Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, China, Chinese Culture, Culture, Customer Service, Empathy, Experience, Fulfillment, Individuality, Management, Planes, Prejudice, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance
So as you know, I was in China recently and when I was flying from Chengdu back to Shanghai, my plane was 5 hours late for takeoff.
While that is a pain, what made it worse was it meant we didn’t even take off till nearly midnight.
Now the good news for me is I sleep on planes.
In fact I sleep better on planes than anywhere else.
I’m fast asleep before takeoff and tend to wake up on landing … and that’s what happened to me this time, aided by the late hour.
However what was different this time was I found a package and this note next to me.
Specifically this package and note …
Apparently the crew on the plane were worried I’d wake up hungry but didn’t want to wake me up as they could see I was fast asleep and it was very late so they made up that package and wrote that note.
While I am not sure if the food I received was worthy of that much care and consideration, that level of service – despite the note being written on a sick bag, hahaha – is ‘TV ad worthy’.
China gets a bad rap for customer service, however in my experience it’s miles ahead of most other nations [which suggests it’s driven by ignorance and/or prejudice] because this small act on a China Eastern flight between Chengdu and Shanghai shows what happens when you train your people to not just blindly follow a corporate, cost-efficientprocess, but to actually and actively care about your customers.
Thank you China Eastern.
When I was young, I loved looking through the Argos and Innovations catalogues.
They were a window into a world I couldn’t imagine.
One filled with gadgets and toys I’d never see, let alone never own.
It’s partly why whenever I fly, I always look at the Duty Free catalogue.
Because outside of the sexist shit like ‘air hostess outfits for girls and pilot suits for boys’ and prices that never seemingly being any less than I could get in a store … there’s something magical – at least for me – in seeing what’s on offer.
Bad versions of expensive brands.
Updated versions of old products.
Endless amounts of perfume and questionable jewellery.
I love it. Hell, I’ve even bought things from it occasionally … though the mini-projector ended up being something I used precisely ZERO times.
But post-covid, the people behind these catalogues have decided passengers are super rich and super stupid.
I get why they would think that with the price of tickets these days.
But even then, I am wracking my brain to work out who would get on a plane and order this …
A bed.
A SG$24,000 bed.
Seriously, what the absolute fuck?
I know there’s a lot of bed companies these days offering ’60+ free nights’ … but this isn’t one of those.
This is the real deal … mattress AND remote control flexible frame.
For the price of a car. Or at least a second-hand car.
And they expect you to buy it, without trying it, via an inflight, duty-free catalogue.
I’d kill to know if any have ever been sold. I’d kill to know the reasoning behind why they did it.
And I’d kill anyone who ordered one.
Forget Duty Free this would be Brain Free … or, the new way to signal to people you have vulgar wealth.
Better than a Black Centurion AMEX or a Lambo with Pepper Pig.
Evolution sure works in some strange ways …