Customer Service Apparently Is NOT Dead

If you had asked me last week what I thought about customer service, I would have said that it's a dying practice, but Southwest Airlines has changed my mind.  Some flight attendants at Southwest Airlines have proven that their company still knows the value of going the extra mile and making its customers feel special.

While flying the other day, two flight attendants on our flight learned that we were flying to a vacation spot to celebrate our daughter's 21st birthday.  Years ago I would have expected the flight attendants to make a big deal of it...making our daughter feel special, but in this day and age, I really didn't expect a thing.  Boy was I surprised.

They not only offered a free drink to our daughter and the two young women travelling with her, but they announced it was her birthday over the speaker and they made her a special birthday crown out of peanut packets and drink stirrers.  It was really a very kind gesture on their part and made the girls' day.

By doing that small gesture, I can promise you that all three girls will tell at least a dozen friends about the experience, it will be posted on Facebook for each of their, oh, 800+ friends to see and they'll now think twice about which airline they will travel on in the future. 

Southwest got all that free "marketing" for the cost of three sodas, three miniature Jack Daniel shots and a couple of flight attendant's few minutes of time. 

Am I the only one who doesn't understand why other companies don't see the value in this???  Seems like a no brainer to me! 

When I return from vacation, I'll be writing a letter to Southwest Airlines telling them about the wonderful customer service we received!