Southwest treating workers and customers well is secret to company's success

PHOENIX - Southwest Airlines&#39; decision not to follow other airlines and cut its staff after the Sept. 11 terror attacks was an easy one, the company&#39;s chairman said. <br> <br> &#34;It was a spiritual and cultural decision,&#34; Herb Kelleher said. &#34;Through 30 years, we&#39;ve never furloughed a worker at Southwest Airlines. ... We could have made more money in the short term, but we take a longer term view when it comes to our employees.&#34; <br> <br> Southwest&#39;s commitment to taking care of both its workers and customers is also the reason it&#39;s the only airline still profitable after the attacks, Kelleher said as he chain-smoked, joked and lectured during his speech at the annual meeting of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers on Tuesday. <br> <br> Someone once &#34;said that the business of business is business,&#34; Kelleher said. &#34;We at Southwest Airlines believe the business of business is people and customer service.&#34; <br> <br> Southwest&#39;s business culture includes sympathetic calls from Kelleher&#39;s office anytime one of the company&#39;s 34,000 workers is out sick for more than a week, Kelleher said. <br> <br> &#34;Our primary customers are our employees,&#34; he said. &#34;Your employees come first. If they&#39;re treated right, they treat the customers right and they come back for more. ... We want a company that&#39;s bound by love, where people smile because they want to, not because they have to.&#34; <br> <br> Kelleher then told the audience what he said is the secret to success in the airlines business: &#34;Just ask your customers what they want and give it to them.&#34; <br> <br> He declined to answer questions about what could be in store for some of his struggling competitors. <br> <br> But he said he was impressed with the new safety mechanisms the federal government set up at the country&#39;s airports after the terror attacks. <br> <br> &#34;I don&#39;t know of many things you can do safer than flying on an airplane these days,&#34; Kelleher said. <br> <br> <br> ------ <br> <br> On the Net: <br> <br> Society of American Business Editors and Writers: http://www.sabew.org/ <br> <br> Southwest Airlines: http://www.southwest.com/ <br> <br>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/195236