Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

THE MILE HIGH CLUB

I noticed that the airline industry seemed to come up an awful lot during the writing of this book. And it is fitting that as I write this particular paragraph, I’m actually on a flight. So I came up with two reasons as to why flying seemed to contribute so many case studies to this book:

1. More and more airlines are now outfitted with wireless high-speed Internet access. This real-time connectivity is rapidly compressing the speed at which a complaint hits the conversational or social stratosphere.

2. Airlines are famous—or perhaps I should say infamous—for providing poor customer service. Many consumers resign themselves to the fact that they all suck equally. And yet there are stellar examples of how this could—and should—be corrected. The lesson here is simple: Every business in every sector is capable of flipping the funnel.

Every industry has a similar story to tell. What about yours? Will your company flip the funnel by doing what Virgin, Jet Blue, or SouthWest did to their industry, or litter the trash heap alongside the countless airlines that failed to triumph over mediocrity, convention, and the status quo?