Return Flight Trouble

Note: This column refers to a article originally published by Dov Seidman following a Valentine’s Day storm that left hundreds of thousands of passengers delayed and, worse, hundreds of passengers trapped for hours in tarmac-bound planes. That original column from 2007 follows below.
It happened again. And it likely will keep happening until JetBlue and other airlines get their HOWs in order.
In 2007, after its customers were stranded for hours on tarmac-bound planes during a severe winter storm, JetBlue Airlines CEO and Founder David Neeleman swiftly posted a YouTube video: https://youtu.be/-r_PIg7EAUw
But it did. On Oct. 29 passengers, whose flight was diverted during a surprise autumn snowstorm, were stranded on Hartford’s Bradley International Airport tarmac for as long as seven hours, during which the plane’s pilot was recorded pleading for help from airport personnel because “we can’t seem to get any help from our own company.” This time, JetBlue’s chief operating officer quickly followed up with another YouTube apology in which he (incorrectly) asked customers for a “second chance.
To JetBlue’s credit, they perform in a tough industry with daunting risks (including massive winter storms that strike before Halloween), and they kept their passengers safe during both storms. Nor is the company alone; Bradley Airport’s infrastructure may have been complicit in the most recent problem, and plenty of other airlines have put their customers through similar experiences. And, in the wake of both events JetBlue’s leaders swiftly apologized to customers took responsibility for the problem and laid out corrective actions.
The problem is that this response – which may have qualified as perfectly fine, even exemplary, in the 20th Century business realm — no longer cuts it in the Era of Behavior, which I’ve written about before ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/dovseidman/2011/10/10/how-matters-more-than-ever/). When this type of business crisis occurs, companies should take the opportunity to rethink their cultures so that they truly do not behave in ways that set them up to replicate the same crisis again and again. Specifically, there are three points JetBlue and the airlines industry as a whole should rethink:
1. Why do we adhere to a “How much?” mindset rather than a “HOW” mindset? As I stated four years ago, after JetBlue created its Customer Bill of Rights (*http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcompany/promise/index.html*) as a post-Valentine’s Day correction measure, I “am more convinced than ever that such a policy may be the wrong approach for the airline industry.” Why? Because it reflects the old way of doing business that is woefully out-of-step in a world where values, behavior and culture have become the hard currency of business. The “onboard ground delays” subsection of the Customer Bill of Rights lists the amount of future flight credits customers will receive based on the time they are stranded in tarmac-bound planes (e.g. “Customers who experience an Onboard Ground Delay on Departure for 3-3:59 hours after scheduled departure time are entitled to a $50 Credit good for future travel on JetBlue.”) By translating customer discomfort into a cost, the airline’s transforms a very human event into a cost-benefit analysis. Instead of asking “How much?” during this type of crisis, airlines employees should ask “HOW should we behave in a way that is consistent with our values?”
2. Why do we overemphasize rules while neglecting values? The airlines industry as a whole encourages a similar focus on policies and rules. This focus limits the amount of innovation they can inject into their customer service. The vast majority of media coverage in the wake of the Oct. 29 problems at Bradley discusses whether or not U.S. Department of Transportation’s investigation into the matter might result in a hefty per-passenger fine for JetBlue. While some of these rules are necessary and helpful, an overreliance on them creates an unhealthy crisis-management dynamic in which the pervading question become not “What should we do?” but “What can we do, and how much will it cost us?”
3. Why do we concentrate on compliance while ignoring culture? An over-reliance on rules also elevates compliance while demoting the power of organizational culture. If you’ve ever been trotted on and off of a plane during a lengthy delay so that the airlines can ensure that it complies with maximum-waiting-time rules, you’ve probably experienced your own colorful thoughts about that company’s culture and brand. An organizational culture that truly values its customers enables employees to comply with relevant rules while enabling them to do what’s right.
These types of cultures might still be relatively rare in the airlines industry (as well as other sectors), yet there is reason for hope. After all, the JetBlue pilot who pleaded for help in getting his passengers off the plane never would have risked criticizing his company if his company had not instilled in him a concern for customers. It may take three or more chances, but airlines can still get their HOWs in order.
