There’s been a ton of hype in social media about Southwest Air for quite sometime now, and that’s not surprising.  This company has ventured into using blogs and Twitter to listen to and keep their customers informed.

Southwest also delivers on the promises they make.  Today was actually my first time flying the airline and I was in no way disappointed.  From start to finish, they absolutely delivered a better transportation experience.

Their people are friendly and real.  No fancy uniforms.  No high jargon.  The entire staff acted like human beings and treated their customers in the same fashion.  It’s ironic that, on the plane, I was finishing the chapter in Trust Agents that details the “One of Us” principal.  After being on the plane for only a few minutes, I felt like the captain, crew and Randy was “One of Us.”

For the record, because of my experience today, Southwest has my business whenever I fly.  Or at least until some other airline finds a way to do it better.  But good luck with that, guys.  You have a lot of catching up to do.

But here’s what really impressed me.

As we were preparing to land in Minneapolis, I ended up in a conversation with Randy, one of our flight attendants.  Randy is a down to earth and funny guy, and I really appreciated his kind service during the trip.

I had recently stumbled across this article in USA Today about airlines testing in-flight WiFi (thank God that’s happening!  It’s about time we figured that one out).  So, that being at the top of my mind, I asked Randy, “Is Southwest looking into WiFi on planes?”

Randy laid it out and told me everything he knew.  I learned that Southwest had been testing out the new technology on four planes.  After I got to my hotel, I learned that Southwest had Nuts About Southwest to communicate the initiative to customers since May of this year.  Randy told me that the airline had even been making calls to passengers who were booked on those specific planes, to let them know that they would have the chance to test it out.

When we landed, I took a chance knowing a little about Southwest’s attitude towards using social media, and asked Randy if I could shoot a short interview with him.  With no hesitation, he agreed, and after cleaning the plane for the next round of passengers, he joined me on the tarmac.  Meet Randy:

Social Media Corporate Guidelines
A ton of you who work in larger corporations and are involved in marketing or communications know that policies around the use of social media are the hot topic these days.  I was able to see a presentation by Southwest’s Manager of Emerging Media, Paula Berg last week at the Inbound Marketing Summit.

These guys really are leading the pack when it comes to trusting and empowering their rank and file personnel – or people on the front lines, like Randy – to be spokespeople for the brand.  And guess what?  It works.  Randy did a great job and now I’m adding one more blog post to their online presence, singing the praises of this company on so many fronts.

What if Southwest Air’s policy would have required Randy to get approval from his superior?  What if he would have had to call corporate before agreeing to let me shoot?  What if he would have said no to an interview with a blogger?

You get the point.  Sometimes, there’s no time to take the final decision all the way up the chain and to the right department.  Sometimes, you just need to trust employees to make the right decision and represent the company and brand in the best way they can.  Randy did that today.

What do you think about Southwest’s approach to empowering employees to use social media?

PS.
And just for fun, here’s David Holmes, another flight attendant from Southwest.  He’s recently been named Southwest’s Ambassador of Rhythm.  Just wait. You’ll see why.  This must have been one hell of a customer experience, and I wish I could have been on this flight to see it.  David knows how to flow…

nateriggs

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