Written by Southwest Customer Kim Seale
Two recent newspaper articles, combined with Southwest's newest ad campaign (to view "Coins" commercial, click here and open first ad), have caused me to reflect on the changing environment of air travel. It seems to me that "the Southwest effect" is much more than just the downward influence on airfares when SWA begins service to a new city. That is because I believe that Southwest Airlines, as a company, is about more than just low fares. Sure, that is a big and very obvious part of what they bring to the market, but I see a larger, but slightly less visible aspect of what SWA has meant to the airline industry. In my opinion, just maybe Customer Satisfaction is the true "Southwest Effect."
The first article that caught my eye was one that was titled 'Fliers' gripes soar', and it talked about the increasing number of complaints being lodged against air carriers. The author references "record-high airline traffic" (load factors) and its pressure on "flight delays, cancellations, rude airline employees, overheated airplane cabins, lost baggage and hours of frustration at the airport," which is more than just a mouthful of issues. These things come together to indicate a severe degradation in the level of customer service being offered to the flying public by many of the airlines in business today. The fuller the planes are, the less concerned some companies seem to be about trying to please the very people who are buying those tickets. Although I am reluctant to name names, it appears that some of the AAmerican-based airlines that are Continental in their approach look as if they are United in their efforts to take passengers in their Jets of Blue, or other colors, through the US airways, from the Northwest part of our country, to the Midwest part of our country, across the Delta of the Mississippi and to all other Frontiers of the United States with less and less concern for those passengers' satisfaction.
However, this article went on to say that the airline with the lowest rate of complaints was…Southwest Airlines. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be, and it is because of Positively Outrageous Service. Is Southwest perfect? Are they always on time? Do they always perfectly deliver a piece of luggage to its waiting owner in baggage claim? Of course, the answer to all of these is "No!" But, the difference is that when human mistakes occur, they are happening in the context of customers that already feel appreciated and pleased with the treatment they've gotten. I've been on flights that departed late from their gate, and yet the flight attendants had people onboard laughing at stupid jokes and singing along with ridiculous songs.
The second article talked about the aviation collection at the University of Texas at Dallas that is primarily the remnants of Braniff's public affairs archive. In that story, the curator of the collection along with a retired Braniff employee are interviewed as they reminisce about the bygone days of style, service and steaks in first class meals. The article ends with the quote, "I can just imagine back in the 1960s and an airline said they were going to charge you for a meal – passengers would have flipped out."
That leads me back full circle to the new SWA television ads that feature a passenger having to feed quarters into a receptacle to access the overhead bins or seatback trays. So many airlines these days appear eager to "nickel-and-dime" their passengers to supplement ailing bottom lines. Upcharges for a snack, a fee to get headphones to listen to a movie and charging you to make a change to a ticket all add up to a lack of sensitivity to their passengers. One particular AAirline recently informed us that to change an existing "free" (earned through mileage accrual) award ticket reservation booked in one passenger's name to another, without changing the flight numbers or dates, we would have to pay $100! That seat was already saved in our name, but trying to 'give' the same exact seat to someone else when we were unable to use it was going to cost us $100, on a ticket that could be purchased for about $200. A 50% premium for someone else to use that "free"seat!
At Southwest, however, the atmosphere is one of providing service and pleasing the customer while having a great time doing it. Other than a charge for alcoholic beverages, there are no additional fees to enjoy your flight experience on a SWA jet. They consistently rate at the top of many passenger satisfaction polls, provide some of the best ontime performance of the industry and manage to keep making a profit while they're doing it. The 'other' guys irritate their passengers, frustrate their employees, appear to run late pretty regularly and just keep losing money. Their solution? Nickel-and-dime the folks who fly with them! Let's see, a strategy built around continuing to alienate the people who are keeping you in business. What's wrong with this picture?
It just seems like the attitude displayed by a number of air carriers is that they are doing US a favor by letting us ride on THEIR planes. Is it just me, or has the cart gotten in front of the horse (proverbially speaking) somewhere along the way?
(Kim has been flying with Southwest since the early 70s both for pleasure and his business duties.)
Comments
After research, anyone who posts here should know that this is a "Tell us how great we are corporate suck up site." If you have a legitimate complaint, take it elsewhere since SW Air doesn't care.
