I recently travelled to San Francisco from Dubai and it was an interesting journey flying over Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, over the North Pole and then southbound over Northern Canada into the USA via Vancouver, Seattle and finally San Francisco. It was approximately 15 hours non-stop on Emirates Airline on their Boeing 777-300. A very enjoyable flight with a great product and service.

It’s really amazing to think that you can take off from one side of the world and land within feet of your intended destination on the other side of the globe. The distance is just over 8,000 miles.

This journey would have been unthinkable if not impossible in the past because the technology wasn’t there. I always find it interesting that many passengers get on an aircraft and then get off at the destination oblivious of the technology and skills of the Pilots that makes journeys today a simple formality.

We flew on the Boeing 777 which is a great aircraft both for passengers and crew. I remember when the project manager for the Boeing 777 project Alan Mullaly was given the task to build this amazing aircraft. From approval in 1990 by the Boeing board to the first test flight 4 years later the 777 was an amazing concept. Why? well apart from being an incredible aircraft with the latest technology, Boeing took the unusual step of bringing its first 4 airline customers who ordered the aircraft to work with them over 4 years to build a world beating aircraft.

It was an interesting concept getting the customer to partner with you in designing the customer experience and using the best technology available. Let me give you an example. One of the complaints that passengers complained about prior to the 777, was that often on departure the seat in the bathroom when left up and on take off it would bang down on the toilet on take off due to the vibrations of the aircraft. It would frighten some passengers or annoy others because no one knew what caused it. The airlines did and asked crew to ensure the toiled lids were down on take off. But it was often overlooked.

The team working with Boeing came up with a great solution. It was a small hydraulic arm just under the seat lid that slowly lets the seat come down without a bang. Next time you are in the bathroom of a 777 you may notice it. Was it critical no, but it made for a better customer experience. This was just one of the many ideas and enhancement that this aircraft brought to the travelling public.

That’s why the 777 has been such a successful; aircraft over 1,989 have been built to date. It was built with the customer in mind. So the next time you are flying on a 777 take a few minutes and consider what a great aircraft it is. It also shows that if you listen and act on your customers feedback you too could be very successful in your business.