Bucking Conventional Wisdom

Thu, Oct 8, 2009

Southwest Airlines Most business owners mask their vulnerabilities and insecurities by projecting a slick and polished image of infallibility. And this controlling behavior breeds the habitual corporate-speak, hype and chest-thumping clichés that consumers have come to loathe and reject.

But Southwest Airlines bucks conventional wisdom by removing the rules and regulations that handcuff its employees.

Take a moment to watch the videos that accompany this blog post. You’ll witness a Southwest Airlines employee who has been given the freedom to create a fun, memorable and authentic experience for the company’s customers and its shareholders.

And no better words drive home the importance of authenticity than those crafted by Levine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger from their book, The Cluetrain Manifesto.

“Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happy-talk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.”

Empower your employees and encourage them to create a memorable experience. Your customers will love the breath of fresh air. And be sure to leave a comment below and let me know how you plan on being more authentic with your customers.

* Thanks to my friend and colleague Charlie Moger for sending me this video.

Credibility, Marketing Strategy, Southwest Airlines, Tom Wanek

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This post was written by:

Tom Wanek - who has written 113 posts on MarketingBeyondAdvertising.com.

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Learning to speak in a human voice is indeed a very crucial path to being authentic with your clients! Great post!
Tom Wanek

Exactly Dennis. And it doesn't have to be something as outrageous as the pre-flight message "rap." Just give your employees the authority to break from the rules and regulations. Of course they should good judgment on when to do so.

I recently had my flight cancelled while in Chicago and a United employee refused to help another passenger retrieve her medication from her checked luggage because it was "against the rules." That was it, end of story. Clearly this employee missed a golden opportunity to provide a better experience and help this woman, even if required getting a TSA official involved.
Dennis Collins

The core idea I take from your post is: cut out the jargon and the stilted, phony phraseology. Talk and write like real people talk and write, even when you have an important, or even serious message. There is nothing more phony than the airline pre-flight messages. The folks who write them must have their undies on too tight.

I'm not sure everyone would appreciate the "rap" version, but at least he broke out of the "airline" mode to do something different and memorable. Bravo to the flight attendant and to Southwest for breaking the mold, a mold that needs to be broken.
Dave Young

Love the videos. If I were to work for an airline, it would have to be SWA. We watched a bit of the "Airline" show on Biography yesterday. I'd never seen the series before. It's a good job of documenting the way they help their customers, especially those who have special needs, or don't fly very often.