In these trying times for the airline industry, anything that brings the employees closer together and builds authenticity in the brand is more than welcome. Emirates Airlines has recently done a fabulous job of achieving these aims. A video by Emirates employees, featuring themselves, has hit the internet recently. Entitled “Make Someone’s Day”, Emirates’ employees are singing, playing instruments from around the world and just seem to be enjoying themselves. It’s nice to see that an airline still does stuff like this that isn’t a necessity contributing towards the bottom line. And it should do good for the brand too.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching the video below (couldn’t find one with a better quality).

Bringing authenticity into the brand

Nothing’s more authentic about a brand than the collective voice of the people behind it. As I mentioned in my recent webinar on airline branding, involving the employees adds personality the previously faceless company. In this video, all employees are embracing the creed of making someone’s day – something very simple, and something that resonates with the masses.

Moreover, the video showcases how international the Emirates brand is. The song itself is sung in English and Hindi, and has a variety of musical styles from around the world. What better way to showcase the cosmopolitan nature of an airline which has employees from almost 100 countries!

Giving employees a stake in the game

Having employees leading the creation of this music video must have been a definite morale booster. They got to sing the Emirates’ creed, which is probably created by the employees too. And as so many of them have come together to create it, it must have brought them closer together too. And such ways of employee engagement are a necessity in these difficult times.

Happy Employees = Happy customers

Employees are the most important touchpoints of an airline brand. And when they’re exuding cheerfulness and warmth, it rubs off on the customers too. Just recall the last time you dealt with a happy airline crew – didn’t it make your day? It certainly made my day on a United Airlines flight from Boston to Chicago last year. Keeping employees happy has been a strategic decision at a number of successful airlines, including Southwest Airlines. And now, Emirates looks set to join the bandwagon.

What do you think will be the impact of this video by Emirates? Does anyone know if this was an employee initiative or pushed by HR or Marketing? Do you know examples of other airlines with similar initiatives? Let’s hear it in the comments section!

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What already sounds like a bad attempt at generating positive PR turned much worse when the stewardess blatantly rejected the award, at the ceremony, instead spilling the beans on bad management practices at the airline. All this in front of shocked executives and ever-eager media. Check out the stewardess’ interview with MSNBC, after the incident.

So what’re three key lessons from this blunder for American Airlines and others?

1. Never, ever try to get PR for the sake of it. American Airlines’ corp communications executives seemed to have a knee-jerk reaction when the passenger’s death in-flight created an overflow of public sentiment, both in favor and against the airline. To create some positive press, they dug up the incident of a stewardess saving a passenger’s life, but didn’t care about the fact that it happened three years ago. The idea was probably to create credibility by getting the media’s attention. But, as we all know it now, the plan failed miserably. They would have been much better off just accepting the fact that the incident happened, and probably coming up with guidelines to better handle such situations in the future. Losing the trust of the customer is probably the last thing a company wants to do.
2. Take good care of your employees. Something that comes out very clearly in the video is that this stewardess was very unhappy with the management. She seemed to be on the bench for almost two years because she wasn’t enjoying her job and “didn’t feel safe”. The importance of happy employees can’t be emphasized enough. As mentioned in a previous post, employee morale directly rubs off on the customers. Companies in general, and especially airlines, should make extra efforts to keep their staff happy.
3. Listen to your employees. It seems that the stewardess’ pleas for improvement fell on deaf ears, and that’s why she stopped flying. It might be a biased opinion, but there is hardly any smoke without fire. So much frustration probably cannot build up unless she’s been totally ignored. Though it may not be possible to accommodate every suggestion, having a proper channel for employees (and customers) to voice their opinions and also get a personal response from the management is very important. It’s not crucial whether the suggestion is implemented or not, but the fact that it is heard makes the person feel important. And that’s what matters.

Ponder that!

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Links:

1. Death on-board American Airlines, Gladling
2. AA stewardess rejects award, Gladling
3. Happy Crew = Happy Passengers = Great Brand, SimpliFlying

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• A Southwest Airlines employee goes out of her way to help a distressed passenger
• What makes Volaris from Mexico the world’s happiest airline? Interview with COO, Andres Fabre
• Welcome to Branding 2.0, Singapore Airlines. Now what? Twelve tips to do social media right
• Emirates engages employees through self-composed music video