Posted on 09/03/2007 8:51:29 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(CBS News) DALLAS -- Something unusual is going on at Southwest Airlines. Everyone is happy. They all kiss and hug, even President Colleen Barrett and CEO Gary Kelly.
Average Southwest employees like the big bosses. They want to get their picture taken with Kelly. They admire him.
"I think some CEOs have to travel with bodyguards," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner. "So you think about that contrast, it's just something you can't take for granted."
Kelly says the difference between his company and others is simple: "People working together, people lovin' each other, people respecting each other."
Southwest Airlines has been profitable every year since 1973. No other U.S. airline can say that. It's never had a layoff. It's never cut salaries. In fact, it's one of the best-paid, most highly-unionized airlines in the industry. What makes it so successful? A smart business plan, of course, but there is something else that Southwest deems crucial:
"You put your employees first and if you take care of them, then they will take good care of you," Herb Kelleher, the airline's chairman, said. "Then your customers will come back, and your shareholders will like that, so it's really a unity."
Kelleher is legendary in the airline industry for doing things differently than the competition. Before he found himself Southwest's pitchman, Kelleher was a lawyer retained by the airline to get it off the ground - a fight that took him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It seemed the last thing Southwest's competitors wanted to see was a low-cost upstart doing nothing but flying around Texas in and out of Dallas Love Field.
In 1971, "the love airline" took off. At first, Southwest was known for sexy flight attendants in hot pants, which got it the attention it needed.
"You can have a low-cost carrier and people still don't fly it because they don't know about it," Kelleher said. "And so, the schtick kind of fit in with getting known."
By 1978, Kelleher was running the place. His way of doing that was to bring his affectionate, sometimes outrageous sense of fun to management.
"I enjoy, not the theatricality of it, but the opportunity it gives me to be with our people," he said.
"Malice in Dallas" in 1992 had to have been his goofiest stunt: Instead of going to court over who had the rights to the advertising slogan "Just plane smart" - Southwest or a South Carolina aviation sales company - Kelleher agreed to settle the matter with a charity arm wrestling match.
"We're saying, we're having fun," he said. "We want you to have fun, too."
So on any given day, during the final approach into Dallas from Houston, you might hear flight attendant Cassie Plourd singing you down. Plourd has been with Southwest 18 years, and so has Frannie Oberman, who says the best joke she tells to passengers is that she's addicted to pressurization.
Today, Southwest Airlines has nearly 34,000 employees. It flies to 64 different cities, has more than 500 planes and is the nation's sixth largest airline. But what makes Southwest Southwest is the fact that it turns flights around fast. This came about by accident because in the beginning, when it had only four airplanes, it had to sell one of them just to stay in business.
"And they went out to the ground ops folks and said, 'Guess what? We're gonna maintain the same schedule that we had with four aircraft now with three aircraft,'" said Kevin Freiberg, who co-wrote a book on Southwest with his wife, Jackie. "And of course, everybody said, 'How are you gonna do that?' He said, 'Well, you're gonna have to turn an airplane in 10 minutes' and of course the average turn-around time at that point was more like 45 minutes or an hour."
Here is where the relationship the airline has with its employees comes in. It is what is known as the Southwest culture.
"In the majority of businesses that are truly successful today, they've got a really definitive cause that everybody rallies around and believes in and serves toward, and works hard for. I think that's critical and Southwest got that 34 years ago," Jackie Freiberg said.
Turnarounds now average 23 minutes, but that's still better than half the time it takes other airlines. Customers, as passengers are called, are herded onto planes in three big groups. They don't have assigned seats, but most of the time, they don't seem to mind.
And when he asked his pilots' union to agree to a five-year pay freeze, Kelleher took one, too. He figures it cost him $75 million to $100 million in compensation, but it bought him trust.
"To me, seventy, hundred million - what difference does it make?" Kelleher said. "There's nothing particular I'd like to do that I can't do."
If you walk down any hall in Southwest's Dallas headquarters, there are thousands of pictures - glimpses of what love looks like at the love airline after all these years.
Southwest's culture bears the likeness of Kelleher and Colleen Barrett, who are in the process of retiring. Employees and analysts alike agree that the future of the airline depends on preserving it when Kelleher and Barrett are gone.
"When I first came here I thought, where's the Kool Aid?" Oberman said. "And it was sort of, 'This can't be true.'"
