Customer Service at JetBlue

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the incident with JetBlue on February 14, 2007 at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York when the company kept customers in planes for over 10 hours on the tarmac waiting for approval to take off during an ice storm. The paper explains that they wanted to preserve their online departure metrics but ended up seriously damaging their reputation. The paper learns from this fiasco that when even the most well-intentioned culture gets too focused on measures of performance, the service and expectations of customers suffer from a lapse in service judgment.

From the Paper:

"The airline industry's many challenges in managing customers' perceptions of service emanate from the many pressures the industry is under, including the rising cost of fuel driving the need for packing planes with more and more seats, the all-important on-time arrival and departure statistics, and the attainment of profitability. Often all these factors, when combined with weather, force airlines to focus only on accomplishing objectives that get measured, instead of staying true to the expectations and commitments they make to customers. This was certainly the case with JetBlue on February 14, 2007 at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York (Waite, 2007)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Wade, J (2007). JetBlue's Black Eye. Risk Management, 54(4), 8. Retrieved March 8, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1255455721).
• Waite, M (2007). Managing Under Crisis: The Source of Atonement at JetBlue Airways. The Business Review, Cambridge, 9(1), 187-191. Retrieved March 8, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1416813471).
• Zeithami, V, & Bitner, M (2005). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

More papers on Customer Service at JetBlue:

• Research Paper # 97781 : "Customer Service at JetBlue Airways"
• Case Study # 139482 : "Jetblue Airways - Customer Experience"
• Term Paper # 133370 : "Customer Service at the GAP"

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