Jet Blue Case
Part 1 – Issues faced by Jet Blue
1 A. Some of the significant issues Jet Blue faced on February 14, 2007 were due to an unexpected ice storm that grounded over 39% of the scheduled flights over a course of three days. Because Jet Blue’s services are intangible, it was hard for the company to make up for the flight cancellations. Also, the services that Jet Blue offers such as flights are perishable. Therefore, all profits from cancelled flights were lost. Another issue faced by Jet Blue was the communication gap between the employees, upper management, and customers. Customers showed up with the expectation of boarding a plane and arriving at their final destinations without any major delays. They believed this because of the “Jet Blue Experience” that promised them the “best customer service in the business” (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2013). However, Jet Blue was unable to provide the customers with what was promised because of factors that were out of their hands, the weather. Another issue faced by Jet Blue’s Valentine’s Day crisis was that they did not provide adequate services to stay within their customer’s zone of tolerance. This can be attributed to the amount of time that some passengers spent on the plane which in some cases was over ten hours. While on the plane the passengers were only fed snacks and given drinks that the airline provided them with and what they had on board. Some passengers complain of the poor air quality while on the plane, comparing their experience to being held hostage. Customer expectations were not reached on any level when they expected outstanding customer service.
1B.
Jet Blue faced many issues due to the storm but the main issue was service failure. Jet Blue passengers did not gain what they expected from the experience. Jet Blue did not have measures in place to start service recovery efforts as soon as the incident happened. They should have been more prepared in terms of wait times, flight
1 A. Some of the significant issues Jet Blue faced on February 14, 2007 were due to an unexpected ice storm that grounded over 39% of the scheduled flights over a course of three days. Because Jet Blue’s services are intangible, it was hard for the company to make up for the flight cancellations. Also, the services that Jet Blue offers such as flights are perishable. Therefore, all profits from cancelled flights were lost. Another issue faced by Jet Blue was the communication gap between the employees, upper management, and customers. Customers showed up with the expectation of boarding a plane and arriving at their final destinations without any major delays. They believed this because of the “Jet Blue Experience” that promised them the “best customer service in the business” (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2013). However, Jet Blue was unable to provide the customers with what was promised because of factors that were out of their hands, the weather. Another issue faced by Jet Blue’s Valentine’s Day crisis was that they did not provide adequate services to stay within their customer’s zone of tolerance. This can be attributed to the amount of time that some passengers spent on the plane which in some cases was over ten hours. While on the plane the passengers were only fed snacks and given drinks that the airline provided them with and what they had on board. Some passengers complain of the poor air quality while on the plane, comparing their experience to being held hostage. Customer expectations were not reached on any level when they expected outstanding customer service.
1B.
Jet Blue faced many issues due to the storm but the main issue was service failure. Jet Blue passengers did not gain what they expected from the experience. Jet Blue did not have measures in place to start service recovery efforts as soon as the incident happened. They should have been more prepared in terms of wait times, flight
References: Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M., & Gremler, D. (2013). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm. McGraw Irwin Hill, 6th edition.