Smiles from the Heart

The American Consumer Satisfaction Index gives Southwest Airlines a customer satisfaction of 74 out of 100 the first quarter of 2002.  The airlines customer service starts with its people, whom executive VP of customer service claims are hired primarily for their ability to care and communicate.

Southwest stays away from the notions of airline customer service, which rewards people who buy a lot of tickets but ignores everyone else. Customers are important to Southwest whether the customers are occasional or frequent.

Flying above and beyond

Southwest seeks out and rewards good customer service with "mottos like this -if you lean toward the customer, you cannot be wrong." Southwest Airlines employees are empowered to make the decisions to solve a problem.

High Touch, Low Tech

At Southwest, the important thing is the people. Through new systems that help the planes depart on time, Southwest has satisfied a major component of customer service. Southwest takes a low-tech approach to customer service.

Pioneer in Progress

Southwest Airlines is making progress. It was a pioneer in paperless ticketing and has made a successful push to sell tickets directly to customers over the Web. It recently turned it's cattle-call boarding into what might be called an orderly cattle call instead, which prevents everyone from boarding at once with plastic boarding passes. Southwest's ticketing system now electronically issues A, B, and C tickets to customers depending on when they checked in. "A" passengers board first, and get a few minutes to breathe before the other groups pour in.

Service with a Motive

Southwest's customer service isn't based solely in corporate altruism. Klaskin says: "They don't pitch customer service for the sake of the customer. They pitch customer service for the sake of the company." Southwest's good customer service, in other words, isn't meant to make customers. Smile means to make customers come back. Conover, executive VP of customer service, says the customer service causes intense loyalty that cannot be explained by low prices alone. Low prices, after all, leave the invitation open to shop elsewhere.