A Dream With a Deadline by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pearson Education Limited
Published: 2007-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

SouthWest clearly puts its employees first, above and beyond its clients, with the expectation that employees will in return treat their clients as well as they themselves are treated. Customer service and customer orientation are explicit in everything the company does.5 Employees are motivated to deliver high levels of service, and know that their efforts will be recognized and rewarded. The high levels of motivation lead to operational efficiency and to the friendly service upheld in the mission statement.

The company’s values include fun, love (which they call LUV, being Texan), team spirit and altruism, with supporting values that help deliver the mission statement: profitability, cost-effective operations, family, hard work, individuality, ownership, egalitarianism, common sense and simplicity. The values are communicated using simple statements such as ‘Positively outrageous service’ or ‘SouthWest Spirit’, so that employees know exactly what is expected of them, both internally and externally.

Messages are consistent both internally and externally, from the human resource (HR) policies that support the company’s values to the advertising campaigns and the stock exchange ticker, both under the theme of LUV. For example, in 2000, the company ran parallel internal and external campaigns on the theme of freedom: externally to reflect that low fares allow people to travel to places they would not be able to travel to otherwise, and internally to communicate the freedom to grow and develop as an individual.

Future employees are carefully assessed to ensure that their personal values are completely in synch with the organizational values. Employees who have been with the company for nine months or less are invited to have lunch with the executive team, to discuss how well their expectations have been met and how well they fit into the corporate culture.

Compensation is also used to reinforce the message. In addition to stock options and profit-sharing, some compensation schemes clearly support the organizational values: for example, pilots are paid by the flight rather than by the hour. As a result, they proactively look for cost-saving solutions, from flying at lower altitudes to asking for a runway closer to the hangar.

Best practice is shared across the organization in a monthly publication, along with stories of employees who provided positively outrageous customer service. Team leaders are carefully selected as they are seen as ambassadors for the company’s culture. Supervisors are encouraged to constantly reinforce the corporate values and employees are encouraged to go above their personal boss if they feel that the vision and values are not respected.

Customer letters, both negative and positive, are widely shared. Employees involved in bad service cases are asked for their insight as to how this happened and could be avoided in the future. They are not fired or stigmatized.

The SouthWest case demonstrates concretely some of the points we have been making: the importance of focus, commitment (not compliance) energy and enthusiasm, as well as setting new boundaries for your business. Who would have thought, 20 years ago, that low-cost airlines would succeed and make more money than the regular airlines! Only visionary thinking

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.