Northwest Airlines
today announced that its nwa.com Web site outperformed
all other U.S. airline sites in the Summer 2003 Online Customer Respect
Study of Airline, Travel and Hotel/Resort/Casino firms that rank among the
largest 1,000 companies in the United States.

On a ten-point scale with ten being the best, Northwest’s nwa.com site
received an overall Customer Respect Index (CRI) of 9.1, the highest
ranking in the airline category and well ahead of the airline industry
average of 7.4.

“We are honored that nwa.com’s customer service, convenient functionality
and overall ease of use have earned the recognition of the Customer
Respect Group,” said Al Lenza, vice president of distribution and
e-commerce at Northwest Airlines. “From the most developed Internet-based
self-service check-in program to proactive flight notification, nwa.com is
yet another reason customers who choose Northwest are flying smart.”

The Customer Respect Group
is an international research and consulting
firm that focuses on how corporations treat their customers online. The
study, in its second year, brings objective measure to the analysis of
corporate performance from an online customer’s point of view and involves
evaluations of more than 1,000 Web sites from a variety of industries. It
assigns a Customer Respect Index (CRI) to each company based on 25
different attributes that combine to create the entire online customer
experience, including the areas of privacy (respects customer privacy),
principles (values and respects customer data), attitude (customer focus
of site), transparency (open and honest policies), simplicity (ease of
navigation), and responsiveness (quick and thorough responses to
inquiries).

“Northwest received high scores for the speed and quality of its responses
to inquiries submitted online, in addition to providing a well organized
and easy to navigate site,” said Thorsten Ganz, vice president of
research, The Customer Respect Group. “The company clearly understands the
importance of its online channel as it relates to the overall customer
experience.”

Northwest’s nwa.com Web site is backed up with customer support staff
available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, able to respond through
e- mail, I-mail and by telephone to questions and help customers through
transactions.
——-