SWA is my preferred airline. 90% of my travel in the past few years has been with them. From what you say I’m sure I don’t travel as much as you do, so you have more observations that me.

That said, I just have not seen any service degradation at SWA. Their fares are not always the lowest anymore, and that concerns me. I’m also not happy with some of the changes to boarding procedures which let you buy your way to the front of the line. But their customer service attitudes are the same as they usually are. Those are my observations.

Perhaps you need to spend a month not flying SWA to put your observations in perspective.

SWA is my preferred airline. 90% of my travel in the past few years has been with them. From what you say I’m sure I don’t travel as much as you do, so you have more observations that me.

That said, I just have not seen any service degradation at SWA. Their fares are not always the lowest anymore, and that concerns me. I’m also not happy with some of the changes to boarding procedures which let you buy your way to the front of the line. But their customer service attitudes are the same as they usually are. Those are my observations.

Perhaps you need to spend a month not flying SWA to put your observations in perspective.

Like some of the others who have commented, I’m guessing you’re a flight attendant. Let me address your points:
1. I’ve worked with the public for over 30 years – so your first premise is incorrect.
2. How many times have you, at a moment’s notice, needed to turn into a terrorist-fighting machine? The odds would lead me to guess none. And yet that’s the rationalization you use throughout your comment. What about the very friendly flight attendants on my flight yesterday? No appearance of schizophrenia in the group.
3. When applying for a flight attendant job, shouldn’t the person already know that they’re going to be working in an air-tight tube, serving Diet Coke, kneeling and bending, dealing with turbulence, etc. I would hope a job applicant would know the job responsibilities before applying.
4. Your characterization of your customers as “fat Americans” is revealing of your overall attitude.

Patrick, if you’re a flight attendant, you’re clearly unhappy in your job. Why are you still doing it?

Reading your essay it is obvious you have never had a job serving the public. Essentially, the flight attendant of 2010 has to be schizophrenic: smile, be warm and attentive and provide customers with a positive experience on board the aircraft, yet simultaneously, and at a moments notice, turn into a terrorist-fighting, militant. Smile at Joe Dipstick in 20B, yet also consider him a potential terrorist. Stand unprotected in the aisle serving Diet Coke to fat Americans, with your back exposed to everyone, kneeling and bending at people’s breath level, yet also be on the watch for fires, turbulence, and hijackers. Poor Mister Snow. Flight attendants are too grumpy and arrogant for him? Well, imagine if his place of work was constantly at risk for a terrorist attack, and potentially everyone around him, ENCLOSED IN AN AIR-TIGHT TUBE FOR HOURS ON END, could be a terrorist. how would HE react to everyone? Happy HA-HA-HA? Someone lives in an air-tight container here, Mr. Snow. And it’s you—a bubble.

Reading your essay it is obvious you have never had a job serving the public. Essentially, the flight attendant of 2010 has to be schizophrenic: smile, be warm and attentive and provide customers with a positive experience on board the aircraft, yet simultaneously, and at a moments notice, turn into a terrorist-fighting, militant. Smile at Joe Dipstick in 20B, yet also consider him a potential terrorist. Stand unprotected in the aisle serving Diet Coke to fat Americans, with your back exposed to everyone, kneeling and bending at people’s breath level, yet also be on the watch for fires, turbulence, and hijackers. Poor Mister Snow. Flight attendants are too grumpy and arrogant for him? Well, imagine if his place of work was constantly at risk for a terrorist attack, and potentially everyone around him, ENCLOSED IN AN AIR-TIGHT TUBE FOR HOURS ON END, could be a terrorist. how would HE react to everyone? Happy HA-HA-HA? Someone lives in an air-tight container here, Mr. Snow. And it’s you—a bubble.

Thank you for flying Southwest Airlines! Our Customers hear those words prior to take off and after landing each time they grant us the privilege of serving them. Perhaps it sounds rote, but I assure you, it’s heartfelt. Simply put, without our Customers, we don’t have an airline. I am Mike Hafner, and I’ve proudly worked for Southwest Airlines for 29 years. For the past three years, I’ve had the honor of serving our Flight Attendants as their Vice President. I was forwarded your blog post “The Curse of Arrogance” by a concerned Flight Attendant on December 26, 2009.

Admittedly, the first time I read your post—it stung quite a bit—not only my heart, but thousands of very hard working and dedicated Flight Attendants. In fact, it stings each time I read it, but that’s a good thing; taking a good look in the mirror from time-to-time is necessary—especially in the service industry. I proudly say the vast majority of Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants knock it out of the park daily! I’m appreciative of the outstanding service they deliver, their LUV for our Customers, and their passion for the success of our Company. I could go on and on about their acceptance of change—in this ever-changing industry, their pride of their profession, their eagerness to remain involved in Company initiatives, and their continuous suggestions to make a better cabin experience for our Customers — but as a Customer Service expert who has studied Southwest, I imagine you already know this. Simply put, I couldn’t ask for a better Team to work for.

