How many CEOs would agree to a grilling at the hands of ‘CBS This Morning’ right after being hammered by Consumer Reports for providing the very worst customer service? Ben Baldanza of Spirit Airlines would. Check out this link.
I admire the way Baldanza handled every question, stayed on message and unapologetically boasted about his airline’s many accomplishments. Sure, the flying experience stinks, admitted Baldanza, but customers get where they want to go for less, do so safely and can spend the savings on more important things. Spirit Airlines’ shareholders also benefit financially.
How refreshing to see any CEO of any large company admit the truth! With Baldanza and Spirit Airlines, what you see is what you get. You also get what you pay for: a truly horrific experience the company actually reinforces in its advertising!
The world would be a better place if more business leaders followed Baldanza’s lead, and lived by the words of fabled ABC sportscaster, Howard Cosell, who said about his reporting, “I’m just telling it like it is.”
Amen, Stan. I’m the first person to own up to Peppercomm’s horrific IT capabilities. We’ve had so many power outages, non-working videos and other technology snafus in new business presentations that I now embrace our mediocrity in front of prospects. It’s very liberating.
Kudos to Ben for owning it. You can’t be all things to all people.
Great brands figure out what’s meaningful to their target customer. They then have the courage to be unapologetically horrible in other areas.
I’d say there are two schools of thought on Cosell’s legacy, Dave. True, most hard-nosed, blue-collar, beer-swilling fans did despise Cosell’s intellectual approach to covering sports events. And, there’s no doubt that ‘The Mouth’, as he came to be known, had an ego the size of the Grand Canyon. But, he also provided a depth and pathos to his reportage that a Frank Gifford or Pat Summerall simply couldn’t match.
I remember Cosell as being basically loathed by the sports fans