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DESIGNING AND MANAGING SERVICES | CHAPTER 13 363

Most companies respond quickly. Comcast allows contact 24/7 by phone and e-chat but also
reaches out to customers and monitors blogs, Web sites, and social media. If employees see a cus-
tomer report a problem on a blog, they get in touch and offer help. E-mail responses to customers
must be implemented properly to be effective. One expert believes companies should (1) send an
automated reply to tell customers when a more complete answer will arrive (ideally within
24 hours), (2) ensure the subject line always contains the company name, (3) make the message
easy to scan for relevant information, and (4) give customers an easy way to respond with follow-
up questions. 31
More important than simply responding to a disgruntled customer, however, is preventing
dissatisfaction from occurring in the future. That may mean simply taking the time to nurture
customer relationships and give customers attention from a real person. Columbia Records spent
$10 million to improve its call center, and customers who phone the company can now opt out to
reach an operator at any point in their call. JetBlue took a service disaster and used it to improve its
customer service approach.

JetBlue CEO David Neeleman set the bar high for responding to enraged customers
after the company’s drastic Valentine’s Day failure of 2007. During storms in New York City,
JetBlue left hundreds of passengers stranded aboard grounded aircraft—some for longer than
9 hours without amenities—and cancelled more than 1,000 flights. JetBlue had built its reputa-
tion on being a more responsive,humane airline in an era of minimal services and maximal delays.
Neeleman knew he had to act fast to stem another kind of storm: a whirlwind of customer defections. Within JetBlue weathered a customer
24 hours,he had placed full-page ads in newspapers nationwide in which he personally responded to JetBlue’s service disaster and continues to
receive kudos from its passengers.
debacle.“We are sorry and embarrassed,” the ads declared,“But
most of all we are deeply sorry.” JetBlue gave concrete repara-
tions to passengers. Neeleman announced a new “customer bill
of rights” that promised passengers travel credits for excessive
waits. For instance, passengers who are unable to disembark
from an arriving flight for 3 hours or more would receive vouchers
worth the full value of their round-trip ticket.JetBlue will also hand
out vouchers for the full amount of passengers’ round trips if a
flight is cancelled within 12 hours of a scheduled departure. The
apology, backed by concrete benefits for the angry and inconve-
nienced passengers, netted kudos for the company from both the
business press and JetBlue’s own true blue customers.Neeleman
eventually stepped down as new management was brought in to
address some of the growth challenges the airline faced. 32
CUSTOMER COPRODUCTION The reality is that
customers do not merely purchase and use a service; they
33
play an active role in its delivery. Their words and actions
affect the quality of their service experiences and those of
others, and the productivity of frontline employees.
Customers often feel they derive more value, and feel a
stronger connection to the service provider, if they are ac-
tively involved in the service process. This coproduction
can put stress on employees, however, and reduce their
satisfaction, especially if they differ culturally or in other
ways from customers. 34 Moreover, one study estimated
that one-third of all service problems are caused by the
35
customer. The growing shift to self-service technologies
will likely increase this percentage.
Preventing service failures is crucial, since recovery
is always challenging. One of the biggest problems is
attribution—customers often feel the firm is at fault or,
even if not, that it is still responsible for righting any