Southwest Airlines is consistently at or near the top of customer satisfaction lists. People who travel with them once often continue to do so (like myself).
In this thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14499 it was pointed out that Southwest instituted a number of innovations that help them move many passengers very quickly, with minimal fuss. Not the least of these is good customer service.
I called them last night to buy a ticket and a HUMAN answered the phone!!! Ever have that happen when you called American Airlines?
So my questions is: Why haven’t the other airlines followed suit?
I have not seen a single one of Southwest’s innovations utilized on other airlines. What gives?
Note to mods: I put this in General Questions because I am seeking factual answers, not opinions. I’m guessing there may be some good economic reasons why Southwest is not emulated, but durned if I can think of them…
Not all businesses need to follow the “Walmart” example. Nor the “Southwestern” example.
There will always be a niche for a competitor who charges more than the lowest-price seller. They may give a bit more service, or they may just convince their customers that they care more. Just because you talked to an actual person at Southwest doesn’t mean that they are giving their customers more than another competitor.
We are in the coin and jewelry business. We don’t choose to compete with the “lowest priced sellers.” They will either be out of business sometime in the next few years, or have headaches that we don’t wish to contend with. There is a niche out there for most mainstream businesses. The ones who go out of business are usually the ones who are the lowest priced, or the highest priced. YMMV.
Yes, but I don’t imagine that most jewelery buyers in this country are asking for your head on a platter - which is where things seem to be headed right now in the airline industry.
Everyone is ticked off about airline service and travel delays. Congress is looking into the issue. “Air rage” incidents abound. Newsweek did a cover story on this last month.
My point is that Southwest manages to be both on time, and civil to their customers. I realize that some of their strategy is the “Wal-Mart” approach as you say, of working out of smaller airports and such - but that’s not all of it.
I only gave the one example of getting an actual person on the phone. But having flown with them a number of times, I could give you many more. Southwest cannot be the only airline in the world to have figured out how not to piss off their customers.
(Sorry, didn’t mean to turn this into a Great Debate. Just wanted to clarify my question.)
Might part of it have to do with Southwest’s relatively sparse coverage? A great many passangers don’t have the option to fly Southwest, so they’re not big competition for, say, Delta.
I’ve only flown Southwest once in recent memory (a trip from BWI to Phoenix) and generally found it pleasant. Odd, but pleasant. My father, a seasoned business traveller, refuses to fly it. The thought of unassigned seating is anathema to him, as well as the lack of a first class arrangement.
Budget airfare is a tricky business. I don’t have any facts, but I’d reckon that a bulk of what keeps an airline in business are high-value first- and business-class tickets, as well as those booked at the last minute. Southwest is still in the air because of their extreme cost savings (no food, no paper boarding passes, etc.), not because they keep their customers happy.
Southwest has fair prices – if I need to go to Chicago from Detroit (45-60 minute flight), I’ll use Southwest because the inconvenience of Southwest is actually a little nicer than driving.
The inconvenience I detest with Southwest is their Greyhound-style seating system. I like the confidence of knowing ahead of time that I have my pre-assigned seat, regardless of whether I’m the first person in line to get my plastic, Southwest boarding card, or the last person. Usually boarding is horrible as a process, too. Rather than orderly board first class, then the BACK of the plane, the first-aboard typically grab the closest aisle or window seats they can, slowing down the entire process.
In short, if I ever need to do “real” travel, I will NOT EVEN CONSIDER using Southwest.
Usually I do my ticketing on the internet – the two times I’ve had to call American (once for using miles, once for using a voucher), I’ve had a human answer right away. But, (1) I could have been lucky or, (2) using a non-published-in-the-yellow-pages number.