There are some important expectations for every Southwest employee.
"They have to practice the golden rule every day - first with each other, and then with our passengers," Barrett said. "They have to serve because they want to. They have to smile because they want to, not because they have to."
Southwest was a godsend to me on a recent vacation when I dislocated my knee on the way to the airport and missed my scheduled flight. They happily put me on a later flight at no extra charge, had an attendant there to meet me when I arrived at the airport, expedited our check-in, took me right on the plane in a wheelchair and gave me the whole front row so I could elevate my leg. I know I would never have gotten such good treatment from any other airline.
Amazing folks on Southwest - and they are all having fun at work!
Wow! What a business model!
Few years ago, I had reservations for a 10 am plane to Las Vegas. I checked in about 8 am, and the agent said that she could get me on the 9 am flight. I hesitated and she said “Look, you can get an extra hour of gambling in”. I agreed.
Love SWA.
....Bob
I love that airline.
SWA Pilot:” I used a $10 billion GPS system to arrive here, and now we are waiting for a guy with a 49 cent flashlight to tell me where to park”
... I cracked up
....Bob
In fact, Southwest single-handedly saved low-cost intra-California flights by essentially taking over the role that PSA used to have in the state. I also think Las Vegas casinos should band together to give Southwest a big thank you celebration--Southwest Airlines is probably the biggest reason why Las Vegas has become arguably the #1 tourist destination in the USA.
I still remember one morning back then when I had my little portable V HF tuned to Dallas approach control during some shaky weather conditions. Two Southwest flights were holding, and a good old Texas captain's voice came on: "Wow, two-thirds of the fleet in holding patterns!"
I find it a little unnerving for flight staff to always be joking around.
And is it that expensive or troublesome to have seat reservations? You have to wait in lines like cattle.
I was standing in a long line of passengers waiting to board for Austin. There were several passengers in wheelchairs being preboarded by skycaps, and they were one skycap short. When a SWA pilot who was deplaning saw the lady in the wheelchair waiting, he greeted her with a big smile and promptly took her through the gate to the plane.
A businessman who’d been making deals on his cell phone while we waited, turned to me and said, “That’s why I fly Southwest.”
I fly Southwest a lot.
I still don’t like standing in line since you don’t have assigned seats.
I also don’t like their short turnarounds. You are definately herded in like cattle.
I’ve noticed over the years that the employees are more business like than they used to be. It used to be almost every flight they the employees seemed to be having fun. Now it’s more the exception than the rule. But at least at least they aren’t grumpy like some of the other airlines.
As much as I fly SW (frequent flyer) I still look for similar pricing on other airlines. Recently flew Alaska for less money, got an assigned seat, relaxed boarding, staff was friendly...kind of like the old days of flying.
Feel free to spend 2 or 3 times what Southwest wants for a flight on, say, American Airlines...
Where you will almost NEVER get to the gate at the promised time, have to pay extra for everything they offer, and then have to deal with rude and surly personnel.....
Southwest is definitely a love ‘em or hate ‘em company. There are a lot of good things about the company and a lot of bad things, and whether the good outweighs the bad depends on your personal preferences and travel needs.
One thing the article fails to mention in discussing Southwest’s success is that unlike the major airlines, Southwest never had the government dictating their business model. That’s a pretty big historical advantage.
In a way, copiers are like the airlines. Everything can work perfectly but if there is one paper jam, the customer wants the machine out in the street. In the same way, a longtime customer of one airline might jump to another airline over some lost luggage or a bad experience at the ticket counter.
BTW, when your flight experience is perfect, do you ever call the airline to thank them? It's the same with copiers. We can put out a copier that runs perfectly for a year and never hear anything from the customer. Then when it breaks down (and all copiers break eventually), it suddenly becomes "that #($#*$% machine that hasn't worked since Day 1."
SO that all said, it really does come down to attitude. In my company, we stress the positive attitude and in a way, we are the "Southwest" of the copier industry. As a result, it is a fun place to work We never had to lay anybody off, our turnover is low and we are profitable year after year.
The Southwest model can be applied to any industry.
You must work for a Canon dealership.
My Sharp dealers had a great attitude, wonderful products and made money. I might add, we worked hard and had fun doing it.
I do have to give credit to Southwest. I give credit to Jet Blue too.
Sorry Sam, I didn't read your full post before I replied. Good for you.
That’s not my experience.
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