May 8, 2025 • 35 mins
What makes an airline inspire true fandom in an industry often reduced to price comparisons and schedule convenience? In this fascinating conversation with Andrew Harvell, Manager of Digital Strategy and Optimization at Southwest Airlines, we uncover the unique approach that has earned Southwest loyal customers and industry accolades spanning decades.
"Our secret sauce is our people," Harvell explains, echoing Southwest's co-founder Colleen Barrett. "We are in the hospitality business here at Southwest. We just happen to fly airplanes." This philosophy drives everything from their celebrated "coheart" onboarding process—complete with red carpet walks and music—to their strategic decisions about digital innovation and customer service.
The conversation takes us behind the scenes of Southwest's culture-building machine, revealing how they've created a distinctive experience in an industry where differentiating is notoriously difficult. Perhaps most valuable is Harvell's perspective on balancing tradition with innovation. As Southwest evolves its digital experience and explores AI applications, it's guided by a commitment to maintaining customer trust above all else. "Trust is an absolute premium currency these days," Harvell notes, explaining how every new feature or policy change is evaluated against this standard.
Whether you're managing customer experience in travel, entertainment, or any service industry, you'll find practical wisdom in Southwest's approach to creating genuine connections with customers even when things go wrong. Listen now to discover how Southwest turns ordinary travelers into passionate fans, and consider how their hospitality-first philosophy might transform your own customer relationships.
Recorded Thursday, May 8th, 2025
Host: Damian Bazadona, CEO & Founder, Situation
Guest: Andrew Harvell, Manager of Digital Strategy and Optimization, Southwest Airlines
Producer: Peter Yagecic, Innovation Advisor, Situation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Peter Yagecic (00:19):
Thank you and Bazzadana.
Our guest today is AndrewHarvell, part of the team at
Southwest Airlines that createsinnovative digital products and
guest experiences.
As manager of digital strategyand optimization, Trade tables
up everybody.
Here's Damian to get us started.
Damian Bazadona (00:36):
Let's get right into it.
How does Southwest Airlinescreate fandom around the brand?
And you know the special saucewhy people choose Southwest and
you guys have it like talk aboutit, yeah.
Andrew Harvell (00:49):
It's a, I mean, a super good question, I think,
one that you know several bookshave been written on.
Um, obviously, ton of casestudies in university kind of
settings, um, and I think at itscore it's it's kind of best
said by, uh, our, our presidentemeritus and co-founder, colleen
Barrett is just our secretsauce, our people.
Right, we are in thehospitality business here at
Southwest.
(01:10):
We just happen to fly airplanesand I think, as kind of
historical as that is, it reallyis true.
I think whenever you talk topeople who have had positive
experiences with Southwest orexperiences in general, that's
the thing that they usually talkabout.
Obviously, our product kind ofspeaks for itself.
The airline product in generalis known to many people, but our
(01:32):
people is truly what sets usapart, and that's a flight
attendant, a pilot, a ramp agent, a customer service agent at
the airport and then obviouslyall the folks behind the scenes
here at headquarters as well.
I truly think we hire for thosetype of people who we can train
up in different areas, butwe're really looking for a
personality type that cancontinue to be stewards of the
brand.
Obviously, as a company that'slasted so long in the US,
(01:53):
southwest has that as what thesecret sauce is.
We're hiring for people who aregoing to carry that torch on of
hospitality and it really doesresonate with people and
obviously when you talk topeople at the airport or between
trips, that's what really comesback to them for sure.
Damian Bazadona (02:05):
What is the talk about?
The onboarding process?
So you and I we go back.
You were at Disney and CityExperience.
You've been a lot of differentawesome organizations.
Talk about the onboardingprocess of just how is it that
makes the people so good thatyou noticed?
Andrew Harvell (02:22):
Yeah, I mean I think it goes back to our hiring
process even before onboarding,right when you walk into
headquarters during a flightattendant hiring event and you
can see that there's kind of adifferent energy in the room.
You've got current flightattendants that are interviewing
potential candidates, you'vegot the music that's blasting
loud in the lobby that's justhoping to kind of bring the
stress down a little bit for thepotential employees that are
(02:44):
interviewing.
For that we call them cohortsinternally and I think that's a
huge competitive advantage wherewe're really trying to get a
sense of everybody's personality.
And that's also true forcorporate hiring as well.
But I think the flightattendant hiring example is like
the best true amalgamation ofthat.
And then when you kind of movealong to onboarding, it's truly
like the first day with thecompany.
We're trying to be as excitedand showing you as much about
(03:05):
the culture as we can.
So when you get on theheadquarters at 8.30 am on a
Monday, we're blasting musicwith 200 of your new friends
that are aligned in the officesof our headquarters.
We've got what's called the redcarpet walk, where all the
employees will walk down the redcarpet.
They're getting cheered,they're getting clapped and then
they start their onboarding.
And then part of that isthey're walking through our
headquarters building, whichChris Sloan of Airways Magazine
(03:27):
once quoted it, as it's as muchof a living, breathing museum
for showcasing the culture thatSouthwest built as it is a
corporate office, as you can seebehind me this is one of the
many offices.
We just have tchotchkeseverywhere.
You can see that the history isembedded in the panes of this
building.
I really think that's a hugepart of onboarding.
It gets people excited aboutthe brand, it gets people
instantly connected to thehistory.
(03:47):
And then, as you kind ofcontinue your tenure with
Southwest, you just hear storiesafter stories about running
into Herb Kelleher, running intoGary Kelly, running into
Colleen Barrett, and everybodyseems to have a really fun story
, especially the ones who werearound in the 90s, 2000s, right,
and it's really special.
It's been really fun to kind ofjoin into the last three years
myself.
Damian Bazadona (04:04):
Well, look, there's a little proof to the
pudding, to what you're talkingabout, in that we haven't talked
about this, but I saw theannouncement.
Best airline for economy classcustomer satisfaction by JD
Power.
Andrew Harvell (04:15):
Is this correct?
Yes, sir, yeah, yes sir, got anice fourth year in a row.
Damian Bazadona (04:17):
I also noticed most satisfying economy, air
travel experience as well, andthere's a whole bunch of other
stuff here Number one in airlinestaff and level of trust
extremely impressive.
So, building off of that,extremely impressive.
How do you manage that?
So you guys are very impressiveand how do you manage the
customer experience as younavigate with the external
relationships like airportterminals and the facilities
(04:47):
which I would say are probablynot classified as amazing
experiences, but you arecompletely reliant on, but you
can't control and taking thatwhole experience and I think I
would just qualify all that tosay on this webinar are people
across sports, theater, travel,entertainment, sort of in
similar positions.
They have one part of theexperience where they're a
producer of content but they maynot own facility operations or
the venue, have one part of theexperience where they're a
producer of content but they maynot own facility operations or
the venue.
How do you think about thatexperience, given so many other
(05:09):
players and partners areinvolved?
Andrew Harvell (05:11):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, super good question
and something super relevant.
Right, in travel, hospitality,entertainment at large, right,
nothing's done kind of in a silo, and we think about that.
Certainly Our you know peoplethat are key partners to us,
whether it's a team that workson an airport facility side,
whether it's a company that doesluggage transfer for us at a
smaller airport or one that arehelping us push wheelchairs at a
(05:32):
bigger airport.
They're a part of our kind ofextended family, right?
You look at what our Southwestcore values are, which we
heavily teach in our leadershipdevelopment courses.
We heavily teach on onboarding.
One of the key pillars isservice of love and LUV, like
our stock ticker.
But a part of that ispracticing hospitality, both for
external customers, right, thatyou're working with and facing
if you're an airport employee,or other partners that you work
(05:53):
at.
We treat our vendors and ourpartners just like they're part
of our family too.
So that's really important tous, and part of it is led by the
golden rule.
You know, treat others the wayyou want to be treated.
And we think about that, of howwe treat each other internally
as employees, but then also howwe treat partners that we work
with and then obviously passingthat along to customers as well.
And I think that's a reallyimportant part of air travel
right when we see that there'sso many players that are
(06:14):
involved in your day of travel.
Whether you're calling an Uberto get to the airport, you
interface with so many differentpeople at the actual airport
and then you check into yourhotel at the end of the day.
A lot of our research has seenthat we're getting compared to
not other airlines on that dayof travel, but other brands that
you're interacting withspecifically on the digital side
other digital experiences.
So we're always thinking aboutthat.
If someone orders Starbucks atthe airport and they have just a
(06:36):
best-in-class app experience,what can we kind of take away
from that to leverage to makesure that our day of travel
experience is also best in class?
So it's been really interestingto us as we kind of explored
what the future of our customerand digital experience look like
at Southwest Airlines,especially with our product
that's continuing to evolveevery month at this point, I
think that the app experience Ithink the digital experience at
large, I think, is in one of ourpre-calls.
Damian Bazadona (06:58):
We talked a little bit about this, of like
the idea of and I never reallythought of it this way that app
is a way for you to communicatedirectly with your consumer in
the flyer, through all the chaosthat they might face.
I mean, I'm right by Newarkairport, right, right, that's
just, it's bananas right now.
But the reality is, when youhold that patron experience
relationship, you the, the appis effectively your point of
(07:19):
communication to go.
Let me help you navigate theseother universes that we really
don't control, but we're goingto try and do our best to make
it right for you.
How do you let's shift gears alittle bit how do you describe
the Southwest fan base and Iknow I'm using the word fans and
we use that across a lot ofcategories, so that's how we
(07:40):
view it Some people, radicalcustomers, excited customers,
whatever you want to call it buthow do you describe the
Southwest Airlines fan base?
