30-40% fewer support calls: Southwest Airlines' site search revolution

Southwest Airlines improves customer experience using Squiz Search, reducing contact center calls and enabling faster access to critical travel information.

Lorna Hegarty 09 Jan 2025

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines, founded in 1967, is America's largest domestic carrier, serving 121 destinations across 11 countries. Known for its customer-first approach and no-fee baggage policy, the airline revolutionized low-cost air travel.

Industry

Services

Products

Search, Integrations

The challenge

Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic air carrier in the United States, serving 121 destinations across 11 countries.

For an airline handling millions of passengers, every customer interaction matters – especially during moments of stress or uncertainty. Southwest Airlines recognized that their search functionality needed to do more than just help customers find information; it needed to actively reduce anxiety, prevent calls to their contact center, and deliver the right information at precisely the right moment.

The stakes were significant, as Steven Turkovich, Digital Product Owner at Southwest Airlines, explains: "If search is done poorly, it can become really a major cost, especially for the airline and the travel industry... if a customer needs to call, there's a cost associated with that. And it's not pennies. It's dollars."

The challenge extended beyond just financial considerations. Southwest faced several critical needs:

Managing time-sensitive updates during travel disruptions
Meeting strict regulatory requirements around travel information
Delivering consistent experiences across multiple platforms
Handling complex queries relating to specific travel needs
Providing accurate information when connectivity might be limited

The solution

Southwest implemented a comprehensive search strategy built on Squiz Search, deploying it across two key areas of their digital presence.

First, they established a global site search that reaches across all content types, including their help center, blog, and social media posts. This unified approach ensures customers receive consistent, relevant results regardless of where the information lives.

The solution's strength lies in its ability to be both powerful and nimble.

"We can now customize the search experience a lot more," says Steven. "We don't have a set-and-forget mindset with search. We're very active in it because we know that our customers are going to search during times of stress and unease."

Building on this foundation, Southwest launched a new help center built on Salesforce with seamless Squiz Search integration.

This implementation maintains search consistency while allowing for specialized content delivery. The system can recognize context – for instance, if a customer is experiencing a delay during a snowstorm, it prioritizes relevant disruption information over regular travel content.

Perhaps most importantly, the solution enables Southwest to be proactive rather than reactive.

The team can prepare search results before content goes live, ensuring immediate findability during sales events or travel disruptions. This capability proves invaluable during time-sensitive situations where customers need immediate access to accurate information.

The outcomes

The impact of Southwest's search implementation has been both immediate and far-reaching. Search has transformed from a basic utility into a strategic asset that actively shapes the customer experience and drives operational efficiency.

The implementation has dramatically reduced support requirements, with some topic clusters seeing a 30-40% reduction in calls and outreach.

Exit rates across the site have also dropped significantly, falling from 19% to 10-12% in some situations, indicating that customers are finding what they need more quickly and easily.

But the real power of the solution lies in its ability to provide immediate insights into customer needs. As Steven notes, "Every search is a survey result and every search is a hand raise."

This real-time feedback allows Southwest to continuously refine their content and search experience without waiting for formal customer feedback.

The operational efficiency gains have been equally impressive.

A small team can now manage enterprise-wide search, making updates in as little as 60 seconds when needed. This agility is crucial in the airline industry, where information needs can change rapidly and accuracy is paramount.

Looking ahead, Southwest plans to continue to optimize their search experience, aiming to reduce the average searches per customer from where it currently stands, at 1.4 to 1.1. Their vision extends beyond simple results to what Steven describes as "the next stage of search," explaining that "it's not just delivering results. It's about providing answers."

This focus on delivering immediate answers rather than just search results is particularly crucial given the realities of travel. "Much of search, especially in the travel industry, happens during times when connectivity is unreliable," Steven notes. "Maybe you're at the airport, you're out hiking, you're at a remote location, you're at a hotel with bad WiFi... In these situations, you don't have the luxury of being able to search multiple times. You need to find the information you need, with that first search.”

Southwest's implementation demonstrates how strategic search can transform customer experience while driving operational efficiency.

By treating search as an active touchpoint rather than a passive tool, they've created a solution that serves both customer needs and business objectives, setting a new standard for digital customer service in the airline industry.