Well, to add to the list:
[list=1][li]There’s no first class. A lot of people refuse to fly first class.[]There’s no reserved seating, meals, in-flight seating or other perks. This turns off people as well.[]To keep prices down, Southwest prefers to fly out of older airports. Some airlines are returning to older airports; others prefer to fly out of the newer, more prestigious airports.Southwest only flies Boeing 737s. This speeds up maintenance (the planes get fixed faster and for less since there’s only one type of plane for the mechanics to be acquainted with) and it probably helps with flight scheduling (any plane can fly any route), but the plane has a limited range (I assume), and it limits the amount of first class seating that would be available if they flew first class.[/list=1][/li]Quite frankly, I wonder if the better customer service is simply due to Herb Kelleher running the show. He takes things personally (he has responded to customers’ unfair complaints by sending regrets that those customers will no longer fly SWA), and probably just thinks that customers should talk to people, not machines. That the customer service reps are actually friendly, not just professional, seems to bear this out.
Southwest is to be commended for any display of good attitude by their customer-interface people, of course. That’s all too rare in today’s “unfriendly skies”. But then, their people have less to worry about in the first place.
As for the basis of their good ratings, bear a few things in mind that they do that no one else can (or would dare try), and other built-in advantages that cannot be duplicated:
No interlining of baggage with other airlines, reducing the possibility of loss or misdirection. If you fly SW, you fly them all the way, or deal with your own bags.
Primary hub is in a good-weather city (Dallas), secondary hubs are in low-service airports (i.e. Baltimore), major-city service is mainly to outlying airports (i.e. Islip), reducing their susceptibility to weather and traffic delays. Their route system is also primarily in good-weather regions.
SW has its hub in a government-protected monopoly airport. No other airline has legally been ALLOWED to serve Dallas Love Field, by FEDERAL LAW, until the last couple of years, and SW and the city of Dallas have been effective at keeping competitors out. Without that, there’s not much reason to believe they’d have lasted longer than most post-deregulation startup carriers.
Their limited range of route types allows use of a single aircraft type, so all flight crews, FA’s, and mechanics only need to be trained once. Their inventory of parts and ground equipment is therefore small compared to their size, and their training costs are lower. Larger, more diverse airlines are forced to have a fleet mix to operate economically, and that means higher base fares.
Mainly because AIRLINES are cheap.
I used to work for a company where we placed passengers who were stranded (airline fault or not) at hotels.
First of all BOTH the customer service managers at NW in Detroit and MSP, said TO ME “Mark we don’t have to treat the customer nice cause if they fly out of Minneapolis (or Detroit) they HAVE to use us. Oh sure they’ll try another carrier but we can’t be beat for price, convenience…We may lose one or two but we always get more.” So there it is lose one or two and because you’re the only game in town overall you make money.
I remember we had a cheap Ramada hotel and it was $1.00 per room (this was another airline not NW)
cheaper than a 4 star property. The airlines said "If we are paying for it use the hotel that is ONE DOLLAR cheaper. It’s clean and has transportation to and from the airport. As long as there is ONE room in that Ramada do not use any other hotel, unless it is cheaper.
I was asked by NW Detroit and UAL Chicago to provide free hotel stays for their company party.I figured they would do a trade out. You know you get a free hotel room the airline gives an upgrade or whatever. BOTH said “No we give them business when our planes break down.”
Needless to say only thy Hyatt DTW gave a free room.
And I could go on. Airlines are NOT customer service oriented as competition is limited. Not everyone can fly a plane it is a highly skilled job.
I am afraid to fly so I take the train. But it’s horrible I waste a day of my vacation each way getting to the place. And I usually pay more. There is no real alternative.
To give good service will cost and if it costs them even a penny more they won’t pay.
BTW do you know who pays for that service that finds rooms. NOT THE AIRLINES. It is the hotels that are charged.
Having a real human answer the phone doesn’t keep their fares low. Nor does keeping employees who will bust their butts for you. Southwest insists on excellent service, while choosing routes where they can consistently fill their planes up, and therefore make a profit while charging less per seat. Every time I fly Southwest, their planes are full. On other airlines, sometimes they are, but often they’re way short of full.