Because you guys really haveone and like what makes them
unique in the broader travel andhospitality landscape in your
mind.
Andrew Harvell (07:52):
Yeah, I mean, as you said, I think we're in a
really fortunate spot to havesuch a strong fan base in the
airline industry.
Right, we're one that'sseemingly so transactional.
But I think there's kind of twocategories that fascinated by
kind of the history of theoperation of the 10-minute turn,
how Herb Keller offered, youknow, free bottles of booze to
get more people on the planeswithin our first you know couple
(08:23):
years of operation.
There's so many great nuggetsof history there that I think
people are just fascinated bybecause it was a true bulldog
environment in an industry thatwas not super disruptive in the
past.
And then you kind of look toour more modern product.
Right, what we're flying todayI think the best way to describe
it it's a value-conscioustraveler who appreciates
flexibility and with a friendly,unpretentious atmosphere.
(08:45):
Right, we've famously have oneclass of service right.
No, first class.
We have the same cabinthroughout.
Currently we're in open seating.
We're moving to a signedseating product, but that's
still in one cabinclassification.
And obviously we're moving intosign seating product, but
that's still in one cabinclassification.
And obviously we're known forkind of our flexibility in our
fares, right.
So that's something that wehold really true and we like
work into our pricing andthere's even an economic effect
that the Department ofTransportation refers called to
(09:08):
the Southwest effect, right.
So when we move into a newmarket, you see fares continue
to go down as a whole.
You see kind of the pricingstructure change for that market
in general, and that'ssomething that we're really
proud of, right, because we'reable to do that with other
operational efficiencies likeour quick turn times and how we
kind of price our fares to getthose benefits in there.
So obviously the airlineindustry is constantly changing.
(09:28):
We're evolving our product andhow we kind of think about that
and how the traveler is lookingat the flight that they
purchased today, especially withour other competitors, right.
But I think that's really how,the best way to do it it's just
value conscious travelers whoappreciate flexibility and
really enjoy that kind ofunpretentious hospitality
environment.
They're always going to get ajoke from the flight attendant,
they're always going to havesomeone joking around with them
(09:49):
and when things go wrong we'lltake care of them.
But it's also just a really funenvironment to travel in,
especially when you're gettingready for a fun trip too.
What?
Damian Bazadona (09:56):
are the most effective ways that you.
I want to get a little bit intothe digital side just quickly.
I go back to a quote from manyyears ago that I heard.
In the digital space thateffectively was Forrester
researched this research thatsaid something to the spirit of
as users interact with webexperiences.
Is these experiences notadvertising induced perceptions?
They're going to drive brandattitudes.
This is like the future ofbrand.
(10:19):
That was many, many moons ago,which is kind of the framework
when we started this business.
What are the things in thedigital space that you're doing
on that digital journey that youfeel like you're able to like?
How does that work with you?
I'm just curious and yeah, howdoes that work from your end of
how you're able to turncustomers into like fans.
What are the little thingswithin that experience that
differentiate?
Andrew Harvell (10:33):
Yeah, it's a really interesting question,
right, because we I mean,ultimately we sell one product
at the end of the day, right?
So all the things that we'reworking with on a digital team
are highly involved with ourother stakeholders across the
board, whether that's ourloyalty and co-brand credit card
team, with our marketing andbrand team, our network planning
team.
So every time we're thinkingabout that, our kind of core
pillars that we come back to asa digital team is just
(10:55):
continuing to build trust andpropelling that Net Promoters
4.0 up.
Obviously, we have other KPIsthat we're looking at.
You know that's featuredependent, but a lot of the
things that we come back to wewant to make decisions that are
going to continue to maintainthat trust of the customer and
that can be manifested indifferent ways.
We've done a lot of emphasis thelast couple years on what we're
calling digital servicemodernization and that's been
investing in specific digitaltechnologies that are allowing
(11:17):
customers to self-serve moredirectly if they want the
ability to right.
We know for a fact that a lotof people do not want to call in
.
Some do, and that's totallyfine.
Our customer care team's thereto take care of you, but a lot
of people want to be able toself-serve.
So anything that we're gettinga lot of calls or overall the
traffic at the airport for wewant to be able to ensure that
you can self-serve on the appand that just one makes a better
experience for us.
(11:38):
It saves costs, it helps us,you know, invest those in kind
of lower fares and otherproducts, but then it also just
builds overall TripNet promoterscore because people see that
they're able to do things live.
If they want to engage with ouremployees, they absolutely can.
We're not shying away from thatright, but it does also kind of
build that trust over time.
And then other things that we'relooking at is how can we
incorporate hospitality and funinto the digital experience?
(12:00):
Some ways, you know, biggerthan others.
Obviously Disney there was muchbigger teams when I worked
there that was focusing on that.
But even at Southwest we're,you know, recently moved our
drink coupon program, which wewere kind of historically known
for receiving those packets inthe mail.
Obviously that wasn't superadherent towards our
sustainability goals.
So we figured out how to do thatin a fun digital way that you
know was specifically designedfor a fun UI and UX on the
(12:22):
flight.
Flight attendants could easilyrecognize it, it could be a fun
transaction.
They were able to recognizeyour status and invest in things
like that of how you're kind oftracking for your tier status
of A-list and A-list preferred.
So it's a good blend of kind ofbuilding trust with our other
stakeholders and make sure thatwe're adhering towards a lot of
the goals that we have acrossthe company, but then also
ensuring that we're kind ofbuilding hospitality and some
(12:42):
fun into the digital experience.
And it's obviously hard to do.
It's a really big balancing act, right.
It's sometimes a little bitmore difficult to justify those,
but we try to have thoseconversations in a lot of our
different steering groups tomake sure that we're still
keeping that top of mind rightand we spoke earlier you'd
referenced because we talkedabout the voice is playful,
human, approachable, and it does.
Damian Bazadona (13:05):
It gets lost me a little bit sometimes that you
know if travel is both goodtimes and bad times and so you
don't know, in the sense of how,why somebody's traveling so a
fair number of people on thiswebinar right now.
If you're in the live eventbusiness or live experience
business, we're trying to tapinto people's emotions and we
can usually bring our full brandself to the table and travel
falls slightly especially airtravel falls into different
consideration of where someoneis in the journey, both in where
(13:26):
they're traveling to a funeralor a wedding.
Are they within a three-hourdelay?
There's so many differentdynamics that are at play that
I'm imagining it's got to bequite complicated to really be
you know how you wrap your fullbrand essence into every
interaction.
It's got to be complicated,peter.
I just want to make sure I knowwe have questions coming in.
Peter Yagecic (13:45):
Yeah, I think we've got some Southwest fans
who are here because thequestions are coming through.
Andrew, this touches a littlebit on the fun and the humor
that you were talking about.
When I think about flying onSouthwest, what comes to mind is
humor, especially in thein-flight announcements which
you referred to.
Is humor one of the core valuesyou mentioned, and how do you
foster humor in relating tocustomers and fans?
(14:07):
It doesn't feel like the jokescome from corporate HQ, so
whether they do or not, I don'tknow.
I don't know if you can tell us, but just how do you find that
balance with your cohorts tokind of encourage that humor?
Andrew Harvell (14:20):
Yeah, no, I think you're exactly right.
I think one of the most funparts about hearing about a lot
of our flight attendant training, customer service, hospitality
training is that, yeah, thereisn't a script of like here's
the eight jokes that you can say.
Here's eight jokes that youcan't say.
A lot of it comes organicallyfrom the operation.
Hears eight jokes that youcan't say.
A lot of it comes organicallyfrom the operation.
So you hear stories aboutflight attendants that kind of
share fun jokes that they did orkind of it organically works
(14:40):
and kind of makes a mind of itsown and our team does such a
great job of saying like here,you know, here's our kind of
core brand pillars, but reallyhave fun with it and be yourself
.
So not necessarily humor is apart of our kind of core values,
but there's um kind of humilityand being yourself is like and
trying to bring out thatindividuality in everybody,
right.
So my favorite ones are likedon't take yourself too
(15:02):
seriously, keep perspective andthen don't be a jerk is three of
my favorite ones that are kindof fall under that.
How I show up value, uh and andagain, yeah, not necessarily
like hey, you have to injecthumor, cause that's not how
everybody kind of works.
But if you have it and you byall means show up, but just
ultimately be yourself, right?
So if you're, you know, if youlove talking, you feel I'm
learning about people have thoseinteractions when appropriate,
(15:22):
at the airport, in flight, overthe call center, but then also
obviously make sure you're doingyour job and show up to being
your best self and your bestteammate, right?
So not necessarily humor,no-transcript.
Our training team does such agood job of telling that line of
(15:44):
here's all the things that youneed to do, but then also here's
some areas that you can reallyhave fun with it and be a little
bit more flexible.
Yeah.
Damian Bazadona (15:51):
What are some of the core principles to how
you so?
I just say that because there'salways something wrong in air
travel.
That's part of the game.
So how do you think?
But it's, you know, everyperson's, it's an emergency for
everybody.
Yeah, whatever's their priority, I get it.
(16:11):
How do you think?
Are there like core principles?
I recognize there's multipleteams within the Southwest, but
in your universe, how do youthink about it?
Are there like core tenets tolike most important?
Is this the way we think aboutit, to like most important?
Andrew Harvell (16:23):
is this the way we think about it?
Yeah, yeah, I mean so on thedigital side, a lot of what we
develop right is we're thinkingabout all that upfront when
we're writing requirements andworking with our technology
partners to bring these to life.
We have to you know, theairline business is interesting
because there's usually 20,000different use cases that can
happen right.
