According to Gordon Bethune, Chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines, the airline industry is getting so impersonal it’s becoming like mass transit. Continental’s strategy to differentiate itself from other airlines is to reestablish the concept that “if you pay more, you get more.” Continental uses technology to identify its best customers, those who generate 10 percent of the company’s revenue. Continental’s CRM software identifies them as CO, which stands for “costars.” The software tracks each touch point with the company and enables employees to recognize the costars by name. Costars receive extra attention even though they may be sitting in the coach section on a particular flight. The software even provides flight attendants with information on which beverage a costar prefers, and all beverages are free. Continental employees put a special tag on costars’ bags and their bags are unloaded first.

Even so, Bethune recognizes that Continental’s first obligation is to have its planes leave and arrive on time and get all its customers to their destinations safely. CRM can’t do this for the company. What CRM does, however, is assure that the company’s costars are given the special attention they have earned.