Now for the sting: In the Customer Service business, you know there is not much room for having a bad day. Inevitably, life happens to people (including Flight Attendants), and they are faced with serving the public through it all. However, there is no excuse for poor service or a bad attitude. At Southwest Airlines, our expectation of delivering excellent Customer Service is high. In fact, anyone who grants us the privilege of serving them on one of our 3,100 + flights a day is due that high level of service. Sting and all, I thank you for sharing your experiences and for allowing us future opportunities to demonstrate the Southwest Spirit that you’ve grown to love. I hope the next time you fly with us you’ll find that we are not resting on our reputation, but that in fact we take the Customer Service business seriously, if not ourselves. I hope you will find that Southwest Airlines’ 10,000+ Flight Attendants overwhelmingly rule the skies in being friendly, hard working, helpful, and grateful for your (all Customers’) business. I am optimistic that when you fly on us next, you will find—what I already know—that Southwest Airlines has a magnificent Team of Spirited Warriors prepared to serve our valued Customers.

Mr. Snow, I agree that arrogance can kill a company, and while I can assure you that the more than 35,000 total Employees at Southwest Airlines fight every day to avoid that, I understand it is our responsibility to prove it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences.

Happy New Year!

Mike Hafner
Vice President
Inflight Services

Have you ever complained about customer service, Ron? If so, did you first observe every employee of the company every minute they were on the job as you suggest I should have? Did you first inquire about the employee’s other duties or how many other customers they’ve served? Of course not. Customers base their opinions on what they see (or hear) – it’s all they have to go on. All you have is that snapshot you reference in your comment. And I said, I’ve witnessed more than one snapshot recently.

I’m fully aware that Southwest is highly rated – that’s why I’ve written about Southwest in two books and reference them often in my presentations. I’m a fan, Ron, and Southwest continues to be my favorite airline, and that’s the source of my recent disappointment. I’d hate to see them become “just another airline.”

The power of social media is increasing the importance of customer service exponentially. Please take a look at an earlier post, Customer Service and Twitter (posted May 27, 2009) Customer Service and Twitter, for some thoughts on the subject.

Thanks for commenting, Ron. I respect your opinion and wish you the best!

Dennis

Have you ever complained about customer service, Ron? If so, did you first observe every employee of the company every minute they were on the job as you suggest I should have? Did you first inquire about the employee’s other duties or how many other customers they’ve served? Of course not. Customers base their opinions on what they see (or hear) – it’s all they have to go on. All you have is that snapshot you reference in your comment. And I said, I’ve witnessed more than one snapshot recently.

I’m fully aware that Southwest is highly rated – that’s why I’ve written about Southwest in two books and reference them often in my presentations. I’m a fan, Ron, and Southwest continues to be my favorite airline, and that’s the source of my recent disappointment. I’d hate to see them become “just another airline.”

The power of social media is increasing the importance of customer service exponentially. Please take a look at an earlier post, Customer Service and Twitter (posted May 27, 2009) Customer Service and Twitter, for some thoughts on the subject.

Thanks for commenting, Ron. I respect your opinion and wish you the best!

Dennis

Both you and Beth made good points about customer service but I am gonna have to side with Beth on this one. You are completely unfair by attacking the SWA brand. That’s right, you’ve attacked the SWA brand by taking one instance and portraying as the kind of service one can expect when choosing to fly that airline. Conservatively speaking, SWA operates over 3,000 flights a day, 365 days a year – you do the math. In order for you to even substantiate the title of this post you’d need about 3,000 examples to be fair. To speak on the behalf of an incident which did not directly involve you then making it public, is just wrong. Do you know the actual duties of the said flight attendant in your post? Did you follow this flight attendant all day long and experience what she did or was this a snapshot of about 20 seconds of time? Just for your information, according to DOT reports out of “all” airlines Southwest consistently has had the least amount of customer complaints month after month and year over year and I’ve been tracking those reports over 11 years. This is an airline which moves more passengers from point A to B than any airline, period.

Please remember that I am a long-time Southwest fan. I’ve flown your airline for many years because of your reliability and service. But, I can’t ignore what I’ve experienced recently. The particular incident I cited in my post was not an unusual occurrence with your open seating approach – families making sure everyone has a seat. What was embarrassing was how how the situation was handled.

In the past, I’ve seen such situations handled with grace and courtesy. That wasn’t the case this time, and as mentioned in my post, I’m seeing this more often on Southwest recently.

As to your reference to entitlement mentality and rudeness of passengers, please keep in mind that I worked at Walt Disney World for twenty years. Screaming children, angry guests (you haven’t lived until you’re the one standing in front of Space Mountain telling guests it’s closed for maintenance for a month) are all part of the job. That was made clear to me when I joined the company.

You mention the trash passengers leave on the plane expecting you to clean it up. Well, that’s part of the job in just about every service industry. Part of every Disney cast member’s job is to pick up trash off the ground – they certainly don’t expect the guests to do it; nor should they. The job is to take care of the guests and make them feel special.

Our customers (or guests) ARE entitled. They paid for the ticket and should expect our best every time. None of the situations I’ve recently observed involved passenger belligerence or unreasonableness, just normal confusion or concern.

I don’t expect a song or dance on every flight (although I appreciate the creativity). What I do expect is understanding and courtesy. And I believe I’m entitled to it, just like every one of my clients is entitled to the same when dealing with me.

So, we clearly disagree on this issue, Beth, and that’s okay. But I do appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Dennis