I've worked my fair share of customer service jobs-- mostly folding clothes and appeasing cranky hungry people. I know I'm not alone when I say I silently cheered at my desk when I read about the epic way in which Steven Slater quit his flight attendant job with Jet Blue. Who hasn't thought about leaving in a blaze of glory after an encounter with a rude customer? Slater lived the dream for all of us when he grabbed that beer and jumped down the inflatable slide.
Equally impressive is Jet Blue's response to the incident. As much as I love a social media failure, it's important to take time to acknowledge successes. Jet Blue keeps a blog which updates its followers on the industry, media coverage and travel tips. Most of the posts generate a comment or two, but many have 0 comments. I don't have the time to thoroughly investigate, but I'm sure yesterday's posting will create a record number of comments. So far, it's at 123.
It's short and sweet, but it acknowledges the elephant in the room with class and humor. While I wouldn't say that the incident generated negative publicity for Jet Blue, as most people are regarding Slater as a hero, it's certainly still a bit of a sticky situation. A company's true personality is often revealed in situations like this and Jet Blue remained true to its identity and gave its customers a well thought-out response.
I hope Slater finds a new job-- not in customer service.
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