Case Study: Southwest Airlines achieves superior customer service during flight cancellations with Nuance Communications

No delays in Customer Service for Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines faced a recurring challenge: when flights were cancelled they needed to proactively notify thousands of passengers quickly while avoiding overwhelming contact centers. Manual outbound dialing and airport announcements couldn’t reach everyone in time, so Southwest turned to Nuance Communications for interactive voice/automated communications to deliver real‑time cancellation alerts and options to transfer to a live agent.

Nuance Communications implemented an interactive voice solution—using its Sea‑of‑Names pre‑recorded language library and real‑time CRM integration—to send personalized, cross‑channel notifications, route calls based on agent availability, and automate flight‑crew alerts. The result: improved service levels and contact‑center productivity, passengers on a full 737 reached in seconds, 62,950 passengers contacted during a recent hurricane season, and a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

Southwest Airlines

Fred Taylor

Senior Manager, Proactive Customer Communications