Maybe that's a littleexaggerated, but we're thinking
about that a lot of timesupfront when we're doing
(16:43):
requirements and sometimes,especially compared to other
places I've worked, you have toyour initial product that you're
shipping has to be a little bitmore baked than you know some,
maybe other technology companies, because we have to have a more
holistic experience and thencan iterate from there.
And we're always thinking aboutthat of, like, what is a
genuine trustful experience?
The last thing we want to do isbreak trust with our customer,
(17:04):
because once you lose that trustit's really hard to build it
back.
And then from, I think theoperational side, like when we
kind of come back to values, alot of what we instruct our
frontline employees who are incohorts, who are interacting
with the customers, is kind ofthis like semblance of you've
got, you know, templates you canwork within, but this like
semblance of you've got, youknow, templates you can work
within, but really trying toinstill that you can act like an
(17:24):
owner.
You know this is just as muchyour company as it is our
company.
So there's a lot of kind ofemphasis on acting like an owner
, choosing to do the right thing, being courageous.
So you know, when things gowrong they've got kind of
certain entitlements thatthey're allowed to kind of work
within and then can go throughsupervisor approval to go above
and beyond.
But we do want to equip themwith as much of that flexibility
as they can because ultimatelythey're the ones that are
(17:45):
talking to that customerface-to-face or over the phone
and they're the ones who kind ofhave to have that empathy and
make sure that we're not onlythinking about them as a
customer.
They're, you know, a part ofour kind of extended family of
Southwest right.
So the last thing we want to dois break that trust.
Obviously we're working withinconfines, but I think that's
been really fun to hear aboutfrom our partners and the
customer care team who runs alot of our contact centers,
(18:06):
obviously our ground operationsteams who are interfacing
face-to-face.
So I think really keeping tothose kind of core values is
really important, both on thecorporate side, but then on the
frontline side as well.
Peter Yagecic (18:20):
Fandom Unpacked is brought to you by Situation,
an award-winning marketingagency built for live
entertainment that champions thepower of unforgettable shared
experiences around the world.
We offer full marketing andcreative services for
experience-based brands in liveentertainment, attractions,
theater, sports, arts andculture, and more.
Check us out atSituationInteractivecom.
(18:40):
Now back to our Q&A check usout at SituationInteractivecom.
Damian Bazadona (18:48):
Now back to our Q&A.
Peter, you know I said beforeif any questions and I kept
asking questions.
I see there are questions.
Do you want to add?
There are questions.
Peter Yagecic (18:53):
Yeah, here's another one that came in.
Andrew, you talked a little bitabout the innovations that
Southwest kind of pioneered inthe industry.
Are there any innovations fromthe Southwest way of doing
things that have positivelyimpacted the broader flying
ecosystem?
What have people lovinglyripped off from Southwest?
How have you guys impacted thebroader industry?
Andrew Harvell (19:14):
Yeah, I mean there's a ton of fun history.
There's a book called Nutswhich is kind of about like the
core hospitality culture atSouthwest and how that's kind of
permeated through the industry.
But I think a couple that cometo mind is like the core
hospitality culture at Southwestand how that's kind of
permeated through the industry.
But I think a couple that cometo mind is like the turn times,
like used to be something thatwas, you know, a lot of flights
were historically like reallywidely banked so there was a lot
of time between when theaircraft arrived to the airport
(19:36):
and then when it pushed off forthe next flight.
Southwest was a huge pioneer inwhat was called the 10 minute
turn right.
So saying like hey, we canutilize these aircraft a lot
more ensuring, if we flip theaircraft quickly and keep them
at the gate as little aspossible, we can get a lot more
yield from these and then inturn get more revenue and
profitability.
Obviously, every airline kindof does it a little bit
differently, but you've seenthat industry-wide of those turn
(19:56):
times continue to kind ofreduce and those banks get
smaller.
And that was one thing thatSouthwest was very early to the
kind of industry on, I think,simplified aircraft fleet.
You've seen a lot of carriers inEurope do that, where they're
running just a Boeing fleet orjust an Airbus fleet and then
specifically with us, the 737,right.
So that's been a huge area thatwe're able to, you know, train
pilots on one type of aircraft.
Our technical operationsmechanics out in the hangars are
(20:19):
able to like just learn onetype of aircraft, so that keeps
our overall operationalefficiency a lot more simple
right.
And then another one that hasbeen kind of, you know, changing
and transient in the history isthe elimination of kind of like
change and cancel fees and howthat's kind of permeated and
changed throughout time.
That was one thing thatSouthwest was first to market
with and then something thatwe've seen kind of seen evolve
over time with a lot ofcompetitors and then even
(20:40):
ourselves, of how we're kind oflooking at changing, cancel fees
and travel credits, right.
So it's been very interestingto kind of see who adopts what
and then who doesn't adopt whatright, because it just may not
work with their business model.
Damian Bazadona (20:50):
Well, so, as travel continues to evolve,
what's on the horizon in yourview in terms of next generation
of airline travel?
Yeah, what does it look, looklike?
When and how do you manage that, against the legacy of the of
your past, like the legacy raninto a new modern world, is
going to change the customerexperience?
I'm assuming a lot of differentpressure from a lot of
different from what the overallmarket's doing.
(21:10):
Just get like, what is, what isin your mind, what's the future
which we'd be looking at?
Andrew Harvell (21:14):
I mean, uh, I mean, I think I think it'd be
remiss to not to bring up ai,right?
I think that's something thatwe're all keeping a really close
monitor on of like how is thatgoing to affect the broader
travel industry, hospitality,entertainment?
I think at the end of the day,we are a again, we're a
hospitality company that justhappens to fly airplanes, right?
So I think, as long as we'rekeeping those core values, we're
(21:34):
making kind of strategicdecisions to evolve the product,
because we the one thing wedon't want to do is just kind of
sit on our laurels and justwatch the rest of the industry
at large kind of evolve withoutus, but at the same time keeping
true to like kind of what ourcore values are.
So if we're using AI and we'reusing technology to evolve our
airport experience, we're doingit so that way we can make the
customer experience moreefficient.
But then also we can have theemployees do what they do best
(21:56):
and that's create thosehospitality intimate moments,
instead of treating it kind oflike a butcher shop where you're
just taking a number and havingthese 30-second transactions so
that they can move on to thenext person.
And I think, like broader atlarge, I mean, there's so much
possibility with travel and AI,and I think we've.
You know, when the larger kindof dot-com bubble was moving up
and you saw TripAdvisor andYelps kind of come into big
(22:17):
prominence.
I think the opposite is kind ofgoing to happen with travel,
where people are going to beusing generative AI to not only
develop itineraries but makethem very tailored and specific
to you as AI continues to evolveright.
So kind of flipping on thiscoin, how people have kind of
turned into planning travelwhere they say here's the top 20
things to do in Dallas, texas.
I'm going to kind of siftthrough what would maybe be more
(22:37):
interesting to me.
Now I can say there's, you know, 100,000 things to do in Dallas
, texas or in Texas at large.
I wonder what AI says of likeknowing what my interests are,
what things I could do, you knowwhat restaurants I might like,
what tourist attractions I makelike, and I know that Southwest
flies in a love field which is alittle bit closer to downtown,
so that makes the travel evenmore efficient for me.
I think how AI is going to beshaping how people plan and kind
(22:59):
of look at that very top funnelof travel is going to be
fascinating.
And then obviously, on theagent side right, what's going
to be happening with our kind ofcontact centers at large in
travel, in hospitality ingeneral is going to be very
interesting to see how peoplehave those handoffs from an
agentic AI to an actual personand how we're using that to look
at the overall kind of largerefficiencies.
It's something that I thinkevery single company is looking
(23:20):
at very deeply and seeing kindof who moves quickly and who's
kind of maybe a little bitlonger to wait to see what
happens.
Maybe very interesting.
Damian Bazadona (23:28):
Just out of curiosity, what is the
relationship with a customerwhen they're not flying with you
?
Like, how do you think aboutyou build this fandom?
People fly so many times a yearand I know I remember the old
commercials the you can, what isit?
You want to get away?
Whatever that?
What?
The old spot which is it stuckwith me.
But what is it?
How do you view therelationship when someone's not
flying?
Like, how do you guys thinkabout you?
Andrew Harvell (23:47):
keep a connective tissue with folks
yeah, I mean, I think that'swhat our, our brand team does so
well is these?
These bigger marketingcampaigns are always keeping
southwest top of mind for peopleof when I want to start
planning my next trip.
I know that I can, you know,reliably plan on southwest to
transport my family there,transport my golf clubs there,
whatever you're traveling with,and make sure that we're just
top of mind for the bookingcurve and then a lot of
(24:09):
out-of-home stuff like ourloyalty program and co-brand
credit card or people kind ofindirectly interacting with our
brand every time they swipetheir credit card or building up
those points.
They can start planning thatvacation to Hawaii for spring
break that they've been talkingabout for the last two years.
And I think that's kind ofwhere obviously we don't want to
be too, too intrusive but makesure that we're top of mind.
(24:31):
I think one of the interestingcompetitive advantages of
Southwest is that we're thenumber one carrier in 24 of the
top 50 US markets which again,when you think about those kind
of broken down in cities, that'sa huge representation of where
we're the number one carrier inthose cities.
So we're likely going to havethe best and most advantageous
schedule for a lot of thoseplaces that people are looking
for vacation, being, you know,predominantly a leisure airline
with large business presence.
(24:51):
But I think that's one thingthat we want to continue to
maintain and that's usuallymanifest more in a lot of the
brand campaigns.
We're, you know, not doing asmuch kind of like stadium
sponsorships maybe as some otherkind of competitors in the
travel industry, but I thinkthat's kind of where we've
historically kind of operated,which has been really fun.
