Jet-no-star

This is going to be a long one. Customer service guarantees and their use by companies as marketing with no real consequences is a pet brand peeve of mine.

There have been a few stories in the news these past week (and another one today), about Jetstar’s new customer charter – the centrepiece in their efforts to address the ongoing onslaught of customer complaints about the airline.

I’ll start by saying that Jetstar are not alone in providing dodgy customer service, and that among all types of customers, airline passengers seem to have dibs on some bad behavior of their own. So kudos to Jetstar for trying to front up to the problem, but the question for me is – are they? Or is their customer charter a marketing ploy designed to placate the government and lull prospective passengers into a false-sense-of-security?

Customer charter, warranty, guarantee – no matter what you call it – is meaningless unless it carries real consequences for the company for failing to deliver what was promised. Doesn’t matter if that was a flight that takes off and lands at certain times; a car that stops when you hit the brakes; a shirt which buttons stay stitched on; or a load of rock for your construction project.

In so many cases customer service focus is reactive, only becoming an issue for the company when the heat for poor performance threatens the organisation in some way. To my somewhat cynical mind, this is where the latest one for Jetstar sits.

After years touting their customer service credentials in ads, while piling up horror stories on the side, the threat of government intervention seems to have motivated Jetstar to take a good hard look inside their own house.

The recent stranding of passengers in Thailand for three days proved to be “a very expensive exercise” according to Jetstar CEO, Bruce Buchanan, costing the airline about $1 million dollars for the exercise. Ticket refunds and passenger compensation levels for that incident reportedly surprised the industry notorious for offering jibbed passenger the equivalent of a pat on the head and a biscuit. But is that the new norm at Jetstar?

Let’s look at the actual Jetstar customer charter:

1. Your safety is our highest priority.
2. We commit to provide the lowest fares with our “Price Beat Guarantee”.
3. Our team are always here to help, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
4. We’ll let you know your choices if your flight is changed before you travel.
5. We’ll keep you updated and provide options if things don’t go to plan on the day.
6. You will get what you paid for.
7. You can have confidence in how quickly we will respond to an issue.
8. You can have confidence in how quickly we will refund you money.
9. We share your passion for protecting our environment.
10. We commit to the privacy of your personal information.
For the full text click here.

Of the 10 points, quite a few fall into the “I would hope so” bucket and others are vague fluff language. Granted, the website has more detail behind each one. So digging a bit deeper, let’s look at #4 – We’ll let you know your choices if your flight is changed before you travel.

In an interesting language point, when does a flight move from being classified “before you travel” to “when you travel”? It’s an important point because failure to notify me, according to the charter, means I get a $50 travel voucher.

The charter says it will notify me using the contact details used when I make my booking, let me know new flight details – so receive an email or an SMS and if Jetstar doesn’t do this we have to call them and they will give us a $50 voucher.

Note you will have to CALL THEM to let them know they didn’t do something they promised in a customer charter that was their base standard of service, and then you get a $50 voucher to compensate you, which in a city like Melbourne won’t even cover the cost of a cab to the airport.

I got back to my initial point that a guarantee is only a guarantee if there are real consequences for not doing what you promise and unfortunately much of the Jetstar customer charter is fairly toothless.

For comparison, here are a few guarantees that have teeth.

My favourite of all time is from Granite Rock – a US company that sells gravel, crushed rock, sand and concrete. Their commitment to customer satisfaction led them to add a line to every invoice they generate: “If you are not satisfied for any reason, don’t pay us for it. Simply scratch out the line item, write a brief note about the problem, and return a copy of this invoice along with your check for the balance.” They call it “short pay”. Talk about teeth!

In his article called Catalytic Mechanisms author Jim Collins gave the analogy – “imagine paying for airline tickets after the flight and having the power to short pay depending on your travel experience – not just in the air, but during ticketing and disembarking as well…”

Another good example of a guarantee is outdoor apparel maker Patagonia and their “Ironclad Guarantee”.

“We guarantee everything we make. If you are not satisfied with one of our products at the time your receive it, or if one of our products does not perform to you satisfaction, return it to the store your bought it from or to Patagonia for repair, replacement or refund. Damage due to wear and tear will be repaired at a reasonable charge.”

For personal experience I can attest to this guarantee when the zipper in a Patogonia top I had broke. Bought in the US took I it to a Torquay Australia shop a year later, without a receipt and received a replacement, no questions asked.

You start to get the idea.

Really I have no idea if Jetstar are serious about addressing their customer service woes. The customer charter is a good first step. However it would have been so much more powerful without quite so many qualifications. It should not be the customer’s job to tell them when they fail. Instead it should be their job not fail in the first place and to know when they do.

Once Jetstar understand that, their customer service might start to become brand positive and something worthy of talking about.

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognize who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.