What we try to avoid is spending ungodly amounts of money on an Internet product if it's going to the raise the price of our tickets. Southwest is typical of businesses that will use the Internet in the coming year as a low-cost channel to streamline sales, not just as a reason to launch ad campaigns or a way to build brand recognition. Use the Internet to build a reliable customer base. We want to give them an answer and a live person, not a wall.
Airlines are still a people business.
Southwest has also forgone the banner advertisements that are common on many Web pages. Stillings says the company isn't interested in bogging down its Web page with peripheral information. Southwest wants the page to load quickly and customers to get the information they want with relative ease, she says. Our customers want cheap airline tickets, and we'd be in trouble if we lost track of that. As many Internet businesses have learned, you must establish a workable supply chain and reliable customer service before expanding.