From this week, the Air India top management will motivate its staff by sending them Graphic Interchange Format or GIF — a moving graphic image file — through the social media to communicate the message of ‘doing more to win back customers’.

Rajiv Bansal, the newly appointed Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, has been using his experience during his previous posting in the Ministry of Information and Technology to make use of technology. Since he took over on August 24, the airline first started using SMSes to reach out to the staff members. SMSes like “let us fly on time to keep ourselves fit” focus on bringing the airline back to shape. Now he has taken it to the next level by using GIF. Bansal told BusinessLine , “Social media has been strongly used by this Government. Probably the idea came to me during my tenure in the Ministry of Information. I was working a lot with Gov.org.” The SMSes or GIFs are sent in batches between 8 and 10 every morning largely focussing on three issues — improving on time performance, fitness and maintaining cleanliness — all issues which concern the flying public, a senior airline official said.

“The Air India product is good. But we need to ensure that the staff is motivated and give their best. We want to bring the customer back because passengers who have flown Air India might have shifted to other airlines for a variety of reasons. But we still offer the best seats, the best free baggage allowance and the maximum connectivity in the domestic market,” the CMD said.

Bansal is clear that it is not correct to link the new message initiative to the airline’s divestment process or stop doing anything new at the airline as Air India is on the Government’s divestment list.

“Divestment is a decision which the stakeholders will have to take. I am an entity to be sold and not a key decision maker in the process. I want to create value for the asset so that the stakeholder gets the best return,” the Chairman said.

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