Damian Bazadona (25:07):
I feel like you know, as someone who represents
a fair number of sports, arts,cultural experiences across the
globe, I mean I feel like thereshould.
I wish there was more synergybetween the airline marketing
and the destinations andentertainment attractions
themselves, because they're apull to get people there, yet
they kind of live, the waythey're marketed, almost in
silos.
We have budgets over here doingthis, the airlines are doing
this and even the hotels aredoing this, and I oftentimes
(25:29):
feel like, oh my god, we couldmake one plus one plus one
equals 17.
If we do it, if we do it, ifthere's another way to think
about it uh, yeah, I think yousee that happening a little bit
too.
Andrew Harvell (25:37):
where there's, you know, depending on what,
which market we're looking at,whether it's it's demand or just
overall kind of brand growth,we're starting to see more of
that investment and kind of thatlike mid-level marketing of
like doing specific stuff, likeat Denver with the Colorado
Rockies, right, or we'relaunching a vacations product
here soon and like partneringreally closely with the city of
Orlando to like work on thelarger vacations product that
(25:58):
are looking at, kind of abundling strategy versus just
offering a flight ticket, sokind of a bundling strategy
versus just offering a flightticket.
So, yeah, I think it's a supergood point because there's so
much opportunity there with someof these bigger markets.
Damian Bazadona (26:06):
Oh yeah, Peter.
Peter Yagecic (26:12):
Yeah, well, just kind of riffing on that kind of
collaboration betweenentertainment and transportation
and travel.
We got a question that came inthat says situation has such a
good perspective onentertainment.
Thank you for that.
What are the areas wherehospitality, travel and
entertainment bump up againsteach other?
Andrew Harvell (26:41):
no-transcript, where we run what's called a
point-to-point system, wherewe're trying to get you from
point A to point B a lot quickerversus a hub and spoke where
you have to go throughDallas-Fort Worth or go through
Atlanta, and that's been a hugepart of, again, why we're 24 of
those 50 markets where thenumber one carrier and most of
those markets will give you agood chance at having a nonstop
(27:01):
flight to somewhere.
I think the number is in the low70s of.
You know most cities can getyou to another city in a nonstop
flight against restaurants,bars, you know, broadway shows,
you know sightseeing tours,museums, where we're not
(27:28):
obviously as saturated becauseyou're just deciding if you want
to book a flight with us orpotentially, you know, maybe a
bus or a train.
But I think, yeah, for us it'salways been important of like
keeping that operationalefficiency really high, because
when things go wrong, whetherit's on a leisure trip, a
business trip, you knowsomething other than that.
You want to spend as littleamount of time as transiting
(27:48):
there as possible.
So that's kind of what I thinkthe advantages of our
point-to-point network is.
It affords us that fast travel,overall time, instead of having
to like do you know, kind ofmulti-leg transits.
Peter Yagecic (27:55):
There's a couple of questions that have come in
around a similar theme, and Ijust want to pick one that I'd
love to hear you speak to.
You know there's lots of changehappening in the industry and
there are so many differentdigital touch points that
consumers interact with whenthey travel that make up their
perception of what Southwest is,what that experience means,
(28:16):
even if it's not happening onyour site or on your app.
Was that part of the reasonthat Southwest decided to show
flight options on platforms likeGoogle Flights in 2024?
How has that change, or otherchanges, impacted your business?
Andrew Harvell (28:29):
Yeah, it's a super good question.
I think we historically lookedat our distribution kind of like
a direct-to-consumer modelwhere people were coming to the
website so they could get thelowest possible fare and it
worked well for us for many,many years.
But I think, just as theshopper and the overall customer
is now looking and travel,they're shopping and approaching
it totally different.
So again, kind of looking at,is this kind of true to our core
(28:52):
or is this something that weneed to kind of advance into and
get with the modern times?
Quote unquote and that wassomething where we just found a
lot more people were coming tothat Google Flights and Expedia
distribution channel and lookingat all the other kind of
pricing options and we didn'twant to be behind the curve of
not getting that distributionmodel.
And it's been very advantageousfor us because it opens us up
to a whole new skew of customerswho maybe weren't looking to us
(29:14):
to book immediately but thensaw that the fare was $20 or $30
cheaper and then you know, theygo.
I'd love to try flying out withSouthwest.
So I think it's been good forour overall distribution
strategy but then also, as youlook at getting more people into
our loyalty program, showingthem that we've got a
best-in-class one with a reallygreat valuation for our points,
something that we're trying tocontinually convince customers
on of.
Hey, it's not only a one-offthing.
(29:36):
You can actually build somereally good value here and
hopefully then your nextvacation is free or subsidized
right.
Yeah, your next vacation isfree or subsidized right, yeah.
But it was a strategic decisionthat a lot of our team and
distribution network, planning,marketing, all kind of talked
deeply about and ultimately wewanted to, you know, continue to
evolve the product versus, youknow, kind of wrestle our
laurels with direct-to-consumer.
Peter Yagecic (29:53):
So here's one that came in.
In the world of selling tickets, which is complicated, even in
the best of times, it can feellike you only hear from
customers when things don't gosmoothly.
How do you actively seek outfeedback from customers so you
can incorporate the wins as wellas the to-do list?
Andrew Harvell (30:10):
I mean I think you're right, we certainly hear
from people when things don't goright.
But no, I mean I think we're ahuge metric of ours is not using
NetPro Motorsport both for ontime flights but then also for
disrupted flights?
We can, you know, figure outwhen things inevitably go wrong,
because, as you guys said, theyalways somehow do in air travel
.
Overall experience.
(30:30):
But we are constantly surveying, both on our kind of digital
storefront but then also lookingat kind of like post-trip
surveys too and seeing what wecan continue to improve on and
kind of where we're sitting incomparison to the rest of the
industry.
And again, what are somestrategic areas that we can
invest in?
Again, us being a low-costcarrier, we're not always going
to be the first to market with alot of kind of cutting-edge
(30:50):
innovations, but we'vehistorically been very strategic
in what we do invest in makingsure it's a good product.
So, for example, we kind oflooked at an overall category of
modernization the last fewyears of expanding bigger bins
for the overhead so more peoplecan carry on bags, investing in
in-seat power, upgraded Wi-Fiwe're moving to a kind of new
seating product overall, andthat was done, again, very
strategically to look at.
(31:11):
What are our customers valuingfrom kind of an overall trip net
promoter score, and how do wecontinue to win some of that
share of customers, you know,when price and schedule are
pretty similar to our othercompetitors?
But I mean, yeah, we alwayshave to be surveying, both from,
you know, kind of individualinteractions, like, uh, when you
call into our contact center,but then also like broader trip
net promoter score, looking atlike how we're just, you know,
when things do go well, how arepeople kind of looking at it.
(31:32):
And we've got a great team.
That's kind of an overall kindof center of excellence for a
lot of that like surveying andoverall analytics, both from
product analytics, digitalanalytics and all that stuff, so
journey analytics.
So yeah, it's super, superimportant for how we quantify
success and also how we investin features for the future,
right?
So if that's going to move theneedle on that net promoter
score, maybe it's worth usinvesting in it, even if it's
(31:53):
not, you know, creating a ton oftop line revenue.
Yeah.
Damian Bazadona (31:57):
Well, I I last question I have is you worked in
many different facets of thethe experiences business from
airlines and Disney's, so youknow, you know been a lot of
them.
What's one piece of advice thatyou think is universally
applicable to these types ofbrands that you've learned on
the front lines of sort ofseeing?
Is there like in terms of forall the people on this webinar
(32:18):
right now that are acrossdifferent live experience
businesses of whatever, is thereany like piece of advice you
would give all of them based onwhat you've seen and learned in
terms of how they're creatingfandom?
Andrew Harvell (32:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that I like
implore, with my team and a lotof our peers is just going out
and seeing the operationfirsthand I think from a
corporate employee, that's themost important thing to see how
customers, guests, fans areactually experiencing the
product firsthand.
Just create so much empathy forheadquarters employees wherever
you're at, whether that's anoffice building in New York or
(32:49):
you know by an airport in Dallaslike I am, you know by an
airport in Dallas, like I am.
I think that's just hugelyimportant to continue to have a
pulse on that, not just see itthrough surveying right, like we
talked about.
Surveying is hugely importantfor us to get that kind of macro
level data.
But it's also so important toget out there and experience it
yourself.
And obviously, when I was, youknow, at Disney in particular,
one of the most fun parts is Iget to go to the Magic Kingdom
and see how people areinteracting with the app.
But also, you know, we get outand fly a ton to see how people
(33:12):
are using the in-flight Wi-Fi,how the you know flight
attendants are interacting withthe customers, and it's hugely
important to see how we are kindof shaping a lot of those
business cases that we'recreating back at headquarters,
and I think another one is justcontinuing to maintain that
direct connection to thecustomer right.
So surveying, understanding whatthe actual pain points are,
even if you're creating abusiness case, you know, doing
(33:34):
kind of some preeminent usertesting with customers before
you even run something out tomarket, is really important.
And then just coming back Ithink I've said it a few times
right, like keeping that trustwith your core fan, your core
customer, is so, so important Inthis age when some travel can
be seen as incrediblytransactional right and brands
have to do more work than everto kind of show that brand kind
(33:54):
of differentiation and equity, Ithink trust is an absolute
premium currency these days.
And making sure that a lot ofthe strategic decisions that
you're making are all based ontrust at the core right Because
the second, you know customersare not dumb fans, are not dumb
right when they feeldisingenuous money grabs
happening, that can instantlybreak a lot of trust.
And that's the last thing thatwe you know any of us would want
(34:14):
to do as we're looking to kindof continue to build out our
companies.
