Southwest Airlines Taps Salesforce to Help Meeting Planners Manage Bookings

Southwest has already seen millions of dollars in travel booked on the new platform since its launch last month

Southwest Airlines recently introduced Southwest Business Meetings. Salesforce technology, including Tableau and Experience Cloud, is powering the redesigned experience for meeting and event planners, which makes it easier than ever to manage group travel on Southwest. Using Tableau, operations managers are able to view operational data – ultimately connecting the dots between data, insights and better business outcomes with end-to-end analytics. 

Why it’s important: According to the Global Business Travel Association, global business travel is expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels – for a $1.4 trillion total in 2024 – and grow to nearly $1.8 trillion by the end of 2027.

The impact: Southwest Business Meetings streamlines the process to book group travel for meetings, incentives, and conventions in the managed travel space. For meetings with 25 or more travelers, planners can now tap into new options including automated proposal processes, complimentary name change requests up until 24 hours before scheduled departure, streamlined proposal management, and proposal tracking.

Go deeper: A Salesforce customer since 2007, Southwest Airlines has deployed Salesforce technology across numerous customer- and employee-facing facets of its business, as well as marketing. The carrier is also using Salesforce products, including Einstein, to help power its digital transformation. Some of the products and services it has tapped include:

• Service Cloud enables Southwest to consolidate multiple systems into one view and drive greater productivity. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots and self-service tools help customers get simple answers quickly, while leaving more complex cases to be handled by service representatives. 
• Sales Cloud helps the airline track accounts, leads, activities, and opportunities for business customers and travel agencies to better understand what it needs to secure healthy margins.
• A Signature Success Plan provides continuous monitoring and proactively alerts Southwest to any potential issues that could affect system performance or the customer experience. 

These new tools, powered by Salesforce, allow planners the ability to focus more on their events and less on travel while letting Southwest create unique solutions designed to provide more benefits to them and their travelers.”

Dave Harvey, Chief Sales Officer and Vice President, Southwest Airlines

Customer perspective: “We have heard from customers that they need flexible, efficient, and easier ways to manage meeting and event travel. Southwest Business Meetings is another step in our commitment to better serve travel programs while removing friction and bringing a new level of digital hospitality to managing meeting travel. These new tools, powered by Salesforce, allow planners the ability to focus more on their events and less on travel while letting Southwest create unique solutions designed to provide more benefits to them and their travelers.” – Dave Harvey, Chief Sales Officer and Vice President, Southwest Airlines

Explore further: 

• Learn more about Southwest Business Meetings
• Learn about the future of business with data, AI, CRM, and trust here
• Dive into Salesforce CRM to understand its uses and business benefits