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c h a p t e r8 :ENGAGEMENT ON THE SOCIAL WEB■or India’s Kingfisher or Dubai’s Emirates—to name just a few—with the frustrated,
underpaid, unhappy, and impolite representatives of those airlines known for poor
service. Employees—and their own levels of engagement in the businesses they are part
of—are a huge component of a social business.It’s Eighties Night!
As a practical example of the connection between operations, marketing and social
business, consider JetBlue’s terminal (T5) at JFK. All airlines have delays—they are
part of the trade-off between the reality of weather and a highly interconnected flight
system and the overriding concern for passenger safety. JetBlue’s T5 is the kind of place
one actually looks forward to visiting—shops, restaurants, plenty of free, robust Wi-Fi,
and pleasant open space. I spent an extra few hours there one evening when all but
one of JFK’s main runways had closed due to ice. As I looked around, I was struck by
the relative calm, with a large number of people watching Hulu on their laptops and
patiently waiting.
The robust Wi-Fi in T5 is no accident: JetBlue actually takes a further step in
ensuring that its T5 runs smoothly from the perspective of travelers by recognizing
that Wi-Fi (alng with food, drinks, and engaging activities in shops and restaurants) is
both essential to maintaining a sense of calm (when people are productive or happily
diverted, things work better!). WiFi is also largely a function of external providers: so
JetBlue works with its external Wi-Fi support services to ensure that their services, too,
keep pace with the needs of its customers while in T5.
By comparison, I was on an American Airlines flight home from Boston that
happened to connect in St. Louis a year earlier. Just as we were about to leave St.
Louis, a tornado was spotted. We had to deplane (understandable) but then in a com-
pletely baffling series of missteps, 5,000 passengers were herded into the baggage claim
area (the “safe” area), which as you’ve no doubt guessed placed all of us on the wrong
side of the security check points. Even worse, because no thought had been given to the
actual capacity of the baggage area, many people were actually forced outside, into the
storm as the dark, lower-level baggage area overflowed!
The storm passed in less than 10 minutes. The impact of the mess created by
a total lack of disaster planning (as noted earlier, regulatory fines evidently go every-
where except into services that would actually benefit customers) lasted well into the
next day and at significant out-of-pocket personal costs as thousands of travelers and
families scrambled for food, cabs, and hotel rooms, all of which were suddenly re-
priced at “rack rate.”
Social business is all about connecting customer feedback and business pro-
cesses, about creating systems that trigger and cultivate advocacy. Recovering from its
own near meltdown, JetBlue has reexamined it operations-driven processes to match
its differentiating marketing prowess: The result is the steady rise in the creation of