So I think that's one thingthat we all continue to come
back to is asking ourselves isthis something that's a genuine
experience for the customer andsomething that would keep their
trust right?
Damian Bazadona (34:26):
Right, andrew, thank you.
You know, not only are yousmart at what you do, but you
bring a calmness and a kindnessto what's often a pretty high
pressure business, which I thinkis an amazing trait to keep.
I appreciate that.
Andrew Harvell (34:37):
There's always a crisis in the airline industry,
so we take it with the punchesand try to look at what the next
positive problem solve is.
Damian Bazadona (34:46):
You're good at it, though Not everyone's good
at it.
I appreciate it.
Peter Yagecic (34:50):
That's going to do it for this episode of Fandom
Unpacked the podcast.
If you liked what you heard,please be sure to leave us a
review on Apple Podcasts.
Find out how to join us livefor an upcoming recording at
SituationLivecom slash fan.
We'll see you next time, truebelievers.
Thank you and Bazzadana.
Our guest today is AndrewHarvell, part of the team at
Southwest Airlines that createsinnovative digital products and
guest experiences.
As manager of digital strategyand optimization, Trade tables
up everybody.
Here's Damian to get us started.
Damian Bazadona (00:36):
Let's get right into it.
How does Southwest Airlinescreate fandom around the brand?
And you know the special saucewhy people choose Southwest and
you guys have it like talk aboutit, yeah.
Andrew Harvell (00:49):
It's a, I mean, a super good question, I think,
one that you know several bookshave been written on.
Um, obviously, ton of casestudies in university kind of
settings, um, and I think at itscore it's it's kind of best
said by, uh, our, our presidentemeritus and co-founder, colleen
Barrett is just our secretsauce, our people.
Right, we are in thehospitality business here at
Southwest.
(01:10):
We just happen to fly airplanesand I think, as kind of
historical as that is, it reallyis true.
I think whenever you talk topeople who have had positive
experiences with Southwest orexperiences in general, that's
the thing that they usually talkabout.
Obviously, our product kind ofspeaks for itself.
The airline product in generalis known to many people, but our
(01:32):
people is truly what sets usapart, and that's a flight
attendant, a pilot, a ramp agent, a customer service agent at
the airport and then obviouslyall the folks behind the scenes
here at headquarters as well.
I truly think we hire for thosetype of people who we can train
up in different areas, butwe're really looking for a
personality type that cancontinue to be stewards of the
brand.
Obviously, as a company that'slasted so long in the US,
(01:53):
southwest has that as what thesecret sauce is.
We're hiring for people who aregoing to carry that torch on of
hospitality and it really doesresonate with people and
obviously when you talk topeople at the airport or between
trips, that's what really comesback to them for sure.
Damian Bazadona (02:05):
What is the talk about?
The onboarding process?
So you and I we go back.
You were at Disney and CityExperience.
You've been a lot of differentawesome organizations.
Talk about the onboardingprocess of just how is it that
makes the people so good thatyou noticed?
Andrew Harvell (02:22):
Yeah, I mean I think it goes back to our hiring
process even before onboarding,right when you walk into
headquarters during a flightattendant hiring event and you
can see that there's kind of adifferent energy in the room.
You've got current flightattendants that are interviewing
potential candidates, you'vegot the music that's blasting
loud in the lobby that's justhoping to kind of bring the
stress down a little bit for thepotential employees that are
(02:44):
interviewing.
For that we call them cohortsinternally and I think that's a
huge competitive advantage wherewe're really trying to get a
sense of everybody's personality.
And that's also true forcorporate hiring as well.
But I think the flightattendant hiring example is like
the best true amalgamation ofthat.
And then when you kind of movealong to onboarding, it's truly
like the first day with thecompany.
We're trying to be as excitedand showing you as much about
(03:05):
the culture as we can.
So when you get on theheadquarters at 8.30 am on a
Monday, we're blasting musicwith 200 of your new friends
that are aligned in the officesof our headquarters.
We've got what's called the redcarpet walk, where all the
employees will walk down the redcarpet.
They're getting cheered,they're getting clapped and then
they start their onboarding.
And then part of that isthey're walking through our
headquarters building, whichChris Sloan of Airways Magazine
(03:27):
once quoted it, as it's as muchof a living, breathing museum
for showcasing the culture thatSouthwest built as it is a
corporate office, as you can seebehind me this is one of the
many offices.
We just have tchotchkeseverywhere.
You can see that the history isembedded in the panes of this
building.
I really think that's a hugepart of onboarding.
It gets people excited aboutthe brand, it gets people
instantly connected to thehistory.
(03:47):
And then, as you kind ofcontinue your tenure with
Southwest, you just hear storiesafter stories about running
into Herb Kelleher, running intoGary Kelly, running into
Colleen Barrett, and everybodyseems to have a really fun story
, especially the ones who werearound in the 90s, 2000s, right,
and it's really special.
It's been really fun to kind ofjoin into the last three years
myself.
Damian Bazadona (04:04):
Well, look, there's a little proof to the
pudding, to what you're talkingabout, in that we haven't talked
about this, but I saw theannouncement.
Best airline for economy classcustomer satisfaction by JD
Power.
Andrew Harvell (04:15):
Is this correct?
Yes, sir, yeah, yes sir, got anice fourth year in a row.
Damian Bazadona (04:17):
I also noticed most satisfying economy, air
travel experience as well, andthere's a whole bunch of other
stuff here Number one in airlinestaff and level of trust
extremely impressive.
So, building off of that,extremely impressive.
How do you manage that?
So you guys are very impressiveand how do you manage the
customer experience as younavigate with the external
relationships like airportterminals and the facilities
(04:47):
which I would say are probablynot classified as amazing
experiences, but you arecompletely reliant on, but you
can't control and taking thatwhole experience and I think I
would just qualify all that tosay on this webinar are people
across sports, theater, travel,entertainment, sort of in
similar positions.
They have one part of theexperience where they're a
producer of content but they maynot own facility operations or
the venue, have one part of theexperience where they're a
producer of content but they maynot own facility operations or
the venue.
How do you think about thatexperience, given so many other
(05:09):
players and partners areinvolved?
Andrew Harvell (05:11):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, super good question
and something super relevant.
Right, in travel, hospitality,entertainment at large, right,
nothing's done kind of in a silo, and we think about that.
Certainly Our you know peoplethat are key partners to us,
whether it's a team that workson an airport facility side,
whether it's a company that doesluggage transfer for us at a
smaller airport or one that arehelping us push wheelchairs at a
(05:32):
bigger airport.
They're a part of our kind ofextended family, right?
You look at what our Southwestcore values are, which we
heavily teach in our leadershipdevelopment courses.
We heavily teach on onboarding.
One of the key pillars isservice of love and LUV, like
our stock ticker.
But a part of that ispracticing hospitality, both for
external customers, right, thatyou're working with and facing
if you're an airport employee,or other partners that you work
(05:53):
at.
We treat our vendors and ourpartners just like they're part
of our family too.
So that's really important tous, and part of it is led by the
golden rule.
You know, treat others the wayyou want to be treated.
And we think about that, of howwe treat each other internally
as employees, but then also howwe treat partners that we work
with and then obviously passingthat along to customers as well.
And I think that's a reallyimportant part of air travel
right when we see that there'sso many players that are
(06:14):
involved in your day of travel.
Whether you're calling an Uberto get to the airport, you
interface with so many differentpeople at the actual airport
and then you check into yourhotel at the end of the day.
A lot of our research has seenthat we're getting compared to
not other airlines on that dayof travel, but other brands that
you're interacting withspecifically on the digital side
other digital experiences.
So we're always thinking aboutthat.
If someone orders Starbucks atthe airport and they have just a
(06:36):
best-in-class app experience,what can we kind of take away
from that to leverage to makesure that our day of travel
experience is also best in class?
So it's been really interestingto us as we kind of explored
what the future of our customerand digital experience look like
at Southwest Airlines,especially with our product
that's continuing to evolveevery month at this point, I
think that the app experience Ithink the digital experience at
large, I think, is in one of ourpre-calls.
Damian Bazadona (06:58):
We talked a little bit about this, of like
the idea of and I never reallythought of it this way that app
is a way for you to communicatedirectly with your consumer in
the flyer, through all the chaosthat they might face.
I mean, I'm right by Newarkairport, right, right, that's
just, it's bananas right now.
But the reality is, when youhold that patron experience
relationship, you the, the appis effectively your point of
(07:19):
communication to go.
Let me help you navigate theseother universes that we really
don't control, but we're goingto try and do our best to make
it right for you.
How do you let's shift gears alittle bit how do you describe
the Southwest fan base and Iknow I'm using the word fans and
we use that across a lot ofcategories, so that's how we
(07:40):
view it Some people, radicalcustomers, excited customers,
whatever you want to call it buthow do you describe the
Southwest Airlines fan base?
Because you guys really haveone and like what makes them
unique in the broader travel andhospitality landscape in your
mind.
Andrew Harvell (07:52):
Yeah, I mean, as you said, I think we're in a
really fortunate spot to havesuch a strong fan base in the
airline industry.
Right, we're one that'sseemingly so transactional.
But I think there's kind of twocategories that fascinated by
kind of the history of theoperation of the 10-minute turn,
how Herb Keller offered, youknow, free bottles of booze to
get more people on the planeswithin our first you know couple
(08:23):
years of operation.
There's so many great nuggetsof history there that I think
people are just fascinated bybecause it was a true bulldog
environment in an industry thatwas not super disruptive in the
past.
And then you kind of look toour more modern product.
