I travel a lot using commercial airlines and had to share an experience this weekend with Southwest. I bordered the connection flight like normal to fasten my seatbelts only to find out the aircraft didn’t move. We sat there with no information or air conditioning for quite a while until finally the pilot came on and explained the aircraft would not be flying because of a problem and we would have to leave the aircraft. We did that and boarded another plane. We left the gate and headed toward the runway as the pilot came on the intercom again. We will have to go back to the gate as we have another mechanical problem and need some fuel. You would think the pilot would know if we had the appropriate fuel amount before we headed towards the runway however, I wanted to share this experience to make a point. Would it have benefited anyone on the aircraft to yell and scream? Was this experience a positive or negative? The real negative would’ve been to find there was a problem with the airplane after takeoff. Imagine taking off then the pilot realizing they didn’t put on enough fuel to make this flight safely. It doesn’t benefit to be irritated and never makes the situation better. All of us are likely able to bring up an example of being irritated at a service customer they believed was acting inappropriately. We can’t control how someone else acts however, we must control our response to it. Consider these incidents as a positive your dealership can use to improve your customer care and provide an immediate result for every customer concern. This morning Southwest sent me an email apologizing for my experience on their airline and said they will email me credit for the flight to be used on future travel. I accept their apology and applaud their proactive response to one of the worst flight experiences I have ever had. Be positive people!

Sincerely,
Rob Gehring, President
Fixed Performance Inc.
rgehring@fixedperformance.com

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