How Southwest reacts when the most embarrassing event occurs
Kuleana (I don’t have any pics traveling)
After a wonderful goodbye dinner in Connecticut, we headed home to my old family house. Three wagging tails and panting faces created us. Upon going inside we realized my emotional support dog had eaten two big loaves of bread. The next day we woke up at 4:00 AM to walk my dog and then drive to the New York airport, Laguardia.
My sister, her 2-year-old baby, and my emotional support dog were all flying on Southwest back to Salt Lake City, UT. On the first flight, my dog started thrashing about, I was watching the baby and my older sister was following the dog with a reusable diaper pad because the dog had to poo. It was modifying to have the dog poop on an airplane!
My sister washed it all up, and everything was cleaned. After the flight landed we were walking off when a flight attendant said we had to wait for management because of our dog.
Uh Oh.
Kuleana is shy, sweet, and gets very embarrassed
The manager arrived and immediately asked us how our family member was doing. He then explained to us how Southwest sees animals as family members, they know no one was expecting the dog to poop on the plane and they want to make sure the dog is taken care of. He then asked if we had water, and if she had enough food, did she want anything? He then guided us to the pet relief station.
Wow!
My sister and I were blown away. We were expecting to get scolded for the dog’s accident. The dog is a great flyer, extremely well behaved, and she hid her head for the whole flight after she pooped she was so embarrassed.
Southwest is North America’s fastest-growing airline. They grew 7.3 million seats in 2017 alone! An article from Investopedia lists the three reasons Southwest is growing faster than their competitors as 1) low-cost coast business model 2) low-fare revenue model 3) ability to increase load factor. It forgets to mention Southwest’s focus on person-to-person marketing.
I learned in a business class in college a few years ago that Southwest places a strong focus on person-to-person relationships. They believe one person’s positive experience will be shared with their friends and help the business to grown.
I can tell you one thing for sure, Southwest has a few more loyal customers- Baby Tiki, sister Janet, Jamie (me), and dog Kuleana. I want to share my wonderful experience of being treated like a human by Southwest staff to the world.