Jet Blue CEO David Neeleman, after being grilled for almost an hour by Chuck Salter of Fast Company: “Of course, I’m disappointed. Bitterly disappointed. I built a great business, and I have great people working for me… . You’re overdoing it. Delta screwed people for two days, and we did it for three and a half, okay? So go ask Delta what they did about it. Why don’t you grill them?”

Salter’s response is interesting: “Because Delta is not JetBlue. Neither is American. The fact that those airlines stranded customers during the storm isn’t surprising. They simply met the public’s low expectations. JetBlue is an airline that aspires to be better….”

These quotes are from an article in the May 7, 2007 edition of Fast Company (I rail on Fast Company when they deserve it, but I praise them when they deserve praise—such as in this article). 

Jet Blue has become known for its exceptional customer service. It sets high standards for itself and strives like the dickens to live up to them. So, when chaos came upon the discount air carrier in February, it looked ten times worse than how the other airlines treated their customers.

A friend of mine made an interesting parallel. He said, “It’s like when a well-known Christian is discovered having an affair, everyone castigates him. But when an atheist has an affair, everyone shrugs their shoulders. He’s not holding himself accountable to a higher standard.” How true.

So, with Jet Blue having to dig themselves out a deeper hole than the rest of the airlines, what was the tactic?

The Value of Integrity

In my opinion, Neeleman did what a man of integrity always does: He apologized. He made no excuses. He acknowledged the errors, apologized profusely, and learned from the mistakes.

Good customer service practically dictates that, so it’s really sad when many leaders do the opposite after a mistake: They do the CYA dance while they deny, deny, deny.

If anyone is doubting the value of an apology, check out this stat reported in the Fast Company article:

Compete Inc., a consumer-intelligence firm, conducted a poll in late February of 428 people who had visited JetBlue’s Web site the month before. Despite the colossal Valentine’s Day meltdown, 43% preferred JetBlue, the most for any airline. [emphasis added]

If more top leaders had Neeleman’s openness and integrity, the world of work would be a much better place.

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Management, Leadership, Customer Service, Workplace