The Ease of Business: Southwest Vs. American

A couple of months ago I read a travel tip written by another speaker. He wrote that if your round-trip flight has a turnaround of less than 24 hours get your return boarding pass at the airport when you arrive, before you go to the hotel. This will save you time by allowing you to bypass the line at the ticket counter or kiosk on your way home.

I loved this idea for two reasons: (1) it’s very difficult to print out a boarding pass from a hotel room. Either there’s no printer or if the hotel does it for you at the Business Center they’ll charge an inflated price for the service. (2) Most of my trips have a turnaround time of less than 24 hours.

Since reading this travel tip, I’ve tried it and it works. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with every airline. Why? Many airlines, like many companies in all industries, still don’t understand that when you constantly try to save your customers time and make their lives easier; it comes back to you in the form of increased business and greater market share. And you know what; it’s not hard to do.

Let me illustrate how easy it is to beat the competition, with a personal experience I had with two different airlines.

A little more than a month ago I flew into Orlando on Southwest Airlines to deliver a speech. Knowing that I would be leaving in less than 24 hours, I stopped at the Southwest ticket counter at the Orlando airport before heading off to my hotel.

At first, I tried to print out a boarding pass at one of the kiosks, but none of them seemed to be working. So I went up to an agent working behind the counter and asked if I could get a boarding pass for tomorrow’s flight. He said, “Sure,” printed it out and I was on my way. No waiting on lines at the Orlando airport for me the next day.

A few weeks later I flew into Washington D.C. for another speech; also going home the next day in less than 24 hours. This time I was on American Airlines. I stopped at the ticket counter before going off to the hotel and like Southwest, was unable to use the kiosks, so I went up to an agent behind the counter. I asked her if she could print me out a boarding pass for the next day, but, unlike Southwest, she said, “No we can’t do that.”

I said, “I don’t understand. I can print out a boarding pass up to 24 hours in advance online.” She said, “Yes, you can print it out online.” I said, “I know that. So if I can print it out online, why can’t you just do it for me, especially since I can’t do it at my hotel?” I then said, “Southwest prints out boarding passes at the counter up to 24 hours in advance, why can’t you?” And she gave me that blank look you get when someone doesn’t want to say, “We don’t care about our customers’ convenience and ease of doing business as much as our competition does.”

Giving customers the ability to print out a boarding pass up to 24 hours in advance is a great convenience, but also something every competitor in the industry does. Allowing me to get my boarding pass at the ticket counter the day before is going the extra mile. Something very few companies do, which is why customers never forget it.

What does your company do: Save customers time and make their lives easier by doing only what the competition does, or have you taken your competition’s ideas and policies one step further to allow you to stand out from the pack, be truly memorable and give yourself an opportunity to be indispensable to the customer?