Major airlines don’t often make news for good reasons these days. (Isn’t that right, United?) But Southwest Airlines did a nice thing in providing some quality customer service on Sunday.
Xavier fan (and alumnus) Renée Stoeckle was on a Southwest flight while the Musketeers were playing their second-round NCAA Tournament game against Florida State. Stoeckle had paid for in-flight WiFi, but the connection wasn’t strong enough to stream the broadcast (presumably the TV broadcast) during her flight. Disappointed that her purchase wasn’t paying off in the way she hoped, Stoeckle did what many of us do and went to social media to lament her plight.
Paid $8 for wifi on @SouthwestAir and it isn't strong enough to stream March Madness 😫😫 Hold down the fort for me, @XavierMBB …
— Renée Stoeckle (@renstoeckle) March 19, 2018
Stoeckle did the right thing, however, in making sure she tagged Southwest Airlines on Twitter with her complaint. That made sure someone who could help not only saw the message — in this case, Mike from Southwest — but was able to do something about it. Stoeckle relied on Twitter for quick live updates and asked Mike if he could live-tweet the second half for her and he surprisingly obliged.
Thanks, Mike. Any chance you can live tweet the second half for me?
— Renée Stoeckle (@renstoeckle) March 19, 2018
Mike did indeed accommodate Stoeckle’s request, indicating that either it was a slow night for customer complaints and public relations at Southwest Airlines’ Twitter feed, the airline pounced on an opportunity for good publicity, or Mike is a big college hoops fan and couldn’t bear the idea of someone trapped on an airplane and not knowing how her favorite team was faring during March Madness.
(Or maybe it was easy enough to tweet out Florida State-Xavier updates between addressing other customer concerns. A look at Southwest’s replies confirms that was the case with other Southwest employees such as Adrienne, Mallory, Victoria, Mariam, and Rebekah also working in addition to Mike.)
Seminoles making a run. Two and contact going to the line. 4:21 to go. Xavier up 66-63. -Mike
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) March 19, 2018
Mike provided Stoeckle with 10 scoring updates during the second half. Unfortunately, as we all know, Sunday’s game didn’t go so well for Xavier. The No. 1-seeded Musketeers blew a 12-point lead and eventually lost to Florida State, 75-73. Mike passed along the bad news of the final score to Stoeckle, but as she explained to the A.V. Club via email, her flight landed before the end of the game and she didn’t see that final tweet. (We’re guessing she didn’t see the end of the game on TV either. That airport WiFi is expensive! Unless she used her data plan…)
Did Mike’s dedication win a Southwest Airlines customer for life? We’ll have to keep an eye on Renée Stoeckle’s Twitter feed to know for sure. (We probably shouldn’t do that, people.) But if you’re caught on a Southwest flight next weekend during NCAA Tournament play and your team is in action, just hope that Mike is on duty.