MarketingInsideOut.com

Major yuck! I’ve completely lost my appetite.

This from a Yahoo news story:

“News video showing about a dozen rats running around a KFC-Taco Bell restaurant in Greenwich Village was widely disseminated Friday on TV stations and the Internet.

The footage, taken from the sidewalk through a window, showed the rats running around the floor, between counters and tables and on children’s high chairs. The establishment was not open at the time.

News crews flocked to the scene, and onlookers gave a play-by-play as the rodents moved about. When one rat came close to the window, a person on the sidewalk said: “He’s coming for his close-up.”

Though it’s just one small franchisee shop in New York, the story has spread like crazy. This all started Friday morning and by Friday night, the rat story was seen worldwide. Nothing like this stays isolated. Just type “rats at KFC” in the search field on Technorati and you’ll see over 1400 blog posts. There are thousands of stories on Google.

The only statement I found from YUM was this: “This is completely unacceptable and is an absolute violation of our high standards,” Yum Brands said in a statement.

Maybe they don’t feel they have to do much since it was a franchise and not a company owned location, but they seem to forget that this is their brand that is being affected. They should probably be a bit more stand up about this. It will be interesting to see how badly the brands are damaged by this very gross situation.

JetBlue’s valentine was anything but sweet. As most everyone knows by now, an East-coast storm combined with some operational stumbles stranded thousands of JetBlue passengers on Valentine’s Day. Toilets overflowed when nine planeloads of JetBlue Airways passengers sat on the tarmac for six hours or more at JFK in New York. Tempers overheated as the carrier canceled a quarter of its flights over the President’s Day weekend. Resulting in some very pissed off and frustrated customers and lots of bad press.

But, I’ve been impressed with some of the steps they’ve taken to own up to the mistakes including the “customers’ bill of rights” unveiled Tuesday. I’ve been particularly impressed by the stand up nature of JetBlue CEO David Neeleman. He’s taken all the blame for the Valentine’s Day operational meltdown. No finger pointing or hiding. He has apologized in e-mails, in news reports, on JetBlue’s website, on a YouTube video and even on “Late Night With David Letterman.” And it feels like a genuine, heartfelt apology. Most airline executives (or any executive for that matter) are more inclined to hide beneath their desks and let their minions handle the angry mobs. But Neeleman has been standup enough to be not only the face of the problem, but is earning credibility as the face of the solution as well.

Its clear JetBlue takes its hard-won brand fame seriously, and from the video and triage response it seems like they are making real, fundamental changes on behalf of their customers. That’s encouraging and impressive. That kind of humility and transparency about the problem goes a long way to mitigate customer frustrations. Every company and everyone makes mistakes, but too many try to “spin” their way out of it by trying to offload blame on circumstances or finger pointing at others. Owning up to it and taking this kind of genuine approach will help JetBlue restore confidence and ensure their evangelists remain loyal.