Personnel Differentiation – Flight Attendants

In my previous post, Management Lite & Ezy 9, I described personnel differentiation strategy. Marketing gurus Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller pointed out in their book that flight attendants of Singapore Airlines (SIA) provide excellent service.

When a passenger aircraft takes off or touch down, everyone is required to be seated and fasten seat-belt. Cabin crews are no exception. Steward and stewardesses of Malaysian Airlines (MAS) usually retreat to the rear compartment during take off and landing.

However, I observe that flight attendants of SIA will simply occupy any empty passenger seats. This conveys a message that they are always with the passengers and always ready to serve. Well done, SIA.

I don’t have a very good memory with American Airlines (AA). I once flew from Los Angeles to Dallas. AA cancelled my flight and put me in a later one.

Then I noticed stewardesses of AA chewed gum. In Godzilla the movie, character played by Jean Reno chews gum in order to “look American”. I gather that gum chewing must be very common among Americans.

Unfortunately, stewardesses who chewed gum gave me an impression that they were not professional enough. I am not against gum-chewing. A police officer who chews gum is less intimidating. But a flight attendant who chews gum does not look serious.

Another point deducted from AA’s scorecard.