On February 14, JetBlue had its own version of the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Lots of people really liked the airline on February 13.

JetBlue's business plan seemed to be to take the basic model of Southwest Airlines and beat that airline in several key ways.  They used two sizes of plane. Seats are leather and there's lots of legroom. Every passenger has his or her own TV to watch during the flight.

Not only that, JetBlue had great customer service.  Their people, on the air and the ground, were enthusiastic and helpful. And instead of outsourcing to a foreign land, JetBlue home-sourced reservations work to Americans working from home.

People liked JetBlue.  Until Valentine's Day. 

The snow hit and JetBlue just wasn't prepared. Cancelled flights, stranded passengers, and clogged phone lines were trumped by the experiences of passengers left crammed into planes on the tarmac and left for hours. 

Television news loved it.  The pictures of angry passengers made for great TV.  The bloggers loved it.  The snow hadn't even stopped before they were piling on with comments about how awful JetBlue was.

What's happened since has been covered in several news stories.  One of the best is from the February 27 Wall Street Journal, titled "Lessons on the Fly: JetBlue's New Tactics."  That article reviews the lessons JetBlue seems to be learning.  But if you're got a business to run, you can learn some lessons from the JetBlue experience, too.

Lesson One: Critical Incidents Matter Most

A critical incident is one that doesn't happen often, but which has incredible impact when it does. No matter what you did before, the critical incident defines you for a lot of people.  That's true in a good way for Rudy Giuliani after 9/11 and it's true in a not-so-good way for JetBlue.

Before February 14, JetBlue had a great reputation. Passengers told each other about the good experiences they'd had on the airline.  Even on Valentine's Day, thousands of people took JetBlue flights outside the snow area and had good experiences. 

But critical incidents can define a company or individual's image.  JetBlue had been slated for fourth place in Business Weeks cover story list of "Customer Service Champs."

Critical Incidents confer an emotional impact that's all out of proportion to the actual events.  9/11 made New Yorkers forget how they saw their Mayor on 9/10. The Valentine's Day JetBlue Massacre moved the public opinion needle far from where it stood on February 13.

Lesson Two: The First Thing to Do is Own Up to the Situation

There are a lot of things JetBlue could have done in the wake of Valentine's Day.  An airline spokesperson could have said that their policy was not to pre-cancel flights and offered the rationale for that policy.  The same spokesperson could have outlined all the weather and regulatory and infrastructure reasons why the TV cameras were showing those angry passengers and imply that it wasn't the airline's fault.

Instead, we saw David Neeleman, founder and CEO of JetBlue, apologizing and promising changes to JetBlue's procedures.  On February 22, Neeleman sent an email to all JetBlue customers apologizing for how JetBlue responded on Valentine's Day and outlining what they airline would do differently in the future.

It's the right thing to do to own up to the problem.  It's a good thing to have the CEO do it.

Lesson Three: Owning Up to the Situation Doesn't Mean a Thing Unless Performance Changes

Good so far.  But ultimately only performance counts. 

As luck would have it, President's Day Weekend brought another storm.  This time JetBlue was more pro-active in canceling flights.  This time those home-sourcing reservation workers piled up the overtime calling passengers. The airline analyzed itineraries and came up with some creative travel solutions.  Not everyone was happy, but it was way better than Valentine's Day.

Good so far. But only real changes in performance count.

None of what JetBlue has done so far will mean a thing if there aren't some real, substantive changes to the way they handle weather crises.  The next snow storm, or thunderstorm, the TV news directors will be sending cameras straight to the JetBlue gates.

Lesson Four: Customer relationships are about trust.

The relationships you have with your customers are based on trust. In your advertising and your customer contacts, you make promises.  Your customers expect you to keep them.

Trust is built slowly, the way a tree grows.  And trust can be cut down quickly, the way a majestic oak can fall to a chainsaw.

The challenge for JetBlue is to rebuild trust and make changes in their operations that will not set things back again.  The challenge for you is to learn from JetBlue so you don't face the same, daunting challenge.

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

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