Right, what we're flying todayI think the best way to describe
it it's a value-conscioustraveler who appreciates
flexibility and with a friendly,unpretentious atmosphere.
(08:45):
Right, we've famously have oneclass of service right.
No, first class.
We have the same cabinthroughout.
Currently we're in open seating.
We're moving to a signedseating product, but that's
still in one cabinclassification.
And obviously we're moving intosign seating product, but
that's still in one cabinclassification.
And obviously we're known forkind of our flexibility in our
fares, right.
So that's something that wehold really true and we like
work into our pricing andthere's even an economic effect
that the Department ofTransportation refers called to
(09:08):
the Southwest effect, right.
So when we move into a newmarket, you see fares continue
to go down as a whole.
You see kind of the pricingstructure change for that market
in general, and that'ssomething that we're really
proud of, right, because we'reable to do that with other
operational efficiencies likeour quick turn times and how we
kind of price our fares to getthose benefits in there.
So obviously the airlineindustry is constantly changing.
(09:28):
We're evolving our product andhow we kind of think about that
and how the traveler is lookingat the flight that they
purchased today, especially withour other competitors, right.
But I think that's really how,the best way to do it it's just
value conscious travelers whoappreciate flexibility and
really enjoy that kind ofunpretentious hospitality
environment.
They're always going to get ajoke from the flight attendant,
they're always going to havesomeone joking around with them
(09:49):
and when things go wrong we'lltake care of them.
But it's also just a really funenvironment to travel in,
especially when you're gettingready for a fun trip too.
What?
Damian Bazadona (09:56):
are the most effective ways that you.
I want to get a little bit intothe digital side just quickly.
I go back to a quote from manyyears ago that I heard.
In the digital space thateffectively was Forrester
researched this research thatsaid something to the spirit of
as users interact with webexperiences.
Is these experiences notadvertising induced perceptions?
They're going to drive brandattitudes.
This is like the future ofbrand.
(10:19):
That was many, many moons ago,which is kind of the framework
when we started this business.
What are the things in thedigital space that you're doing
on that digital journey that youfeel like you're able to like?
How does that work with you?
I'm just curious and yeah, howdoes that work from your end of
how you're able to turncustomers into like fans.
What are the little thingswithin that experience that
differentiate?
Andrew Harvell (10:33):
Yeah, it's a really interesting question,
right, because we I mean,ultimately we sell one product
at the end of the day, right?
So all the things that we'reworking with on a digital team
are highly involved with ourother stakeholders across the
board, whether that's ourloyalty and co-brand credit card
team, with our marketing andbrand team, our network planning
team.
So every time we're thinkingabout that, our kind of core
pillars that we come back to asa digital team is just
(10:55):
continuing to build trust andpropelling that Net Promoters
4.0 up.
Obviously, we have other KPIsthat we're looking at.
You know that's featuredependent, but a lot of the
things that we come back to wewant to make decisions that are
going to continue to maintainthat trust of the customer and
that can be manifested indifferent ways.
We've done a lot of emphasis thelast couple years on what we're
calling digital servicemodernization and that's been
investing in specific digitaltechnologies that are allowing
(11:17):
customers to self-serve moredirectly if they want the
ability to right.
We know for a fact that a lotof people do not want to call in
.
Some do, and that's totallyfine.
Our customer care team's thereto take care of you, but a lot
of people want to be able toself-serve.
So anything that we're gettinga lot of calls or overall the
traffic at the airport for wewant to be able to ensure that
you can self-serve on the appand that just one makes a better
experience for us.
(11:38):
It saves costs, it helps us,you know, invest those in kind
of lower fares and otherproducts, but then it also just
builds overall TripNet promoterscore because people see that
they're able to do things live.
If they want to engage with ouremployees, they absolutely can.
We're not shying away from thatright, but it does also kind of
build that trust over time.
And then other things that we'relooking at is how can we
incorporate hospitality and funinto the digital experience?
(12:00):
Some ways, you know, biggerthan others.
Obviously Disney there was muchbigger teams when I worked
there that was focusing on that.
But even at Southwest we're,you know, recently moved our
drink coupon program, which wewere kind of historically known
for receiving those packets inthe mail.
Obviously that wasn't superadherent towards our
sustainability goals.
So we figured out how to do thatin a fun digital way that you
know was specifically designedfor a fun UI and UX on the
(12:22):
flight.
Flight attendants could easilyrecognize it, it could be a fun
transaction.
They were able to recognizeyour status and invest in things
like that of how you're kind oftracking for your tier status
of A-list and A-list preferred.
So it's a good blend of kind ofbuilding trust with our other
stakeholders and make sure thatwe're adhering towards a lot of
the goals that we have acrossthe company, but then also
ensuring that we're kind ofbuilding hospitality and some
(12:42):
fun into the digital experience.
And it's obviously hard to do.
It's a really big balancing act, right.
It's sometimes a little bitmore difficult to justify those,
but we try to have thoseconversations in a lot of our
different steering groups tomake sure that we're still
keeping that top of mind rightand we spoke earlier you'd
referenced because we talkedabout the voice is playful,
human, approachable, and it does.
Damian Bazadona (13:05):
It gets lost me a little bit sometimes that you
know if travel is both goodtimes and bad times and so you
don't know, in the sense of how,why somebody's traveling so a
fair number of people on thiswebinar right now.
If you're in the live eventbusiness or live experience
business, we're trying to tapinto people's emotions and we
can usually bring our full brandself to the table and travel
falls slightly especially airtravel falls into different
consideration of where someoneis in the journey, both in where
(13:26):
they're traveling to a funeralor a wedding.
Are they within a three-hourdelay?
There's so many differentdynamics that are at play that
I'm imagining it's got to bequite complicated to really be
you know how you wrap your fullbrand essence into every
interaction.
It's got to be complicated,peter.
I just want to make sure I knowwe have questions coming in.
Peter Yagecic (13:45):
Yeah, I think we've got some Southwest fans
who are here because thequestions are coming through.
Andrew, this touches a littlebit on the fun and the humor
that you were talking about.
When I think about flying onSouthwest, what comes to mind is
humor, especially in thein-flight announcements which
you referred to.
Is humor one of the core valuesyou mentioned, and how do you
foster humor in relating tocustomers and fans?
(14:07):
It doesn't feel like the jokescome from corporate HQ, so
whether they do or not, I don'tknow.
I don't know if you can tell us, but just how do you find that
balance with your cohorts tokind of encourage that humor?
Andrew Harvell (14:20):
Yeah, no, I think you're exactly right.
I think one of the most funparts about hearing about a lot
of our flight attendant training, customer service, hospitality
training is that, yeah, thereisn't a script of like here's
the eight jokes that you can say.
Here's eight jokes that youcan't say.
A lot of it comes organicallyfrom the operation.
Hears eight jokes that youcan't say.
A lot of it comes organicallyfrom the operation.
So you hear stories aboutflight attendants that kind of
share fun jokes that they did orkind of it organically works
(14:40):
and kind of makes a mind of itsown and our team does such a
great job of saying like here,you know, here's our kind of
core brand pillars, but reallyhave fun with it and be yourself
.
So not necessarily humor is apart of our kind of core values,
but there's um kind of humilityand being yourself is like and
trying to bring out thatindividuality in everybody,
right.
So my favorite ones are likedon't take yourself too
(15:02):
seriously, keep perspective andthen don't be a jerk is three of
my favorite ones that are kindof fall under that.
How I show up value, uh and andagain, yeah, not necessarily
like hey, you have to injecthumor, cause that's not how
everybody kind of works.
But if you have it and you byall means show up, but just
ultimately be yourself, right?
So if you're, you know, if youlove talking, you feel I'm
learning about people have thoseinteractions when appropriate,
(15:22):
at the airport, in flight, overthe call center, but then also
obviously make sure you're doingyour job and show up to being
your best self and your bestteammate, right?
So not necessarily humor,no-transcript.
Our training team does such agood job of telling that line of
(15:44):
here's all the things that youneed to do, but then also here's
some areas that you can reallyhave fun with it and be a little
bit more flexible.
Yeah.
Damian Bazadona (15:51):
What are some of the core principles to how
you so?
I just say that because there'salways something wrong in air
travel.
That's part of the game.
So how do you think?
But it's, you know, everyperson's, it's an emergency for
everybody.
Yeah, whatever's their priority, I get it.
(16:11):
How do you think?
Are there like core principles?
I recognize there's multipleteams within the Southwest, but
in your universe, how do youthink about it?
Are there like core tenets tolike most important?
Is this the way we think aboutit, to like most important?
Andrew Harvell (16:23):
is this the way we think about it?
Yeah, yeah, I mean so on thedigital side, a lot of what we
develop right is we're thinkingabout all that upfront when
we're writing requirements andworking with our technology
partners to bring these to life.
We have to you know, theairline business is interesting
because there's usually 20,000different use cases that can
happen right.
Maybe that's a littleexaggerated, but we're thinking
about that a lot of timesupfront when we're doing
(16:43):
requirements and sometimes,especially compared to other
places I've worked, you have toyour initial product that you're
shipping has to be a little bitmore baked than you know some,
maybe other technology companies, because we have to have a more
holistic experience and thencan iterate from there.
And we're always thinking aboutthat of, like, what is a
genuine trustful experience?
The last thing we want to do isbreak trust with our customer,
(17:04):
because once you lose that trustit's really hard to build it
back.
And then from, I think theoperational side, like when we
kind of come back to values, alot of what we instruct our
frontline employees who are incohorts, who are interacting
with the customers, is kind ofthis like semblance of you've
got, you know, templates you canwork within, but this like
semblance of you've got, youknow, templates you can work
within, but really trying toinstill that you can act like an
(17:24):
owner.
