I heard on Paul Harvey this week that the top airlines for customer service were Southwest and Continental. I am not surpised. In particular, Southwest has done an excellent job with word of mouth marketing. CEO’s, new start-up company leaders, professional speakers, customer service trainers, leadership speakers, business coaches, and many authors all have spread the gospel of Southwest.

There’s a new book out called Word of Mouth Marketing. It’s written by Andy Sernovitz. I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my list. Check out what Sernovitz says:

1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.

2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.

3. Ethics and good service come first.

4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).

5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.

6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.

7. Be interesting or be invisible.

8. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.

9. Make the story of your company a good one.

10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.

11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.

12. Honest marketing makes more money.

It seems like JetBlue has broken most of the above twelve in firing David Neeleman. Where is the reward for honesty? For fessing up when you mess up? For treating people with dignity and respect. I have to believe that it’s not very fun to work at Jet Blue right now and it’s probably not very fun to fly with them either. In fact, the University of Michigan released a study this week that reported that airline travel isn’t much fun these days. Go figure.

I read this statement by Adam Hanft on the Fast Company blog site:

“The JetBlue scenario follows exactly the script that I warned against back then, and I predict that the airline will gradually squander the emotional connection it has built via its relentless and joyous focus on the customer.”

It’s seems former CEO Needleman was punished for admitting to a mistake. Does this mean more cover up when mistakes are made? This is poverty thinking at it’s worst.

*****

Speaking of poverty thinking, have you been keeping up with the Food Stamp Challenge? When I read about it, I realized how excessive we can be in the USA. It made digesting a recent $45.00 dinner for one a little difficult. Living on $21.oo a week, isn’t Living Rich in the USA but it might be in developing countries. Wonder what would happen if our Food Stamp Challenge politicians lived on the meal plan of someone from a remote village in Africia?

To read how some congressmen are doing, check out Tim Ryan’s Blog and Jim McGovern’s Blog.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks
about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover,
increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for businesses,
professional associations, insurance companies, and health care
organizations. For more information go to www.TimRichardson.com