4 Important Leadership Lessons From Southwest Airlines’ Holiday Meltdown

4 Important Leadership Lessons From Southwest Airlines’ Holiday Meltdown

Things went south for Southwest over the December holidays, as the airline canceled more than 15, 000 flights, stranding thousands of travelers across the country. While the flight cancellations were initially triggered by a major winter storm, they grew exponentially as the weather-related disruptions overwhelmed Southwest's antiquated crew scheduling system. It was a terrible episode for a company that has long been held up as a model for others, thanks to its unique corporate culture and its relentless focus on the customer experience. But there are several important lessons that every business should learn from Southwest's holiday debacle: Even the best, most well-managed companies are not immune to failures in the customer experience. But what makes those companies different is they recognize that they need not resign themselves to creating a dissatisfied customer (or, worse, a vocal brand detractor) when failures occur. Rather, they understand that if they overcorrect on the recovery, they have an opportunity to create a more loyal customer after the recovery than they had before the failure. It's a phenomenon that's been studied so extensively, there's actually a term coined for it – the service paradox. It's a consequence of how our brains are wired, because