I will link and comment on the following blog “How Southwest Airline add value to its customer”, by Tian Liu. https://blogs.ubc.ca/tian/

In his blog, Tian introduces a phenomenon that Southwest Airline has the lowest numbers of complaints among US airlines. As a middle size airline company, Southwest Airline consistently received the fewest ratio of complaints per passenger boarded of all major U.S. carriers since 1987. From Tian’s point of view, the reason is not “hardware”, but the “software”. In another words, rather than competing with other airlines on the products, Southwest competes others on the customer services. Southwest tries to provide more values to its customers by offering free luggage check-in, free non-alcholic beverages, entertaining way of announcing safety information and reward program to benefit frequent flyers.

I have tried two famous US airlines before. Both of them charged my checked baggage and drinks on board. If I knew the offers of Southwest Airline, I would definitely choose them.  From a consumer’s perspective, I would choose the product or service which provides the most value to me as long as it meets my basic needs. In terms of airlines, consumers would choose the airline company which would cost the least as long as the safety and comfort are ensured. According to the marketing Mix 4P, Southwest Airline takes advantage of low price to obtain the least complaints from customers. Also, based on the reciprocity principle, customer appreciate the incentive provided by Southwest Airline. As a result, Southwest Airline is possible to receive minimum numbers of complaints among so many competitors.

Actually, most of companies are competing with others in the area of customer services. By establishing a close relationship with a customer, a company could potentially earn much more profits than a simply transaction. Nowadays, people are not only judging a product or service by its functionality,  but also the experiences of purchasing. A company has to allow the consumers realizing the additional value that they will get is somehow more than other companies can offer. Then, consumers have to abilities to judge and decide which product to pursuit.

Peng Zhang