Southwest's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

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WaterRemarks -- January 2023

News and views from customer experience advisory firm Watermark Consulting

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A Message From Watermark Founder Jon Picoult

Southwest Airlines had a decidedly unpleasant holiday, cancelling over 15,000 flights during the last week of the year. But as I explain in my latest Forbes column (linked below), there are some key lessons that every business leader should learn from the Southwest debacle.

First up in this month's newsletter, however: With 2022 now in the history books, we've crunched the numbers and identified our Top 10 most-read articles of the year -- covering topics ranging from Customer and Employee Experience to Leadership and Motivation.

Analyzing these reading patterns each year is always an interesting exercise... These most popular articles clearly reflect subjects that people were both fascinated with and challenged by during the course of 2022.

Best regards,

Jon Picoult

Founder & Principal

Watermark Consulting

Our Most-Read Articles Of 2022

Here's our annual summary of Watermark's most-read articles of the year. Lots of interesting topics in this list, including the #1 most-viewed story, which focused on a looming challenge that's keeping many business leaders up at night.

4 Important Leadership Lessons From Southwest's Holiday Meltdown

With over 15,000 flight cancellations during the recent holiday, Southwest Airlines had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week -- and every business can learn something from the carrier's experience. [8 minute read]

Learn More

When Efficiency Is The Enemy

Sometimes, the most engaging customer experience is not the most efficient. That's among the intriguing topics Jon Picoult covered in this interview on the "Helping Sells" podcast. Click on the clip above to hear an excerpt, or use the button below to access the full interview. [52 minute show]

Listen To The Full Interview

A Bold Customer Experience Prediction

What's in store for customer experience in 2023? How about stagnation? Here's Jon Picoult's contribution to the annual parlor game of CX prognostication. [4 minute read]

ICYMI: Last Month's Edition Of WaterRemarks

Did you miss out on last month's edition of WaterRemarks? No worries, here's a link to access the newsletter and its lead story: "Why Is Amazon Making It Harder For Customers To Buy Stuff?"

THE LAST WORD

"We're behind."

-- Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan, at a November 30, 2022 media day event, commenting on the carrier's slow pace of systems modernization. A month later, Southwest was forced to cancel over 15,000 flights, due largely to issues with outdated crew scheduling software. (See related story above.)

Source: Fortune (December 28, 2022)

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