The company that customer service forgot....

There has been a little bit of an uproar about Jetstar over the weekend!

Having worked in customer service and having been a trainer in this very field I find the situation rather baffling. After reading the stories so far, the customer service and the lack of any form of "goodwill" from Jetstar is quite terrible.

In a small country like NZ bad publicity like this can hang around like a bad smell and for a newly launched airline to start treating passengers like this already doesn't bode too well for future customers.

From the facts I have gathered as well as the news coverage from many passengers this could have easily been avoided. Level headed Jetstar staff could have stopped this but chose not to, instead to treat customers like the dirt found on your shoes.

Rule number one of customer service is to stop a problem before it even happens.

What makes me laugh is that these airline staff seem to think that they have the right to ignore, hide their name badges from customers and to block customer access to airport exits. The arrogance, and I can imagine there is a lot of this, from the airline staff in believing that they are in any position to act like this is breathtaking.

Airline check in staff are elementary level jobs who have a lot of responsibility. Get it wrong and this makes everybody look bad. I would have hoped this would have spurred management into action, however it seems they have not learned at all.

My advice, considering the amount of times I have been in these wretched airports, exercise your right to choose your airline and arrive an hour before you fly. That way you'll avoid these nasty situations. And do your homework, I wouldn't fly on an airline that have these headlines for all to see:

Thousands caught in Jetstar rejig

Refunds likely for Jetstar fliers

Jetstar unrepentant about leaving fans behind