Morning Joy, Love and Work-ers!
Yesterday I had an EXTRAORDINARY experience at the hands of Southwest Airlines, for me it was life changing and hopefully will be future flight-changing too; I may never subject myself to the ‘D’ word ever again – life is too short - and that makes me super-happy!
I knew things were different with Southwest from across the check-in concourse, their lovely simple wings logo with a heart in the middle is really very appealing. Getting closer to the check-in desk I noticed they have free Hershey’s kisses AND smiling staff; the wonders continued during the boarding process which I was a little worried about as there are no assigned seats; but to my amazement an orderly queue formed, the calm passengers and calm ground crew laughed and joked with each other as boarding took place and we all arrived in our seats relaxed and smiling – WOW!
The in-flight experience was good too, cabin craft were funny, relaxed and attentive; the plane itself was new and the in-flight magazine was well written and full of good stuff. Then I did some work :-)
Landing was HILARIOUS, as soon as we touched down the lead flight bloke commentated as if he was a cowboy steadying a galloping horse “Whoa there horsey” he then proceeded his commentary with his ‘plane-horse’ all the way to the terminal with promises of “nice warm hay in the hanger, carrots in the fuel tank and a swift rub-down by a powerfully built Southwest mechanic!” It was REALLY funny and the whole plane was laughing!
From a business perspective I have studied Southwest, I've used Southwest as an example to teach about great leadership and guest service and have had the great good fortune of working with some of their most experienced and highly tenured advisors, but I had never flown with them and truly it was everything I could have imagined and more.
The intoxicating combination of love, work and joy can be seen, smelt, touched and tasted on Southwest Airlines, what a privilege to see the magic come to life :-)
So there it is, the secret's out my new crush is Southwest Airlines - who are your company/work/brand-crushes?
Jason and I feel the same way! We just took Hunter on Southwest to visit Grandpa in Arizona and we loved every minute of it! (our first flight on Southweest too)
ReplyDeleteReally simple things make a huge difference don't they? Our flight attendant started the safety procedures presentation with "If we can please pretend to have your attention for a few minutes..." ; ) haha. They also said, "If our flight somehow becomes a cruise, there's a life vest under your seat." And the best was when they were talking about the oxygen masks, they said "if you're traveling with a child, or with anyone acting like a child, please put on your mask first then assist the child."
Great flights!