Media Rules! talks about how Southwest Airlines is known for putting their customers first, and got well known because they were willing to do what other airlines weren’t. With this mentality they build strong relationships with their customers and build up their brand. When they first started their blog people thought it was a crazy idea, however, Southwest has learned the benefits of having one. This video explains how they have successfully used a blog to help their company improve their boarding system and listen to their customers and in the end everyone was happy.
Southwests blog is different from Sun Microsystems and GM’s, who have CEO’s that write their companies most popular blogs. Radically Transparent mentions Southwest having a company team blog with the opinions and ideas from multiple employees. Letting employees blog allows Southwest to be more humanized and transparent, with someone talking more on the customer level. On their “Nuts About Southwest” blog, ‘About‘ page they encourage a relationship with their customers saying things like this site is for their customers and they are ready for them to participate. They have a fun attitude and genuinely want to make their customers happy. They explain how they moderate the blog, to make sure people stay on topic and weed out any profanity or rude comments. It is also explained that their blog is not a forum for customer support issues since part of the team leaving posts or answering comments are flight crew members that might be flying. So a quick answer would not be possible. Southwests About page was very helpful for me because they explain exactly what they want to gain by having a blog, and I also gained knowledge about their mentality as a company. I found Southwest to be very forward thinking, not only do they have a blog, but on their blog page they have a, video, news, poll, and media sections. You can also follow them on twitter, add them as a friend on Facebook, get connected on LinkIn, find them on Youtube, and look at pictures on Flickr.
Strategies:
- Having a team writing for the blog
- Their ‘About’ page explaining to their customers their goal by having a blog
- Anyone can comment on their blog
- Having more than just a post section
I really like that you decided to write about Southwest’s blog because, being a Southwest customer myself, I find they have always had wonderful customer service and have obviously listened to any concerns that arose. Their open-boarding system is what makes them different from other airlines, but their old boarding system was causing people to have to arrive to the airport hours early and sit in a line on the floor of the boarding area to save their spot. These masses of people would quickly move into the walking area and cause quite a congestion problem. Their new boarding system is efficient and has the same underlying values. Each person gets a number and a letter, for example “A16″. These means they will be the 16th person to board in the first group. Satisfaction ratings are high and this was all possible with their blog outreach. I don’t believe that having more than one voice behind their blog creates a problem, as other companies may think. It is great that they are getting their employees involved, since they are the ones who deal with the customers closely.
I like that Southwest Airlines Blog “Nuts About Southwest” is not managed by a corporate voices which sometimes sound more like profit-driven machinery than real people engaged in two-way conversations. Not to mention the amount of feedback they get from the blog on what people like and the reasons they fly Southwest. Having specific team on managing the blog creates a better faster way to respond but have one person manage the twitter account establishes a personality and relationship with the audience and consumers. I like the direction Southwest is going to comfort their passengers. I think I will stick with them.