Exceptional Customer Service Story – Southwest Airlines
Customer service is hard, yet it is rewarding. But sometimes it can be difficult to go above and beyond to deliver great service to customers. This is the reason why stories about great customer service deserved to shared, to motivate and inspire people who have made a career out of helping & serving others.
This very touching story, shared by Christopher Elliot on his website is a tale of an experience one of his readers (Nancy) had with Southwest Airlines.
Last night, my husband and I got the tragic news that our three-year-old grandson in Denver had been murdered by our daughter’s live-in boyfriend.
He is being taken off life support tonight at 9 o’clock and his parents have opted for organ donation, which will take place immediately. Over 25 people will receive his gift tonight and many lives will be saved.
This morning, after only a couple hours sleep, my husband and I began to make all arrangements to get him to Denver to be with our daughter. He is currently on business in LA and is flying Southwest.
While his employer, Northrop Grumman, made arrangements to get his ticket changed so he could get to Tucson today (which he had to do in order to not spend any extra money) I called Southwest to arrange his flight from Tucson to Denver so he would be stepping off one plane and getting on another.
He has several free flights with them so I couldn’t really do it on the website. The ticketing agent was holding back tears throughout the call. I’m actually her step-mother and it’s much more important for my husband to be there than for me to be there.
In LAX, the lines to both check a bag and get through security were exceptional. He got to the airport two hours early and was still late getting to his plane.
Every step of the way, he’s on the verge of tears and trying to get assistance from both TSA and Southwest employees to get to his plane on time.
According to him, everyone he talked to couldn’t have cared less. When he was done with security, he grabbed his computer bag, shoes and belt and ran to his terminal in his stocking feet.
When he got there, the pilot of his plane and the ticketing agent both said, “Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson.”
The pilot held the plane that was supposed to take off at 11:50 until 12:02 when my husband got there.
As my husband walked down the Jetway with the pilot, he said, “I can’t thank you enough for this.”
The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”
My husband was able to take his first deep breath of the day.
I don’t know any other airline that would have done this.
- Nancy
Read original post here
It is experiences like this that convert customers into raging advocates and creates a positive perception about the brand. This was a MOT (Moment of Truth) for Nancy’s husband, and the story could have ended negatively if it was not properly managed.
A couple of factors made it possible for Southwest to successfully deliver –
- Employee Empowerment
The pilot was clearly empowered to take the decision to wait for an extra 10+ minutes (Read: Steps to empowering your front line team)
- Good Communication
You can bet the other passengers already on board the flight would have gotten disgruntled if they hadn’t been briefed on what the delay was about by the flight crew
- Empathy
The ticketing agent and pilot also demonstrated empathy by putting themselves in the customer’s shoes, and it enabled them to make that judgement that leads to a great experience.
You can imagine how valued Nancy’s husband must have felt after that experience, and how many people his wife and family have shared this story with.
Southwest Airlines is a good example of a company with a great customer focused culture, it is no surprise that they have been ranked 2nd position in the national ACSI score for the Airline Industry.
Businesses have to realize that being customer focused, leads to better customer experiences, which lead to loyalty & advocacy. A loyal customer base increases the customer lifetime values & their advocacy will bring in more business.
Long & short, having customer-centric culture in your business is very profitable.
Do you have a great experience you would love to share? Click here to submit and i will be happy to publish.
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Thank you for sharing.
You are welcome 🙂