You know this is just as muchyour company as it is our
company.
So there's a lot of kind ofemphasis on acting like an owner
, choosing to do the right thing, being courageous.
So you know, when things gowrong they've got kind of
certain entitlements thatthey're allowed to kind of work
within and then can go throughsupervisor approval to go above
and beyond.
But we do want to equip themwith as much of that flexibility
as they can because ultimatelythey're the ones that are
(17:45):
talking to that customerface-to-face or over the phone
and they're the ones who kind ofhave to have that empathy and
make sure that we're not onlythinking about them as a
customer.
They're, you know, a part ofour kind of extended family of
Southwest right.
So the last thing we want to dois break that trust.
Obviously we're working withinconfines, but I think that's
been really fun to hear aboutfrom our partners and the
customer care team who runs alot of our contact centers,
(18:06):
obviously our ground operationsteams who are interfacing
face-to-face.
So I think really keeping tothose kind of core values is
really important, both on thecorporate side, but then on the
frontline side as well.
Peter Yagecic (18:20):
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Check us out atSituationInteractivecom.
(18:40):
Now back to our Q&A check usout at SituationInteractivecom.
Damian Bazadona (18:48):
Now back to our Q&A.
Peter, you know I said beforeif any questions and I kept
asking questions.
I see there are questions.
Do you want to add?
There are questions.
Peter Yagecic (18:53):
Yeah, here's another one that came in.
Andrew, you talked a little bitabout the innovations that
Southwest kind of pioneered inthe industry.
Are there any innovations fromthe Southwest way of doing
things that have positivelyimpacted the broader flying
ecosystem?
What have people lovinglyripped off from Southwest?
How have you guys impacted thebroader industry?
Andrew Harvell (19:14):
Yeah, I mean there's a ton of fun history.
There's a book called Nutswhich is kind of about like the
core hospitality culture atSouthwest and how that's kind of
permeated through the industry.
But I think a couple that cometo mind is like the core
hospitality culture at Southwestand how that's kind of
permeated through the industry.
But I think a couple that cometo mind is like the turn times,
like used to be something thatwas, you know, a lot of flights
were historically like reallywidely banked so there was a lot
of time between when theaircraft arrived to the airport
(19:36):
and then when it pushed off forthe next flight.
Southwest was a huge pioneer inwhat was called the 10 minute
turn right.
So saying like hey, we canutilize these aircraft a lot
more ensuring, if we flip theaircraft quickly and keep them
at the gate as little aspossible, we can get a lot more
yield from these and then inturn get more revenue and
profitability.
Obviously, every airline kindof does it a little bit
differently, but you've seenthat industry-wide of those turn
(19:56):
times continue to kind ofreduce and those banks get
smaller.
And that was one thing thatSouthwest was very early to the
kind of industry on, I think,simplified aircraft fleet.
You've seen a lot of carriers inEurope do that, where they're
running just a Boeing fleet orjust an Airbus fleet and then
specifically with us, the 737,right.
So that's been a huge area thatwe're able to, you know, train
pilots on one type of aircraft.
Our technical operationsmechanics out in the hangars are
(20:19):
able to like just learn onetype of aircraft, so that keeps
our overall operationalefficiency a lot more simple
right.
And then another one that hasbeen kind of, you know, changing
and transient in the history isthe elimination of kind of like
change and cancel fees and howthat's kind of permeated and
changed throughout time.
That was one thing thatSouthwest was first to market
with and then something thatwe've seen kind of seen evolve
over time with a lot ofcompetitors and then even
(20:40):
ourselves, of how we're kind oflooking at changing, cancel fees
and travel credits, right.
So it's been very interestingto kind of see who adopts what
and then who doesn't adopt whatright, because it just may not
work with their business model.
Damian Bazadona (20:50):
Well, so, as travel continues to evolve,
what's on the horizon in yourview in terms of next generation
of airline travel?
Yeah, what does it look, looklike?
When and how do you manage that, against the legacy of the of
your past, like the legacy raninto a new modern world, is
going to change the customerexperience?
I'm assuming a lot of differentpressure from a lot of
different from what the overallmarket's doing.
(21:10):
Just get like, what is, what isin your mind, what's the future
which we'd be looking at?
Andrew Harvell (21:14):
I mean, uh, I mean, I think I think it'd be
remiss to not to bring up ai,right?
I think that's something thatwe're all keeping a really close
monitor on of like how is thatgoing to affect the broader
travel industry, hospitality,entertainment?
I think at the end of the day,we are a again, we're a
hospitality company that justhappens to fly airplanes, right?
So I think, as long as we'rekeeping those core values, we're
(21:34):
making kind of strategicdecisions to evolve the product,
because we the one thing wedon't want to do is just kind of
sit on our laurels and justwatch the rest of the industry
at large kind of evolve withoutus, but at the same time keeping
true to like kind of what ourcore values are.
So if we're using AI and we'reusing technology to evolve our
airport experience, we're doingit so that way we can make the
customer experience moreefficient.
But then also we can have theemployees do what they do best
(21:56):
and that's create thosehospitality intimate moments,
instead of treating it kind oflike a butcher shop where you're
just taking a number and havingthese 30-second transactions so
that they can move on to thenext person.
And I think, like broader atlarge, I mean, there's so much
possibility with travel and AI,and I think we've.
You know, when the larger kindof dot-com bubble was moving up
and you saw TripAdvisor andYelps kind of come into big
(22:17):
prominence.
I think the opposite is kind ofgoing to happen with travel,
where people are going to beusing generative AI to not only
develop itineraries but makethem very tailored and specific
to you as AI continues to evolveright.
So kind of flipping on thiscoin, how people have kind of
turned into planning travelwhere they say here's the top 20
things to do in Dallas, texas.
I'm going to kind of siftthrough what would maybe be more
(22:37):
interesting to me.
Now I can say there's, you know, 100,000 things to do in Dallas
, texas or in Texas at large.
I wonder what AI says of likeknowing what my interests are,
what things I could do, you knowwhat restaurants I might like,
what tourist attractions I makelike, and I know that Southwest
flies in a love field which is alittle bit closer to downtown,
so that makes the travel evenmore efficient for me.
I think how AI is going to beshaping how people plan and kind
(22:59):
of look at that very top funnelof travel is going to be
fascinating.
And then obviously, on theagent side right, what's going
to be happening with our kind ofcontact centers at large in
travel, in hospitality ingeneral is going to be very
interesting to see how peoplehave those handoffs from an
agentic AI to an actual personand how we're using that to look
at the overall kind of largerefficiencies.
It's something that I thinkevery single company is looking
(23:20):
at very deeply and seeing kindof who moves quickly and who's
kind of maybe a little bitlonger to wait to see what
happens.
Maybe very interesting.
Damian Bazadona (23:28):
Just out of curiosity, what is the
relationship with a customerwhen they're not flying with you
?
Like, how do you think aboutyou build this fandom?
People fly so many times a yearand I know I remember the old
commercials the you can, what isit?
You want to get away?
Whatever that?
What?
The old spot which is it stuckwith me.
But what is it?
How do you view therelationship when someone's not
flying?
Like, how do you guys thinkabout you?
Andrew Harvell (23:47):
keep a connective tissue with folks
yeah, I mean, I think that'swhat our, our brand team does so
well is these?
These bigger marketingcampaigns are always keeping
southwest top of mind for peopleof when I want to start
planning my next trip.
I know that I can, you know,reliably plan on southwest to
transport my family there,transport my golf clubs there,
whatever you're traveling with,and make sure that we're just
top of mind for the bookingcurve and then a lot of
(24:09):
out-of-home stuff like ourloyalty program and co-brand
credit card or people kind ofindirectly interacting with our
brand every time they swipetheir credit card or building up
those points.
They can start planning thatvacation to Hawaii for spring
break that they've been talkingabout for the last two years.
And I think that's kind ofwhere obviously we don't want to
be too, too intrusive but makesure that we're top of mind.
(24:31):
I think one of the interestingcompetitive advantages of
Southwest is that we're thenumber one carrier in 24 of the
top 50 US markets which again,when you think about those kind
of broken down in cities, that'sa huge representation of where
we're the number one carrier inthose cities.
So we're likely going to havethe best and most advantageous
schedule for a lot of thoseplaces that people are looking
for vacation, being, you know,predominantly a leisure airline
with large business presence.
(24:51):
But I think that's one thingthat we want to continue to
maintain and that's usuallymanifest more in a lot of the
brand campaigns.
We're, you know, not doing asmuch kind of like stadium
sponsorships maybe as some otherkind of competitors in the
travel industry, but I thinkthat's kind of where we've
historically kind of operated,which has been really fun.
Damian Bazadona (25:07):
I feel like you know, as someone who represents
a fair number of sports, arts,cultural experiences across the
globe, I mean I feel like thereshould.
I wish there was more synergybetween the airline marketing
and the destinations andentertainment attractions
themselves, because they're apull to get people there, yet
they kind of live, the waythey're marketed, almost in
silos.
We have budgets over here doingthis, the airlines are doing
this and even the hotels aredoing this, and I oftentimes
(25:29):
feel like, oh my god, we couldmake one plus one plus one
equals 17.
If we do it, if we do it, ifthere's another way to think
about it uh, yeah, I think yousee that happening a little bit
too.
Andrew Harvell (25:37):
where there's, you know, depending on what,
which market we're looking at,whether it's it's demand or just
overall kind of brand growth,we're starting to see more of
that investment and kind of thatlike mid-level marketing of
like doing specific stuff, likeat Denver with the Colorado
Rockies, right, or we'relaunching a vacations product
here soon and like partneringreally closely with the city of
Orlando to like work on thelarger vacations product that
(25:58):
are looking at, kind of abundling strategy versus just
offering a flight ticket, sokind of a bundling strategy
versus just offering a flightticket.
