May 9, 2008
To Colleen Barrett, President, SouthWest Airlines,
The disclosure of some faults with your maintenance schedules didn’t bother me – because I knew that the customer-centric core of SouthWest Airlines guaranteed that, while come technical rules might be stretched, no one would ever be put in danger.
Now, because of what I will admit is a relatively small incident, I am not so sure. Here’s the sequence. I will admit that I may be overly sensitive on this topic because I am a writer/speaker on the topics of quality/leadership and customer service. (You are, of course, invited to look up my name on Amazon.com to see a list of the books that my wife and I have had published on these topics.)
• On May 5, I had SouthWest tickets to fly from Houston Hobby to San Antonio. It wasn’t a good day for me. I had a kidney stone on the loose (everything you have ever heard the amount of pain associated with kidney stones is true) and had taken a goodly amount of pain medicine . . . I was in a bit of a fog..
• When I arrived in San Antonio, it suddenly occurred to me that I did not have my windbreaker jacket. My first thought was that I had left it on the plane or at the gate area in Houston. I immediately approached a SouthWest Baggage Claim representative and gave her all details as well as I could think them through at the moment.. She promised to look into it and call me. I left the airport, confident that if the jacket could be found, it would be.
• As the hours passed, I remembered that I had, in fact, left the jacket in the Men’s Room just before the security check going into the SouthWest gates area at Houston Hobby. I wasn’t worried. I had told enough audiences over the years about the customer-centric nature of the SouthWest corporate culture that I was confident that the jacket would be chased down.
• On Tuesday, a few hours after the successful removal of my kidney stone, I called the number of SouthWest Baggage in San Antonio and left a message with the more exact details – and was told by the recorded message that I would be called back promptly. I also called the SouthWest Baggage office at Houston Hobby, left the same message/details and was again assured by the recorded message that I would be hearing back from them shortly.
• On Wednesday, May 7, I again called both the San Antonio and Houston Hobby offices, left the same detailed messages, and received the same assurances.
• It is now Friday, May 9. I have not received a phone call from any SouthWest employee.
In all honesty, it was an old (albeit favorite) jacket and losing it is a less than traumatic event. Finding out that the Southwest corporate culture has changed so dramatically that I would not get a follow-up phone call from either office after the initial report or any of my four (two to each office) follow-up phone calls . . . that is truly bothersome. I am no longer so sanguine about the motivations behind the maintenance scheduling, the reports about free flying lessons given to an FAA official, etc.
I am fully aware that everything from fuel prices to competitive pressures have put a great deal of pressure on your organization. I am sorry that these pressures have apparently begun to change who is the organization is at its core.
Pat Townsend
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