When the Process Fails, Don’t Forget There Are People on the Plane

I came across this Facebook Reel, and I genuinely feel for this parent trying to do the best she can for her family:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GUxjuMGvT/

Watching it reminded me of something that companies sometimes forget when operations go sideways: a process failure is rarely just a process failure to the customer.

I’ve been in the situation where my flight has been canceled. It’s no fun.

You’re standing in an airport trying to figure out what happens next. Where am I sleeping? When am I getting home? What happens to my luggage? What about the hotel, rental car, work, kids, medications, connections, or whatever else was waiting for me at the other end?

Now imagine trying to manage all of that while also taking care of your family.

That’s where I think JetBlue missed something important.

Airlines have incredibly complicated operations. Weather happens. Mechanical problems happen. Crews time out. Aircraft end up in the wrong cities. Sometimes a flight cannot operate.

I understand that.

But the operational problem and the customer experience are two different things.

JetBlue may transport cargo in the belly of an aircraft, but the people sitting above it aren't cargo.

They have feelings.

They have emotions.

They have families.

They have somewhere they were expecting to be.

And when the process fails, that is when customer experience matters the most.

A great customer experience isn't demonstrated when everything works perfectly. That's the easy part.

It's demonstrated when something goes completely wrong, and the company says:

“We know this disrupted your life. Let us help you figure out what happens next.”

Policies are necessary. Procedures are necessary. Systems are necessary.

But there has to be enough flexibility—or enough humanity built into those systems—to recognize when somebody needs more than a scripted answer.

Because the passenger standing at the counter isn't thinking about aircraft utilization, crew scheduling, or operational efficiency.

They're thinking:

“How am I going to get my family home?”

Sometimes fixing the customer experience doesn't mean fixing the airplane.

It means remembering the people who were supposed to be sitting inside it.

For more of my thoughts on customer experience, the good, the bad, and sometimes the completely ridiculous, follow along on my blog:

https://NielFlamm.com/blog