So, yeah, I think it's a supergood point because there's so
much opportunity there with someof these bigger markets.
Damian Bazadona (26:06):
Oh yeah, Peter.
Peter Yagecic (26:12):
Yeah, well, just kind of riffing on that kind of
collaboration betweenentertainment and transportation
and travel.
We got a question that came inthat says situation has such a
good perspective onentertainment.
Thank you for that.
What are the areas wherehospitality, travel and
entertainment bump up againsteach other?
Andrew Harvell (26:41):
no-transcript, where we run what's called a
point-to-point system, wherewe're trying to get you from
point A to point B a lot quickerversus a hub and spoke where
you have to go throughDallas-Fort Worth or go through
Atlanta, and that's been a hugepart of, again, why we're 24 of
those 50 markets where thenumber one carrier and most of
those markets will give you agood chance at having a nonstop
(27:01):
flight to somewhere.
I think the number is in the low70s of.
You know most cities can getyou to another city in a nonstop
flight against restaurants,bars, you know, broadway shows,
you know sightseeing tours,museums, where we're not
(27:28):
obviously as saturated becauseyou're just deciding if you want
to book a flight with us orpotentially, you know, maybe a
bus or a train.
But I think, yeah, for us it'salways been important of like
keeping that operationalefficiency really high, because
when things go wrong, whetherit's on a leisure trip, a
business trip, you knowsomething other than that.
You want to spend as littleamount of time as transiting
(27:48):
there as possible.
So that's kind of what I thinkthe advantages of our
point-to-point network is.
It affords us that fast travel,overall time, instead of having
to like do you know, kind ofmulti-leg transits.
Peter Yagecic (27:55):
There's a couple of questions that have come in
around a similar theme, and Ijust want to pick one that I'd
love to hear you speak to.
You know there's lots of changehappening in the industry and
there are so many differentdigital touch points that
consumers interact with whenthey travel that make up their
perception of what Southwest is,what that experience means,
(28:16):
even if it's not happening onyour site or on your app.
Was that part of the reasonthat Southwest decided to show
flight options on platforms likeGoogle Flights in 2024?
How has that change, or otherchanges, impacted your business?
Andrew Harvell (28:29):
Yeah, it's a super good question.
I think we historically lookedat our distribution kind of like
a direct-to-consumer modelwhere people were coming to the
website so they could get thelowest possible fare and it
worked well for us for many,many years.
But I think, just as theshopper and the overall customer
is now looking and travel,they're shopping and approaching
it totally different.
So again, kind of looking at,is this kind of true to our core
(28:52):
or is this something that weneed to kind of advance into and
get with the modern times?
Quote unquote and that wassomething where we just found a
lot more people were coming tothat Google Flights and Expedia
distribution channel and lookingat all the other kind of
pricing options and we didn'twant to be behind the curve of
not getting that distributionmodel.
And it's been very advantageousfor us because it opens us up
to a whole new skew of customerswho maybe weren't looking to us
(29:14):
to book immediately but thensaw that the fare was $20 or $30
cheaper and then you know, theygo.
I'd love to try flying out withSouthwest.
So I think it's been good forour overall distribution
strategy but then also, as youlook at getting more people into
our loyalty program, showingthem that we've got a
best-in-class one with a reallygreat valuation for our points,
something that we're trying tocontinually convince customers
on of.
Hey, it's not only a one-offthing.
(29:36):
You can actually build somereally good value here and
hopefully then your nextvacation is free or subsidized
right.
Yeah, your next vacation isfree or subsidized right, yeah.
But it was a strategic decisionthat a lot of our team and
distribution network, planning,marketing, all kind of talked
deeply about and ultimately wewanted to, you know, continue to
evolve the product versus, youknow, kind of wrestle our
laurels with direct-to-consumer.
Peter Yagecic (29:53):
So here's one that came in.
In the world of selling tickets, which is complicated, even in
the best of times, it can feellike you only hear from
customers when things don't gosmoothly.
How do you actively seek outfeedback from customers so you
can incorporate the wins as wellas the to-do list?
Andrew Harvell (30:10):
I mean I think you're right, we certainly hear
from people when things don't goright.
But no, I mean I think we're ahuge metric of ours is not using
NetPro Motorsport both for ontime flights but then also for
disrupted flights?
We can, you know, figure outwhen things inevitably go wrong,
because, as you guys said, theyalways somehow do in air travel
.
Overall experience.
(30:30):
But we are constantly surveying, both on our kind of digital
storefront but then also lookingat kind of like post-trip
surveys too and seeing what wecan continue to improve on and
kind of where we're sitting incomparison to the rest of the
industry.
And again, what are somestrategic areas that we can
invest in?
Again, us being a low-costcarrier, we're not always going
to be the first to market with alot of kind of cutting-edge
(30:50):
innovations, but we'vehistorically been very strategic
in what we do invest in makingsure it's a good product.
So, for example, we kind oflooked at an overall category of
modernization the last fewyears of expanding bigger bins
for the overhead so more peoplecan carry on bags, investing in
in-seat power, upgraded Wi-Fiwe're moving to a kind of new
seating product overall, andthat was done, again, very
strategically to look at.
(31:11):
What are our customers valuingfrom kind of an overall trip net
promoter score, and how do wecontinue to win some of that
share of customers, you know,when price and schedule are
pretty similar to our othercompetitors?
But I mean, yeah, we alwayshave to be surveying, both from,
you know, kind of individualinteractions, like, uh, when you
call into our contact center,but then also like broader trip
net promoter score, looking atlike how we're just, you know,
when things do go well, how arepeople kind of looking at it.
(31:32):
And we've got a great team.
That's kind of an overall kindof center of excellence for a
lot of that like surveying andoverall analytics, both from
product analytics, digitalanalytics and all that stuff, so
journey analytics.
So yeah, it's super, superimportant for how we quantify
success and also how we investin features for the future,
right?
So if that's going to move theneedle on that net promoter
score, maybe it's worth usinvesting in it, even if it's
(31:53):
not, you know, creating a ton oftop line revenue.
Yeah.
Damian Bazadona (31:57):
Well, I I last question I have is you worked in
many different facets of thethe experiences business from
airlines and Disney's, so youknow, you know been a lot of
them.
What's one piece of advice thatyou think is universally
applicable to these types ofbrands that you've learned on
the front lines of sort ofseeing?
Is there like in terms of forall the people on this webinar
(32:18):
right now that are acrossdifferent live experience
businesses of whatever, is thereany like piece of advice you
would give all of them based onwhat you've seen and learned in
terms of how they're creatingfandom?
Andrew Harvell (32:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that I like
implore, with my team and a lotof our peers is just going out
and seeing the operationfirsthand I think from a
corporate employee, that's themost important thing to see how
customers, guests, fans areactually experiencing the
product firsthand.
Just create so much empathy forheadquarters employees wherever
you're at, whether that's anoffice building in New York or
(32:49):
you know by an airport in Dallaslike I am, you know by an
airport in Dallas, like I am.
I think that's just hugelyimportant to continue to have a
pulse on that, not just see itthrough surveying right, like we
talked about.
Surveying is hugely importantfor us to get that kind of macro
level data.
But it's also so important toget out there and experience it
yourself.
And obviously, when I was, youknow, at Disney in particular,
one of the most fun parts is Iget to go to the Magic Kingdom
and see how people areinteracting with the app.
But also, you know, we get outand fly a ton to see how people
(33:12):
are using the in-flight Wi-Fi,how the you know flight
attendants are interacting withthe customers, and it's hugely
important to see how we are kindof shaping a lot of those
business cases that we'recreating back at headquarters,
and I think another one is justcontinuing to maintain that
direct connection to thecustomer right.
So surveying, understanding whatthe actual pain points are,
even if you're creating abusiness case, you know, doing
(33:34):
kind of some preeminent usertesting with customers before
you even run something out tomarket, is really important.
And then just coming back Ithink I've said it a few times
right, like keeping that trustwith your core fan, your core
customer, is so, so important Inthis age when some travel can
be seen as incrediblytransactional right and brands
have to do more work than everto kind of show that brand kind
(33:54):
of differentiation and equity, Ithink trust is an absolute
premium currency these days.
And making sure that a lot ofthe strategic decisions that
you're making are all based ontrust at the core right Because
the second, you know customersare not dumb fans, are not dumb
right when they feeldisingenuous money grabs
happening, that can instantlybreak a lot of trust.
And that's the last thing thatwe you know any of us would want
(34:14):
to do as we're looking to kindof continue to build out our
companies.
So I think that's one thingthat we all continue to come
back to is asking ourselves isthis something that's a genuine
experience for the customer andsomething that would keep their
trust right?
Damian Bazadona (34:26):
Right, andrew, thank you.
You know, not only are yousmart at what you do, but you
bring a calmness and a kindnessto what's often a pretty high
pressure business, which I thinkis an amazing trait to keep.
I appreciate that.
Andrew Harvell (34:37):
There's always a crisis in the airline industry,
so we take it with the punchesand try to look at what the next
positive problem solve is.
Damian Bazadona (34:46):
You're good at it, though Not everyone's good
at it.
I appreciate it.
Peter Yagecic (34:50):
That's going to do it for this episode of Fandom
Unpacked the podcast.
If you liked what you heard,please be sure to leave us a
review on Apple Podcasts.
Find out how to join us livefor an upcoming recording at
SituationLivecom slash fan.
We'll see you next time, truebelievers.
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