The most-admired companies in the world possess a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them shine beyond their products or services. Take Southwest.
Known for its cheap tickets in lieu of preflight seat assignments, hot meals and in-flight movies, we discovered this week one of the company's lesser-known corporate techniques: its attention to the most minute details in building its high-flying corporate reputation.
In a PR NEWS column several weeks ago, Senior Editor Debra Zimmerman Murphey took a poke at media relations professionals who misspell the names of journalists they are courting. The column triggered a bevy of e-mail responses, with several that stood out. Of those, a couple came from Southwest Senior PR Manager Linda Rutherford.
The most memorable from Rutherford?
Her message, subject line tagged "An Obituary," offered a tongue-in-cheek apology to interactive pr & marketing news Senior Editor Roger Friedman.
Southwest's customer relations had been cited in the column for addressing mail to "Roger Friednin" - and Rutherford had tracked down where the mistake was made after contacting Roger to get more details about the blunder.
Her last e-mail to Roger read: "It is with a morbid joy that I inform you that Roger Friednin is dead. In an unfortunate set of circumstances, he has been extinguished. Thanks for your patience while we worked on this. Please don't hesitate to let me know if I can ever be of help."
Quick, funny, elegant and responsive. That's corporate reputation, plain and simple.