I just wanted to say something about the apology that I received in my email from JetBlue Airlines.
We all mess up...it's a fact. I have flown JetBlue in the past (the Nashville to JFK route) and loved the ammenities that are offered on their flights. Based on that statement, you might say that I am biased on this, but trust me...I fly enough and i've seen just about everything every major airline has to offer. That's beside the point. Last week proved to be an interesting week for JetBlue with long delays and a lot of cancelled flights due to the bad weather around the US. The media was all over this screw up and seemed to be probing and exposing a breakdown in their system. This week however, instead of scrambling to point fingers and have someone lose their job (or jobs), JetBlue's CEO and founder, David Neeleman spoke out and did something that I've never seen happen in business before: he apologized and said that he had failed and would fix the problem. Here's a quote from the email that I received:
"You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us. "
Here's the lesson that we should all take from this as business leaders: Have pride in what you do and be honest and up front when (not if) things go awry.
Good luck to JetBlue and I will see you again very soon!