Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, September 30, 2024
by Neil Senturia
Your most valued asset is the customer. Keep in touch with them, make them happy.
My bride and I were in New York City for business and pleasure. We are flying home on JetBlue on Sept. 21. The airline keeps us updated frequently with texts and emails. We are informed of a gate change.
We take off early, the perfect ending to a fabulous week.
Pause.
In 2015, the La Jolla Playhouse premiered “Come From Away,” the story of what happened on 9/11 when 38 planes carrying approximately 7,000 passengers were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport.
Needless to say, confusion abounded. Pilots, flight attendants and passengers initially were forbidden from even getting off the plane. When the dust settles, it is the good people of Gander, the locals, who bring comfort, opening up their homes and providing food, etc. The musical won a Tony and ran for 1,669 performances on Broadway.
At 34,000 feet, our JetBlue plane suddenly drops to 5,000 feet. The captain tells us that an alarm, a sensor, has gone off in the baggage compartment, could be smoke, could be fire, abundance of caution, we are landing in Salina, Kan. We are told to get off the plane immediately. Take nothing. We walk to the small terminal. It is raining.
By the way, I have an intense, personal and life-changing involvement in Salina, Kan. I was born there. On Sept. 20 (1892).Firetrucks greet us on the tarmac. But no smoke, no fire.
In fairness, at this point, safety first. The passengers are confused. Salina Regional Airport, Salina, Kan., please meet Gander International Airport, Gander Newfoundland.
The Salina Airport is serviced by only one passenger airline, SkyWest Airlines. Kansas might be thought of as flyover country by some, but when you need to land, you need to land. Fortunately, the runway is long because it was once home to the Strategic Air Command.
What happens next is right out of the playbook — how can we alienate 159 customers as quickly as possible?
At this point, the requirement to communicate becomes paramount. Unfortunately, the JetBlue cabin crew is clueless. It goes into “Don’t look at me, I don’t know anything.”
Is anyone in charge?
Several passengers, having left their backpacks, needed to get medicine. Nope. Can’t get back on the plane. The terminal is awash with families, small children, people who don’t speak English. Still no information.
Finally, the captain comes into the terminal and tells us that another JetBlue plane is coming for us from Boston, and he and the crew are flying the original airplane back to Boston. Safe enough for them, but not for us.
About two hours later, my bride, Ms. Bry, calls JetBlue customer service, and is told that the plane has not even left Boston yet — after being told by the captain that the plane was in the air. One wonders why JetBlue, which has all our email addresses, could not tell us anything. During our entire stay in Salina, JetBlue never contacted us.
Led by Stephanie Flanagan, the Salina airport general manager, the local team steps up big time and takes charge. They organize, they were the ones who got the personal stuff off the plane, they give us water and snacks, they order pizza. They stay very late. They care.
What happens of course is that relationships form among the 159 passengers. People help other people. We find commonality, names, connections. This is social media, in real time, not on the Internet. The common enemy is JetBlue and its inability to tell us anything.
I call customer service. I finally get a supervisor who tells me, “The computer shows that your flight has already landed in San Diego.” That’s strange, we were still in the Salina terminal. We were supposed to arrive in San Diego at 7 p.m. on Saturday. We actually arrived at 3:45 a.m. on Sunday.
This is not a unique story. Happens all the time. Every CEO knows that telling your customer the truth quickly, even the bad news, is the absolute baseline for customer retention.
The next morning, I get two emails from JetBlue, one telling me my bags are on carousel 3 and one with an apology and a $150 credit for a future flight. Probably will go unredeemed.
Rule No. 826: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.