Kim,
You are either Nutz--literally-- or have never flown Soutwest Air. When, and it happens more than you would even possibly admit in your Ya Ya world, baggage is delayed, a customer can expect insolent, dismissive treatment if s/he should happen to be upset with the corporate peons who smile and say "its all right." Welcome back to reality if you ever get there.
As an former contract inspector on your aircraft 97-99, I am rather disappointed in your good ole boy hiring system. But you do have a great airline and good business practices, keep up the good work.
Dan,
It is obvious from other comments on the Southwest blog that there are a number of folks who agree with you, along with a number of people who want to keep things as they are now.
One of the issues that has been rarely mentioned during this discussion is the ramifications inherent in implementing a "tiered" fare system on Southwest. Our favorite airline is known for many things; its maverick spirit, its wonderful Employees and its ongoing profitability. Underlying each of those three traits (and many others that are part of the Southwest Culture) is a philosophy that my father used to call KISS.
If you're as old as I am, you probably know that it stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. That is a catch-phrase way of saying that oftentimes, you'll get the best outcome if you don't try to over-think and over-engineer the plan. The geniuses at Southwest Airlines are famous for keeping it simple. Think about the early days when their competitors had fancy ticket machines and SW had old fashioned cash registers to dispense tickets on receipt paper.
Creating a multi-tiered pricing system would hopelessly complicate the ticketing procedure and require a very complex program to manage variable pricing per seat depending on who reserved it and when they did it. Remember, too, that SWA, like other airlines who got on board with the plan after Southwest showed how well it could work, has been steadily encouraging passengers to book their own reservations online instead of on the phone with a person. Shifting some of this burden reduces the need for a bazillion reservation agents and lowers some of Southwest's overhead, resulting in a better bottom line.
So, whether they ultimately decide in favor of, or against, assigned seating, it seems very likely to me that it will be all or nothing. Either all of the seats will be assigned, or none of them will. Having a mixed program onboard would create a lot of chaos.
Although I am in the camp of those who say "please don't abandon open seating", it is in large part because I think it would violate the KISS principle that Southwest already uses to its advantage. Plus, I'm one of those who also likes the adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". SWA has grown incredibly and has remained profitable while most of its competitors cannot make either of those claims, much less both of them. They must be doing something right. As Darrell Royal, the former football coach at the University of Texas at Austin said in the title of his best-selling book, "Dance With the One that Brung Ya" -- if you've got a great approach that has gotten you to a place of success, then stay with that plan!
Please hang in there with Southwest, Dan -- assigned seats or not, there isn't another airline out there that will treat you as well or give you the same amount of Positively Outrageous Service!
Kim
Why doesn't Southwest adopt a seperate fare tier for people who want assigned seats. This way if someone wants an assigned seat they can pay an extra $20 or so dollars a flight to get an assigned seat. The people who love the Southwest culture and getting to the airport 5 hours before a flight will still have the opportunity to jockey for position.Once again, there are a ton of people who don't fly LUV because of the present system, this takes care of it and still maintains the ABC system.
Andrea,
Welcome to the huge, and constantly-growing set of members of the "I've Had a Great Experience on Southwest Airlines Club"! Unfortunately, traveling, whether for business or pleasure, can have its own set of speed bumps (or Clear Air Turbulence, as the case might be) along the way, and sometimes those problems can be from your fellow travelers. Whether they are rude, demanding, or "schlogged", they can present challenges to both travelers and employees of the various travel industries (hotels, airlines, restaurants, rent car agencies, etc.).
As you've seen, the outstanding Employees at SW, like Amy (?), are trained to do their best to minimize these problems and to make your travel experience as pleasant as they possibly can. In my experience, they do a superb job of it!
Your seat-mate is fortunate that he decided to comply with Amy's intervention, because what he (and you) may not know is that if that first approach is unsuccessful, as a next step, the Flight Attendants are authorized to re-seat those "schlogged" passengers in a new seat on the wing, directly over one of the engines. After a bit, the fresh breeze tends to sober them up.
Happy travels!
