01-17-2011
12:27 AM
5 Loves
Boo to Southwest on this one. Remember the glory days, like this headline and press release from April 2009?
--------------------------
"Southwest Airlines' Rapid Rewards Program Wins Best Award Redemption at the 21st Annual Freddie Awards"
DALLAS, April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines' frequent flyer program, Rapid Rewards, won first place for Best Award Redemption and placed in the top five in five other award categories at Inside Flyer magazine's 21st annual Freddie Awards ceremony last week in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This is the 11th consecutive year for Southwest Airlines to win Best Award Redemption (every year since the award was created in 1998). Southwest Airlines also placed in the top five in five other categories, including: Program of the Year, Best Web Site for southwest.com, Best Member Communications, Best Bonus Promotion, and Best Customer Service.
"Once again, frequent flyers have spoken loud and clear - Rapid Rewards is one of the best frequent flyer programs out there," said Ryan Green, Southwest Airlines' Director of Customer Loyalty. "Our Rapid Rewards program is designed to bring value to our most frequent and loyal Customers, and we are honored to be recognized with this prestigious Freddie Award."
Each year, InsideFlyer magazine invites members of all frequent traveler programs to vote for the programs they feel deliver the best combination of benefits, awards, and returns on loyalty from the traveler's point of view. Winners are determined not only by how many votes a program receives, but by the overall merits of each program as reflected in "value voting," where voters rate their favorite programs on a scale of one to ten. More than 700,000 frequent flyers submitted ballots to Freddie Awards organizers, casting votes for programs worldwide.
---------------------
Note that it won the award for 11 consecutive years. So Southwest... want to try this whole thing again and be honest this time?
Also, I get the feeling that this is part of some bait and switch-type PR plan. Step 1) Start out by announcing the "launch" of an apparently poorly devised and confusing program with way more changes than were actually necessary or desired and that no one would realistically like. Step 2) Allow everyone to react negatively and wait for the unfavorable momentum to build to a crescendo. Step 3) Before too much damage is done, hold another press conference stating that you've listened to the concerns of your loyal customers and are now scaling back the changes to make it simpler and less dramatic of a change (strategically retaining the few core changes that you initially wanted to begin with). Step 4) Begin reaping customer and industry praise as a feel-good company success story for listening and reacting to your loyal customers' concerns (while still getting the modifications that you actually wanted). Step 5) A vast majority of customers are relieved the compromise isn't AS bad as it "could have been", the company retains its favorable image, and the rewards program is updated as originally desired.
There SWA, I would have only charged you $50 million for that one.
... View more