“Welcome to Boston.  The local time is 5:45 pm.  We know you have many transportation options and on behalf of the flight crew and cabin staff we’d like to thank you for choosing Delta.  Whether you are traveling on further or if Boston is your final destination, we wish you a pleasant evening.”

Have you ever heard those words before? Me too. So many times in fact, that I wrote them from memory.

But for whom and for what purpose are those words said each time you land at an airport?

There’s no useful information within them.
The people speaking the words didn’t write them.
To the extent any passengers are even listening, it has no impact on the way any of them feels about the airline.

It’s the industry’s own peculiar version of “Have a nice day.”

But it’s another good example of how all of us, in companies of all sizes, communicate on auto-pilot (sorry). We could say something different – or at least using different words – but it’s easier to just copy what we’ve always done and what everyone else is doing.

And I get it; a huge company like an airline needs standardization. So one person writes it, the lawyers bless it, and the flight attendants read it until the end of time.

But you’re not a huge company. You can say whatever you want (more or less). So take a look at where you’re just following convention – on your web site, in your Facebook updates, in your E-Newsletter, on your invoices, on your voice mail message, in your holiday cards, etc. Then do something different.

Until then, please return your tray tables and seat backs to an upright position. (Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

Photo courtesy of Kash_if, used under a Creative Commons license.