Case Study: Southwest Airlines achieves unified service and happier customers with Salesforce

Happy employees equal happy customers for Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines, a long-standing industry disruptor and one of the largest low-cost carriers in the U.S., faced growing competitive pressure and a rising caseload that exposed inefficient, siloed systems and overburdened agents. To keep its culture of hospitality and ensure employees could deliver elite customer experiences, the airline set out to modernize service channels, consolidate 15 legacy systems, and improve agent productivity and engagement.

By deploying Salesforce (Service Cloud, Sales Cloud and the Customer 360 Platform) and building custom Lightning apps, Southwest centralized customer data, added in‑app Chat and AI chatbots, and empowered employees with accessible tools. The move redirected over 30% of calls to chat, enabled agents to handle two cases at once, saved about $2.8 million annually in HR costs, boosted productivity and inclusivity, and gave sales teams better insights to compete for market share.

Southwest Airlines

James Ashworth

VP, Customer Support & Services