My daughter came home from school to visit us over a recent holiday. She was flying on Southwest Airlines and checked a piece of luggage. When the suitcase showed up on the luggage carousel, we noticed the handle was damaged. Bummer! I’ve been through this before.
Not happy, I walked into the Southwest office. What I expected was a long line, followed by a less-than-enthusiastic employee, extensive paperwork to fill out, and then who knows how long it would take to get the luggage repaired. However, I was pleasantly surprised. After all, this was Southwest Airlines.
What I encountered was the opposite of what I expected. Only one person was ahead of me, and the Southwest employee had a great attitude. When it was finally my turn, just a minute or two later, I was given a choice. I could fill out some paperwork and arrange to have my luggage repaired, or Southwest would replace my luggage with a brand new piece; immediately – on the spot.
I wasn’t sure I heard the gentleman correctly. So, he took me into a room that was filled with all types of new luggage. He said to pick out the one that closely resembled my broken luggage. I did, and after a very short amount of paperwork to acknowledge the exchange, it was just a matter of transferring my daughter’s belongings into the new luggage before heading home.
This was an unexpected and amazing experience. What started out as a Moment of Misery™ turned into my favorite customer service experience: a Moment of Magic®. I’ve only had my luggage damaged twice in over thirty years of travel, and both times were far different than this recent hassle-free experience. I remember on both occasions, two somewhat apathetic employees (obviously not Southwest employees) who were just going through the motions of taking care of me as I filled out paperwork telling me who to take my luggage to and how to get reimbursed. Once again, Southwest Airlines figured it out.
There are at least a couple of lessons we can learn from this story:
First, Southwest Airlines has a reputation for being a friendly airline – perhaps the friendliest airline in the US. Competitive prices, free checked luggage, and friendly employees are what they are known for. It’s easy to be great when things go well. It’s when things don’t go well that can make or break a reputation. That’s when a good system has to be in place. That system, along with properly trained employees, can be the difference between losing and retaining a loyal customer.
Second, ideally, doing business with any company should be a hassle-free experience. Unfortunately, the airlines are subject to a number of potential problems, some of which are out of their control, such as weather or heavy air-traffic. But, some problems are in their control. In the case of damaged luggage, Southwest Airlines stepped up and took ownership of the problem. They know it’s going to happen, so as part of their system, they created the most customer-focused solution they could come up with.
I’ve written and talked about this before. Southwest Airlines may not be the airline for everyone, and they admit this. Some may not like their numbered boarding pass system that doesn’t allow for reserved seats. Some may not like that they don’t have meal service. But, Southwest is very clear about what they offer. It’s their brand promise. Simply put, the Southwest Airlines mission “is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.” They typically deliver on that promise. That’s what’s earned them intensely loyal customers. Nobody is perfect, but if more companies were as customer-focused as Southwest Airlines, I think we, as customers, would all be happier.
Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is a customer service expert, hall-of-fame speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. He works with organizations to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. He is also the creator of The Customer Focus, a customer service training program that helps organizations develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset. For more information call (314) 692-2200 or go to www.Hyken.com.
Note: In response to Shep's article, I emailed him about my experience with Southwest, including one particular incident from 2015:
Shep, great story. I am a Southwest disciple. I fly them pretty much whenever they’re going where I’m going, even if their price is higher (which, in the rare case it is, it’s usually by a very small amount).
The greatest fear non-Southwest devotees have is the boarding “cattle call.” There is an article online that discusses the science of how Southwest does this and questions why every carrier does not follow suit. I once was waiting on a Southwest connection to arrive that was uncharacteristically running a little late. The boarding agent, in the affable Southwest way, cautioned everyone to get ready for the stampede because they were determined to deplane and replane and get back on schedule. I clocked it. The time from the first passenger entering the terminal from the jetway on the arriving plane until they closed the door on the aircraft on my flight was 23 minutes. Remarkable. They boarded us like drill sergeants and it was GREAT fun the way they did it.
I have many Southwest stories. I flew from L.A. to Nashville and there were several Army personnel on the flight. I had a wad of free Southwest drink tickets and when the flight attendant came by, I gave them to her and asked her to get the soldiers the drinks of their choice and if she ran out of tickets, I was good for the difference. I asked her to tell them the drinks were courtesy of Southwest. When she asked me what I wanted, I ordered a beer and handed her my credit card. Her response was, “Your money’s no good on this flight, soldier.”
On other flights, attendants have sang, recited poetry, and played games. On one flight, they had a free drink ticket for the woman with the prettiest lips (women with lipstick kissed note cards which were passed around to the men to rate). Fortunately, no one threatened a lawsuit on the basis that this was somehow sexist. They had a drink ticket for the man with the most holes in his socks. I guess he was pretty thirsty to reveal that for a free drink. On another occasion, they started a roll of toilet paper on each side of the aircraft and you had to pass it over your head backwards to the seats behind you without breaking the paper. The winning side got to deplane first.
I have other stories, but my favorite is from last year when I got off a flight and headed to another terminal for my connecting flight. I’m old fashioned when it comes to my pocket planner. My entire year’s schedule is in that planner. Somehow it had slipped out of my back pocket when I got out of my seat to deplane. And tucked in the planner was my boarding pass for my connecting flight. Halfway to the other terminal, I realized my planner was gone, along with my boarding pass, so I hightailed it back to the gate where my arriving plane was about to be boarded for its continuing flight.
The gate attendant dropped what she was doing and ran onto the aircraft for a couple of minutes. She came back and said that the planner was nowhere to be found and she had to board the aircraft, but she got an agent at a nearby gate desk to help me. I’m not sure what transpired over the next couple of minutes while she was on the phone, but she came to me with a big smile and said my planner was very lonely and waiting for me at my connecting flight gate.
What had happened was that one of the attendants on my flight had found the planner and rather than pitch it, give it to someone else to handle, send it to lost and found, or whatever, and even though this was her destination and I’m sure she was ready to get to her home or hotel, she walked my planner to my next gate and dropped it off there before leaving.
This is customer service magic on a Harry Potter level.