 Can
You Read Your Name?
Dubai
Airport also has an official greeting service for arriving
passengers called ‘Marhaba’.
Marhaba is staffed with attractively dressed men and
women who meet designated passengers and then escort
them through immigration and customs.
Marhaba prints long lists of individuals who are scheduled
to receive this special welcome service. These lists
are located at the bottom of an escalator, just at the
point where travelers must step off with their carry-on
bags and move quickly away from the crush of passengers
descending behind them.
At that very point, where time is short and attention
is already diverted, Marhaba places a sign full of names,
printed in THICK, BLACK, BLOCK CAPITAL letters with
hardly any space at all between them.
The names are difficult to read when one is standing
still, and almost impossible when the escalator is moving.
If you know Marhaba service has been arranged for you,
then you must pause to reconfirm.
If you are not sure, or don’t know what the sign
is about, you also pause. This results in a gaggle of
people stopping, pausing, looking and wondering in front
of a sign that is hard to read, at a critical point
in the flow of passengers through one of the best airports
in the world.
A change in the lettering style would be so simple to
do. By using an upper and lower case serif font (like
you are reading in this book), passengers could more
easily read the signs and quickly see their names.
I have offered this suggestion several times to the
friendly Marhaba staff. Each time they agree it would
be a good idea, but then smile and say, ‘It’s
always been like that.’ (That’s a bad reason
not to make a good improvement.)
Key Learning
Point
The big things count
in business and in life: quality products, fast delivery,
friendly and competent staff. But little things count,
too. And little things can make a big difference for your
customer.
Action Steps
Ask your frontline
staff what ‘little things’ upset your customers.
What ‘silly questions’ do customers ask day
after day? What complaints do your staff hear over and
over again? What causes your customers frustration, confusion
and anger? Find it. Then fix it.
PS: Two months after I sent this suggestion to the airport,
the signage was exactly the same....
Next Article in Customer Service Perception Points >>
Which Way do I Go?
First Article in Customer Service Recovery >>
What to do When Your Customer is About to Explode
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