This YouTube customer-story video (uploaded Nov 21, 2019) features James and other Southwest Airlines staff describing the company’s employee-centered culture and hospitality philosophy, their commitment to accessibility, and why they selected Salesforce Service Cloud to empower contact-center employees. Key points: James is visually impaired and frames accessibility and employee care as core drivers; roughly 10%+ of contact-center employees use accessibility tools; Southwest prioritized a single view of the customer and tools that enable employees to deliver an "experience" rather than just a service.
Questions this video answers
November 21, 2019.
About 10% or more of employees utilized some level of accessibility.
Chapters
You know, I'd say the best advice I've ever received is don't let what you can't do dictate what you can do. As someone who's visually impaired, myself kind of drives me day to day because there's a lot of things that I can't do, but I try not to let those things get in my way, and I try to keep moving forward. The thing that I love the most is the people that I work with. At Southwest Airlines, we believe if we take good care of our employees, they will take good care of our customers. And that commitment, I think, drives the culture.
So James is all about the employee. He is one that lives by example. He sets the vision and sets the tone for our department and ensures that whatever we do, we put the customer first.
Hospitality, in our mind is when customers feel welcomed, cared for, and appreciated. We want to make sure we set our people up for success. Finding tools that allow our people to be as efficient as they can be to take really good care of our customers and deliver that hospitality that we want to be known for.
Providing a single view of the customer was paramount for us, and now we're partnering with Salesforce to empower our employees with the tools to deliver an experience, not a service, but an experience that makes them feel loved.
Our inspiration for actually choosing the Salesforce service cloud was our people.
We are an inclusive work environment, so accessibility was an absolute.
About 10% or more of our employees utilized some level of accessibility in our contact centers, and we wanted to make sure that that product, that company would have to be just as passionate about accessibility as we are. The Salesforce service cloud just kind of fits right in line with that.
This product is a win win for not just our sighted reps. It encompasses every member of Southwest that will be to the product. If it wasn't for James, I really don't think I'd be here. I really appreciate everything that he's done for us as vision impaired and for our company.
I'm most proud about where we're headed at Southwest. I love my job. I love what I do. I know what my purpose is and why I'm here.
Our employees are so passionate. There's just a whole lot of pride associated with working at Southwest Airlines, and I think that's why we have the loyal following of customers the way we do. Sam.
