Midwest was gutted by Bryan Bedford to reduce CASM. He truly thinks the "cookie" is the reason Midwest has earned countless airline industry awards.
The focus for employees at Midwest was to make the customer happy and that attitude was felt by passengers.
I can't remember Bryan Bedford talking about customer service. In the "pay for depart" regional airline business it's all about reducing your CASM below the fee paid by Delta, US Airways, United, ...