Recently Jet Blue airlines left passengers stranded on an airplane for over ten hours. Needless to say, this collapse in the system caused a loss of customers and business.
The CEO of the company went on the Today show to apologize. He took responsibility for the disaster. He said they would do things differently. The company took out full page ads in newspapers. Lastly, Jet Blue created a passenger Bill of Rights guaranteeing passengers certain rights in these unacceptable situations.
These measures show service recovery in action. Studies show that when problems are solved after a disaster or poor service, customer loyalty often increases. What does your organization do when something goes wrong for your customers? How do you treat your customers? What would you create in your Bill of Rights?
The weather, which began much of this fiasco, is unpredictable. Your response and how you choose to treat your customers should not be.