Kim :-)
i am happy to have discovered this new (to me) way to compliment the employees at SWA. on September 17 at 6-ish pm, my husband and i boarded our flight in Ft. Meyers bound for Islip Long Island. we took seats in the bulkhead and were soon joined (much to our chagrin) by a loud and quite intoxicated man, whose body spilled over into my space (i was in the middle seat). it was not that he was fat, just positioned himself in a sloppy way, without respect for me. he ordered a drink, which he drank, but it soon became apparent to our flight attendant (was her name Amy?) that he was schlogged and she appropriately decided she should not serve him any more alcohol. when he ordered his next drink, she informed him so gently and so kindly and so professionally that she was unable to serve him another drink. he pleaded with her, saying he had not been offensive to anyone, but she stood her ground, and he soon acquiesced and fell asleep. EVERYONE AROUND US WAS SO GRATEFUL, including my husband and me. i complemented her personally toward the end of the flight as the intoxicated passenger slept and snored in the seat next to me. if there is anyone in charge at SWA reading this, could you please make sure this young woman is praised for her incredible sensitive and professional handling of this potentially "loaded" situation. i am a registered nurse and I KNOW just how much of a difference she made on our flight. Thanks, Andrea
Kim, Thanks for the write up. Great stuff. Rick
Well, once again, I've had the opportunity to observe first-hand just how terrific the Employees of SWA really are. It is frequently said that the true mark of a person is in how they behave when under stress, and unfortunately, our friends at SW have more than their fair share of stress at times.
Yesterday was just such a time. I had arrived early at the El Paso airport for my return flight back to Dallas, and was casually waiting in the gate area. After being there about fifteen minutes, the gate agent, a very pleasant lady by the name of Katie, made a public address announcement to those of us at Gate 6B. Having already chatted with her, I immediately recognized the different tone of voice that she was using and I knew that whatever she was about to tell us was fairly serious.
During the time since I had gotten to my gate, the pilot of a small airplane had crashed onto the runway at ELP during landing. With a sensitivity to the situation, Katie calmly explained to us that because of this tragedy, the airport had been shut down and no flights were allowed in or out. In less than two minutes, the Operations Supervisor on duty, a very personable gentleman by the name of Rick, arrived at the gate desk and began to make more announcements.
It seems that as of yesterday, ELP was operating with only one functional runway while the other, shorter one was closed for resurfacing. Using the terminology from Katie and Rick, the 'incident' occured on the only usuable runway, and until something could be worked out, the closure of that one runway meant that ELP was closed. Incoming flights were diverted and outbound flights remained at their gates.
What was very heartening, though, was watching how quickly all of the SWA Employees sprang into action. Those of you who have traveled in and out of ELP know that there is a cluster of gates that SW uses, so I was able to observe (and hear) how Employees at several gates dealt with this event. Over and over, each one of them displayed concern over the effect this was having on each of their Customer's travel plans. Some people were able to wait an undetermined amount of time to take their next flight, but due to connecting flight issues, some people were worried about reaching their final destination yesterday.
But, in each circumstance, I saw Rick and Katie and their colleagues politely and compassionately deal with their passengers' worries as they worked out different alternatives wherever possible. Some were re-routed on different outbound flights through other cities so they would still make it to their planned destination, and some were re-booked for flights for this morning.
Just as importantly as how they worked with individual passengers, Rick and Katie repeatedly made announcements as soon as they received updated information from airport management. In this way, they kept those of us waiting in the area just as informed as they were. My estimation is that we got public address announcements in our gate area no more than ten minutes apart, and in some cases, every five minutes. We were kept "in the loop" on when airport officials hoped to reopen the runway, where each of the inbound flights were and when they were due in once the airport did open back up, and based on those approximations, estimates of when each of us could reasonably expect to arrive in our destinations for the evening, out as far as midnight for folks who had two or more legs to fly from ELP. Due to the gate proximity, I could hear that passengers in nearby gate areas were getting similar timely and helpful announcements.
So, I want to publicly thank both Rick and Katie for the Positively Outrageous Service that they and the other SW Employees at ELP gave to us yesterday. Their handling of this tragic event in such a respectful, courteous and Customer-oriented manner greatly reduced the possibility of upset passengers by keeping us constantly informed and by being flexible in their handling of the disrupted schedules of hundreds of people.
I salute a tremendous team of folks who reminded me once again yesterday why Southwest Airlines is the BEST airline in the world!
Kim
Jim,
Thanks for your question, although you've ever so slightly misstated it. I do not actually live "on" this blog, I live "in" it, since I am not a real person. In fact, I am a computer generated hologram that is just an electronic figment of Brian Lusk's imagination.
HAL, errr, I mean, Kim
:)