I actually like their seating arrangement, too. If you get there early, you get your choice of seats. I usually get there late, but I’m willing to sit in the rear-facing seats in the first row, so I’ll be among the first off the plane and on my way.
This is true. There was an article recently in the Wall Street Journal (Thursday, the 17th, maybe?) about innovations by Delta and … Northwest(?) in the airline industry. These two airlines are introducing a new class of seating, sort of a cross between business and first-class. It’s discounted first-class seating, with a 14-day advance booking and an overnight stay required. (Delta refers to this as their “BusinessFlexPlan”, or soemthing similar.)
Anyway, the article claims that most of an airline’s business/revenue comes from the business passengers (rather than the leisure passgengers), followed by first class. Montfort’s right on the money.
There is no “FEDERAL LAW” that said Southwest is the only airline “ALLOWED” to operate out of Love Field. For people unfamiliar with what he’s referring to, when Jim Wright was a senior congressman from Fort Worth, DFW airport was being planned. Wright had it written into federal law that any air service to/from Love Field could only fly to Texas or one of the four adjoining states. He did this to force the major airlines out of Love Field, which is in Dallas, to DFW airport, which is closer to his constituents.
This oppresive federal nosing into local politics gave any airline a small loophole, which Southwest was the only one to exploit. A couple of years ago, the law was amended so that planes with fewer than 58 seats could fly past the five-state area. Some airlines are experimenting with all-business-class planes to fill this niche.
Could it be that the airlines insist on that room that is $1.00 less, because we insist on low rates? The business traveler and the 1st class flyer are given special perks and attention because they are paying the way.
The point that Southwest flies routes where they can fill their planes is true, but that isn’t where everyone wants to go. Part of the reason they have a good name is because the had a good business plan to start with, but it only fits a certain niche.
Thanks for the more complete explanation of the Wright Amendment. You might have added the role of the Dallas city government in helping keep other airlines from even trying to use Love, by renting all gates to SW - they finally lost the lawsuits by American and Legend and had to change. I do enjoy seeing Herb Kelleher so often raised up as a shining example of the free enterprise system, incidentally - not all of his success came that way.
Singapore Airlines is the best hands down. Personal entertainment even in economy class. Not to mention the very excellent cabin crew service and good food (rare on an airline). I always go with Sing Air as first choice.
Of course it helps if you live in Asia, other wise you have to settle for a US airline, none of which are on my top ten list.
Singapore Airlines
Cathay Pacific
Virgin Atlantic
Evergreen
All Nippon Airways
Scandinavian Airlines
Swiss Air
British Airways
Thai
Dragon Air
If I have to pick a US airline, I would possibly pick…
United is okay, mediocre at best.
Northwest has a good mileage program, but they have caused me more delay than all other airlines put together.
Delta lost my luggage no less than four times.
Continental gave me the scare of my life during a landing in Newark accompanied by flashing lights from fire engines on the runway.
Never had the pleasure of flying Southwest, but from the description I see in the above posts, they would be on the bottom of my list. Actually the descriptions remind me of Peoples Airline which was popular in the 80’s. They went bust though, IIRC.
I just realized my post was a bit of a hi-jack.
Sorry about that.
I guess choosing a US airline is a bit like choosing a US president. You got to pick the least bad.
> 2. Primary hub is in a good-weather city (Dallas),
> secondary hubs are in low-service airports (i.e.
> Baltimore), major-city service is mainly to outlying
> airports (i.e. Islip), reducing their susceptibility to
> weather and traffic delays. Their route system is also
> primarily in good-weather regions.
What do you mean by calling BWI a low-service airport? Are you saying that it has few passengers? This isn’t the case.
WestJet in Canada openly says they try to follow SouthWests business model, even as far as duplicating it where possible. I have never flown SW, but I have WestJet several times so I can’t compare. It is very -no frills- though, and don’t do seat assignments until you check in.