Breeze Airways merges tech with kindness to transform an industry

Featuring Danny Cox

Vice President, Guest Experience at Breeze

In this Gladly podcast episode, hear from Vice President of Guest Experiences at Breeze Airways, Danny Cox, as he shares what it means to be Seriously Nice, how Breeze raises the bar for guest experiences, and why they decided to omit voice as a primary channel for customer service.

With the slogan “Seriously Nice”, Breeze Airways is reimagining customer service for brands and businesses to be the best part of a customer’s day. So, what does it look like to be Seriously Nice? Listen and find out.

Danny's idea of Seriously Nice goes back to a multi-school PE day near his hometown of Orderville, Utah. He teased some kids from another school, they took his favorite hat, and a boy named Raymond calmly got it back for him even though Danny had started it. Danny says he's wanted to be that kind of person ever since, someone who makes the situation right without worrying about who was at fault.

"Is it seriously nice to have somebody waiting on hold? ... No matter how kind and how gentle and how caring that person was on the other end, if it's been a half an hour, if it's been an hour, is any of that really seriously nice?"

Danny Cox

Vice President, Guest Experience, Breeze

Breeze doesn't give guests a customer service phone number. Before Danny joined, he texted founder David Neeleman his advice for the new airline, which was to open a contact center instead of a call center. Breeze leads with SMS and Facebook Messenger, so guests can send a request, go about their day, and come back when it's handled. Danny compares it to laundry, which takes about 10 minutes of actual work spread across a couple of hours.

"My advice is, don’t open a call center, make sure you open a contact center… It’s a digital first approach."

Danny Cox

Vice President, Guest Experience, Breeze

Some guests write in demanding a phone number, and Danny says the team often wins them over by solving the issue right in the thread. One traveler stopped him at an airport to thank him, because he'd added his Known Traveler Number by text in the middle of a meeting. Across more than 500,000 guest interactions on Gladly, mostly over Facebook Messenger and text, Danny says only a tiny fraction of contacts needed an outbound call to solve the problem.

Breeze named its care team the Guest Empowerment Team to signal a partnership with guests, and Danny wants the team to feel empowered to help guests in whatever way they see as Seriously Nice.

Danny also describes how that thinking shaped the way Breeze handled its first weather cancellation. At first, airport agents booked a limited number of hotel rooms one at a time while guests waited in line. After that night, Danny says, the team changed course. Guests got a message by text, push notification, or email saying what Breeze would reimburse for a hotel, so they could choose their own, and Breeze offered points as an alternative. More guests than he expected took the points, and fewer needed the hotel offer at all because they had options.