Sorry for the absence from the blog but I went on a long vacation to Turkey (more on this in an upcoming post) and I'm just now getting back into the blogging saddle...
Over the past few years, I've flown on Southwest Airlines as often as possible since I appreciate their low fares, on-time departures, and excellent customer service. Recently, a friend in Texas sent me a clipping from the Dallas Morning News titled "Making it right if things go wrong: at Southwest, LUV means saying you're sorry - quickly - to keep customer relationships strong" which is a well-written account of how Southwest deals with passengers who face flight snafus and the benefits the company derives from a rapid response. There are also some hilarious anecdotes in the piece that make it worth reading such as the story of the female passenger who kneeled in front of her middle seat and chewed on the seat cushion, then stripped off her top and ran down the aisle.
Ten years ago, when I worked in my family's office furniture business, like Southwest Airlines, I learned that some of our most loyal customers were those whose who had the biggest problems when their orders. Sure, nobody liked gettting the wrong furniture delivered, dings on the bookcases, or damage to their doorways. Our customer service manager took pride in contacting folks about our mistakes before they were noticed. Many customers told me how surprised and happy they were to hear us fess up to our mistakes. And, to my surprise, many customers who had horrendous things happen to their furniture orders with us kept coming back to us to buy and sending in their friends. Paradoxically, a mistake corrected quickly and completely often generated better results for our business than a job done well in the first place. Have you experienced something similar?
