In terms of accentuating and strengthening the role of customers in service delivery, Southwest Airlines could also do the following. They could feature an advertising campaign of having the hardest working customers in business by featuring their frequent flyers (many of which are small business owners and would love the exposure) in television and print advertisements, talking about how the customer has made Southwest a part of their approach to doing business. Many small business owners are also the type of consumers who like to see themselves as part of the service delivery process due to their tendency to have high degrees of autonomy. Rewarding them with free PR would make the customer participation motivation even stronger on the part of Southwest's unique customer base. By taking this approach, Southwest would truly partner with these "customer employees" as well, being reciprocal to the growth of their businesses.

References

Bitner, M.L.,...
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