Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is a passenger airline based out of Dallas, Texas that provides air transpiration throughout the United States. Southwest is currently the 6th largest U. S. airline based on revenue. It currently has more than 3,100 flights in 73 cities, making it the largest U. S. carrier passenger airline. They provide good options, such as early check-in, hotel packages, car rental, and free luggage up to two bags, which are one of their techniques to provide bad news to the customers. Summary: Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier in the United States and they get the high satisfaction ratings of the country’s best customer service providers from business week’s ranking. The reason why they can do so is that they contain good policies for the customers. For example, a case in St. Louis, an ice storm had stocked the plane for several hours. The flight attendants and pilots walked through the plane like usual, trying to answer questions that customers had and they provided the information for the passengers about connecting flights. Passengers who were on the flight were surprised by the letter they got after few days. They got a free round-trip flight. Fred Taylor is a senior manager of proactive customer communications who has a daily meeting with his department to talk about the problems that may happen and develop the methods to minimize them. For example, Southwest Airlines use twitter to send the information and official announcements for their customers. If passengers know more about the policies, it helps them a lot. The other part of Fred Taylor’s job is to deliver bad news and responding to customer’s complaint. According to the article (2011), Fred Taylor says that â€Å"it’s not something we had to do. It is something we feel our customers deserve. † He writes about 20,000 apology letters to passengers in a year. The letters have his direct phone number and many of them include a free flight voucher. The motto of Southwest Airlines is â€Å"share the spirit† and they do what they say. Course concepts: Bad News disappoints, Irritates, and sometimes angers the receiver, such messages must be written carefully. The Bad feelings associated with disappointing news can generally be reduced if the receiver: A) Knows the reason for the rejection. B) Feels that the news was delivered sensitively C) Believes that the matter was treated seriously and fairly While many people may claim to prefer directly delivered bad news, the source cannot be said in a particular situation. For example, if those people are directly responsible for the situation resulting in the bad news, they may not be so found of hearing it directly. Or if the bad news is personally serious and damaging, they may prefer a buffer Again this comes to the first phase of the writing process: assessing and analyzing both the situation and audience. Once this is done, it will be clear whether to deliver bad news directly and indirectly. Using the indirect strategy is a smart way to lessen the blame and the importance of negative news. However, there are still possibilities of negative ramifications. If, for example the sender takes too long to finally deliver the main point the recipient can be aggravated. The key to delivering news effectively knows the audience. For example, some people prefer direct communication for the good news and the bad, while others prefer indirect and good communication skills. In dealing with delivering bad news, the 3*3 writing process still maintains its purpose and assistance. In the prewriting phase of the writing process (phase1) the aspects include 3 As: analysis, anticipation, and adaptation. In completing this phase, the writer determines that a negative message must be sent how the news will be received, and how to appropriately draft that message. Third, aspect(Adaptation) that the choice between direct and indirect messages comes to play. Even though it may seem impossible to make the receiver happy when delivering negative news, it is possible to reduce bad feelings and resentment by the use of a buffer, a buffer is a device used to reduce shock or pain. The following are various buffer possibilities A) Start with the part of the message that represents the best news. B) Show that the reader is important and cared. C) Provide objective information that introduces the bad news. The most important aspects of delivering negative messages are explaining the reasons and how to increase the benefits. In developing audience benefits and building goodwill, we should increase new value and better features, make it more efficient or make customers’ lives easier. Southwest got high performance from USA airlines services. When flight was delayed, Southwest Airlines will inform their customer directly by appropriate ways. Moreover, Southwest Airlines will give promo code discount or free one-way tickets when any flight was cancelled. Therefore, customers feel happy and satisfied even when they face the problem because they have another thing to compensate such as give cards, cash back, VIP cards, and so on. Moreover, Southwest Airlines will offer more options that make each customer more convenient. When customers reserve the tickets and then they have a late flight. Southwest Airlines provides the option that customers can fly early if another flight is available. â€Å"Customers will hear an announcement in the gate area and will be able to purchase an available [early] boarding position via credit card from a customer service agent,† Furthermore, this option is useful because Southwest Airlines got positive feedback back from the customers. From my real experience, I am one of the loyal customers who traveled with Southwest Airlines. In addition, this Airlines always has a good deal when I would like to travel somewhere in the United States. So, Southwest Airlines is the best choice for me not only they offered cheap tickets, but also provided free two luggage promotion. The last time I chose Southwest Airlines, my flight was delayed because of bad weather. Unfortunately, I also missed the next flight that I actually had to transfer to. Nevertheless, Southwest Airlines tried to find another flight for me. Furthermore, Southwest Airlines paid me for the hotel, meals, and cash back during I was in New York. According to this experience, I always choose Southwest Airlines no matter how expensive I have to spend. In conclusion, Southwest Airlines knows how to respond and handle unpredictable problems, and inform its customers directly with proper ways. From the above reasons, Southwest Airlines is one of the successful airlines company in the US.