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PRINTED ON OCTOBER 29, 2007
Flying into Trouble, Again
By Dov Seidman
October 29 2007
Teaser Text: In the wake of a second set of storm-related delays, JetBlue, an industry innovator from its inception, took a unique course of action. Instead of trying to downplay the extent of the inconvenience or hide behind legalities, the company accepted responsibility and acknowledged its failures head on.
Last Valentine’s Day, many of us fell out of love with the airline industry. On that cold February morning, a series of severe storms roiled the eastern United States, leaving unwitting airline travelers stranded — many times for hours — in overcrowded airports or stuffy, tarmac-bound planes. A second round of storms followed a few short weeks later, forcing equally severe delays. More than 100,000 passengers were reported to have been delayed on USAir alone.
In the wake of that second set of delays, JetBlue, an industry innovator from its inception, took a unique course of action. Instead of trying to downplay the extent of the inconvenience or hide behind legalities, the company accepted responsibility and acknowledged its failures head on.
As JetBlue CEO David Neeleman wrote to customers, “We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.” The video he posted on their Web site poignantly supported what he said: It shows a CEO who isn’t hiding behind his desk but personally involved in, and deeply troubled by, what had happened.
The culmination of the company’s response was the creation of the airline industry’s first “Customer Bill of Rights.” It provides cash and vouchers to customers in the event of future avoidable delays. The move seemed to have a palliative effect on lawmakers, diffusing any need for new regulations to compel airlines to approach weather-related delays more humanely. Customer outrage subsided, as it does when immediate irritants abate.
But the problems do not go away. The Los Angeles Times recently called this “The worst summer ever for air travelers.” Kate Hanni, president of the Coalition for and Airline Passenger’s Bill of rights was quoted as saying “I’m aghast there isn’t more public outcry over this. They’re making money hand over fist at the expense of passengers.”
And now the winter comes again. No doubt we will face more weather-related problems and I believe the outrage will quickly return.
But despite Ms. Hanni’s efforts and the praise that greeted the JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights, I am now more convinced than ever that such a policy may be the wrong approach for the airline industry. Although well-intentioned, it’s a step backward, rather than a step ahead. It reflects the old way of doing business, rather than what it takes to win, succeed and endure today.
Why? In the final analysis, business success doesn’t come from granting customers certain rights; it’s about doing that which is right, and building a trusting relationship based on that commitment. The JetBlue Bill of Rights is to be applauded for quantifying its commitment and backing it with customer compensation whenever it fails to measure up. But it doesn’t express to its employees and management what is the right thing to do. Instead it lays out a financial equation for violating its customers’ rights. Absent is an equally explicit moral equation for informing company decisions and actions.
One of the unintended consequences of a customer bill of rights—or any complex new government regulations designed to achieve the same end—could be to provide a convenient, though inadvertent, rationale for making acceptable what was previously inexcusable. Some airlines will simply tabulate the formula, calculate the cost, and choose to pay the fine rather than spare customers unnecessary delays and hardships. Customer experience—the glue that binds us in an increasingly distrustful world—will be sacrificed on the altar of a company cost-benefit analysis.
What the airline industry needs are not more rules or a bill of rights but a credo that is designed to prevent violations of customers’ rights and that sets forth principles for employee decision-making. The question mustn’t be what does this or that rule say about a delay? Or what will this cost in flight vouchers and other outlays? but rather whether an airline should subject its passengers to so great an inconvenience in the first place. Without this credo, the question may end up being “how much will we have to pay” not “what is the right thing to do for our passengers?”
JetBlue, because of its already impressive record in values-based thinking and its commitment to putting its customers first is uniquely able to make this leap. For other airlines with long histories of rules-based approaches though, the evolution will be a more difficult—but still necessary—one.
To recapture the hearts and trust of the flying public, legislators, regulators, and business leaders on all sides need to take a hard look at the budding love affair with passengers’ Bills of Rights and decide whether it will truly protect passengers, or like Valentine’s Day candy, ultimately be a nice gesture that is more form than substance.

This article was originally published in Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dovseidman/2011/11/07/return-flight-trouble/?sh=6c0b91406a2c