Customer Relationship Management

Presented By: Anubhav Borbora

Nitesh Ranjan

Prasanjet Basu

Rishabh Tejpal

Rituraj

SOUTHWEST AIRLINESAbout the company

• Southwest Airlines Co is a major U.S. airline and the world's largest low-

cost carrier, headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

• The airline was established in 1967 and adopted its current name in 1971.

• The airline has nearly 46,000 employees as of December 2014 and operates

more than 3,400 flights per day. As of June 5, 2011, it carries the most

domestic passengers of any U.S. airline as of November 2014.

• As of June 5, 2011, it carries the most domestic passengers of any U.S.

airline.

• 85% employees are unionized.

Products & Services

Southwest experience

• Fly to 72 cities in 37 states, 3400 flights every day.

• Fly more than 90 million customers in 2011.

• Attracts customers due to following reasons:

1. Low fare

2. Short Haul

3. High Frequency

4. Point to point service

• Southwest maintains excellent customer satisfaction ratings; for many years,

according to the Department of Transportation, Southwest ranked number one

(lowest number of complaints) among all U.S. airlines for customer complaints.

Product & Services

No fee charges

on changing

the flight

At minimum charges

provide satellite based

internet services

Allows to check

one stroller, one

car seat free of

charge.

Get priority

lane access

and priority

boarding

Allows members

to get direct

access to the

front of ticket

counter &

security lanes.

Southwest Effect

The term was coined to describe the boost

in air travel by DOT in 1993

The Southwest-effect – When Southwest

starts flying into the new city :

• Air fare drops

• Increase in Air travel

• Its business model is major inspiration

for the other low cost carriers.

How is Southwest Airline No.1???

• Strong Faith in Customer-Enterprise Relationship. The

real answer is actually hidden in their philosophy.

• The company truly believes that ‘We like to think of

ourselves as a Customer Service company that happens

to fly airplanes.' This is believed so strongly that

Southwest qualifies a customer service candidate for

employment based on attitude, not experience.

• The company believes that you can teach a person how

to deliver quality service, but the attitude must be brought

to the job.

• They remain at the no.1 spot because of rapid new

product offerings at frequent interval of time.

In-flight entertainment

• After completing a testing phase Southwest announced on August 21, 2009 that

it would begin rolling out in-flight Wi-Fi Internet connectivity via Row 44's

satellite-broadband based product. All 737-700s and -800s are now equipped

with Wi-Fi, streaming live television, Beats audio and video on demand.

Evolve interior

• Southwest introduced a plan to retrofit its fleet with a new interior.

Improvements include a modern cabin design, lighter and more

comfortable seats made of eco-friendly products, increased under-seat

space, new netted seatback pockets to provide more knee room, a new

fixed-wing headrest and improved ergonomics.

..Continued

Graphical Representation

Some more Evidence

Strategic Advantage

• In Porter’s view, strategy is “the creation of a unique and

valuable position, involving a different set of activities.”.

• In case of Southwest Airline, it has done things differently

to create high operational excellence and stand

differentiated among its peer airline members

• Southwest Airline has never followed “me too” approach,

on the other hand it has created differences that it can

preserve and sustain for a long duration of time.

• Choices and decisions at Southwest are made with the

intent of keeping organizational design aligned with

business strategy.

• Few things that it did differently are as follows

1. Avoiding non-essential services such as in-flight meals

in order to cut cost and enhance efficiency of operations

2. Simplify operations by using one and only one type of

aircraft – the Boeing 737. This means every pilot and

mechanic is capable of working any plane in the fleet

3. Minimizing turnaround time at the gates by eschewing

seat assignments and carefully managing the queuing

for aircraft boarding

Taking the Long View

• Companies like Southwest have profited from

relationship-based differentiation, creating a positive spiral

of profitable referrals.

• Southwest spends conservatively on technology and

doesn’t use the term “CRM” to define customer-focused

initiatives.

CRM Programs by Southwest Airline

• For Mass market: Company goes on with Continuous

Loyalty programs with frequent flyers.

• For Distributors: They conduct annual security checks and

treat cargo departments of all the airports as their

partners and provide proper tracking facility for the high

value cargo

• In airline industry two major triggers to maintain are the

front end customers and the back end customers, and at

southwest airlines both of them are satisfied differently.

Conclusion

It is very evident by the above table that Southwest Airlines is far

ahead of many other airlines on macro level.

Thank You