You know I fly a lot. This year I’m platinum USAir and gold Delta so I spend many hours on flights and could probably do the flight announcements myself if the opportunity presented itself. But let me tell you about one evening on a USAirways flight inbound to Columbia, SC returning from speaking at a nursing conference in Indiana. Larry Murphy was our flight attendant and was one of the best I’ve ever had on a flight. Larry did a number of things that were particularly memorable. One of them was how he was “in the moment.”
During his by-regulation- required in-flight announcements Larry was very much “in the moment” and it made a positive impact on every passenger on the flight. His announcements certainly covered all the items the FAA demands, but by making them “in the moment,” they were personalized, genuine, and unique to our flight.
“With that smoothest of landings… reserved for only our finest flyers… we appreciate your business on this Thursday evening and welcome you to Columbia, South Carolina,” Larry said immediately after we landed. When passengers disembarked, he NEVER said “bye-bye.” Not once. Rather than the trite and often parodied “ba-buy” flight attendant exit mantra, he said different things to different passengers that were appropriate in the context of the specific flight.
“Hey, thanks for flying with us tonight, hope to see you again.” “Thanks for your help tonight by switching seats, I really appreciate that.” “Have a great vacation next week, welcome back home!” Larry spent a little time chatting with passengers on the flight and remembered specific content of those conversations and used it as a “closer” comment when we all exited.
In our day to day activities in healthcare, we recite litanies of instruction to patients and other “dots.” Do we sound like a recording where our message drones listeners to sleep, or are we “in the moment” where what we say is relevant and applicable “in the moment” for our listeners. Larry didn’t sound like a canned message. Rather it was fresh. Not boring, distracted, or routine. It was as if he was saying something for the first time despite having said similar messages thousands of times.
When I asked him about this, he simply replied, “Each time is my first time with passengers on my aircraft.” When we speak with others, especially for routine information delivery, the message we give is also the “first time” that particular patient or other “healthcare dot” has received it. And that’s how you turn a “favorite flyer” into a “frequent flyer.”
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