Southwest Airlines puts its heart into its customer service

When was the last time you put your heart into your service delivery? Maybe you bent the rules just enough not to break one, but enough to put your heart into delivering exceptional service that went above and beyond the call of duty.

Real World Story: A colleague recently shared a LinkedIn post with a video link of Southwest Airlines workers that shows how airline employees went above and beyond to help out a customer who had accidentally left behind a cellphone at the gate.

It was a simple task of getting the phone back to its owner. The difficult part was that the airplane had just pulled back and was about to leave.

BUT that didn’t stop Southwest Airlines workers—cohearts, as they call themselves. They did just about everything possible to get that phone to its rightful owner. And how good do the Southwest employees look to the people who SAW this kind act. What a great, and free, marketing tool, huh?

Strategies that Turn it Around:

1. Use Common Sense. In the day-to-day drudgery of getting bogged down in problems, it’s sometimes difficult to put a little common sense into practice. Instead of making the retrieval of the lost cellphone a long, drawn-out and painful process for all involved, employees used common sense and decided to get the phone back to its owner NOW, just seconds before the airplane was about to leave.
2. Get creative. How creative was it to hand the phone over to the pilot? Not an easy task, but a creative one. Many of us would have been stuck with routine thinking, like mailing the phone to its owner (who wouldn’t be home to receive it for who knows how long), sending the phone to lost luggage claim and letting them deal with the problem, or some other drawn-out process. Be creative with how you solve problems!
3. Don’t give up. Handing the phone to the pilot was no easy task in itself. And it took several tries, but employees did not give up. They kept trying until the pilot had the phone in his hands.

Remember: Great service is never more important than when customers truly need us—and losing your phone (and your entire life which resides in it) is a huge need for many of us. Use a little common sense, get creative and don’t ever give up when it comes to helping your customers. They sure will truly appreciate it beyond anything you can imagine.

When was the last time you went above and beyond the call of duty to help out a customer?