guilt).

How about CSX, Aetna, Fleet Boston Financial and scores of others? All have been linked to profiting from slavery in the US.

and we want to close down Jet Blue for a bad decision in a snow storm? It just doesn't compute. I get it for those that were on board, but not those of us reading the papers about it.

Posted by Jeff at February 18, 2007 4:41 PM

I agree with Jeff.
Even this blog has had its not-so-shining moments.

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The same people--herein, Seth Godin, other blogs--have championed JetBlue for the last two years as a shining example of how an airline can be well run and profitable. One (major) mistake and it's now "death to Jet Blue!"

The FAA has a part in this fiasco, also. There are regs about when passengers can and can not be allowed on and off planes. If the plane gets to a spot where passengers are not allowed to disembark and then can not either go on or go back, they are stuck until they can move the plane. This is what happened to NWA several years ago when they had exactly the same problem in Detroit and other airports due to a heavy snow storm. So let's say Jet Blue opens the door and tells you "go ahead and leave." How are you going to get from the plane to the ground? They can't push stairways around in two feet of snow. If you do get off, you will probably get frostbite on your way back to the terminal and sue everyone. Once you make it to the terminal, how are you going to get inside? So, yes, there was horrible planning and other miscues that lead to this disaster, but I don't think the airline should be pilloried for it. The CEO did say it was unacceptable and he meant it. If he would have sworn and yelled "heads will roll!" that may have made you feel better, but it would not have solved the problem.

Yup, airline travel sucks these days.

Posted by Mike at February 19, 2007 3:17 PM

Yeah one major mistake is all it would take for me to get fired or not get paid by a client - if I do not accept the responsibily of my "duty of care" for the work I do I am history. There is no appeal process for me to discuss the mitigating circumstances. I would simply be told "welcome to life in the corporate world today"...

For JB this was a huge mistake because:

1) the company had been deemed to be remarkable and had heaps of free "word of mouth" publicity that was all positive - now some of that will turn negative

2) the company prides itself on providing first class customer service - now it has a small but very angry set of customers who have a first class channel for airing their grievances: they are on the Internet

3) the company prides itself on the CEO being on his aircraft talking to his customers at least once a week - now he has some real fences to mend (he could start by asking himself - what would I have done differently after the event if I had been on that aircraft for 11 hours?)

JB is not dead as many of you claim - far from it, but, it is on "a slippery slope" right now... This is the real test of a good company - I would love to be right in the middle of their bull pit discussing their options right now... I believe that the JB executives have to show true grit and leadership here - they have to revamp the company to better handle information flows, they have to learn from this disaster and train key staff to act differently when faced with unexpected delays, disruptions, etc.

This could be an exhillarating time in the history of JB - this is a time in a company when the legends and the stories (the type that can shape and sustain a thirty year corporate culture) are born.

JB had the makings of a very good company that could operate in an extremely difficult industry but now they have a GREAT OPPORTUNITY to build an EXCELLENT company... It would be a great shame if JB can not learn from their mistakes....

WOW what a challenge JB has ahead of it - I wish them well with it.... If you can - why not sign on with them today? They are going to need talent, leadership, workplace reform, etc (many of the things we all love to bang on about on this blog) to help them turn around the place....

Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at February 19, 2007 4:22 PM

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1. Jeff & Richard - appreciate the thinking here ...

2. To me since I fly maybe 1 time / 2-years - a. just a bit of federal regulation needed - and, b. radical lawsuits of customers ...

3. Customers must make time to exchange business cards & organize while on the plane - make it easy to get 100's raking 10's of millions in class action

Posted by sean_rarely_fly at February 19, 2007 5:27 PM

JB is still trying to recover !! Disastor recovery n preprededness is not part of the survial strategy. What gives ??

Should not all these business have a sound recovery plan ??

This is one of the most intriguing cases in terms of business continuity planning !!

Posted by /pd at February 19, 2007 8:46 PM

Hi Tom,
Don't want to nit pick actually, but "Duty of Care" is actually a legal term, used extensively in legal literature (the law of torts). If the "Duty of care" by a service provider to a customer is violated then the service provider can be sued by the customer.

Posted by Mandar at February 21, 2007 2:10 AM

Mandar

"Nit picking" when based on knowledge is most welcome.... "Duty of Care" is a great term and I will continue to use it - but not in complete ignorance anymore... Thanks for that...

Richard.

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Posted by Richard Lipscombe at February 21, 2007 5:43 AM

Richard,
Thank you.
Mandar

Posted by Mandar at February 23, 2007 12:37 AM