With a job title like that, we had to find out more from Johann Bordais, President and Customer Happiness Officer, Services & Support, Embraer.

On how the title Customer Happiness Officer (CHO) came about, Bordais said:  “When we decided at Embraer, about 12 months ago, to unify all the segments on the customer support side – to put commercial, executive and defence together, and even agricultural – [we put] together around 50 years of experience of customer support. And I wanted to be a little bit different than the others, because everyone is kind of moving in that direction.

“And then I was in Silicon Valley, and we were visiting a few start-ups and I could see on one door…’People Happiness Officer’. And I said: ‘Well that sounds cool to me, but it can’t be people’. People are very important, of course, but in my role, I said, ‘Well I have to change that title to CHO’.”

OK so that’s the title, but what’s the remit?

“It really takes care of the customers,” Bordais said. “That’s the DNA of Embraer. We do it with our heart, with our passion. We’re the challengers.”

He cited  the launch of the Embraer 145, “that made Embraer very much international and global.” However, he noted that while everyone loved the aeroplane, customers didn’t necessarily want their support to be based across the other side of the world.

Embraer invested “deeply in customer support,” Bordais said,  to ensure that support is at the ‘customers’ door’.

“We actually invested massively before any other OEM because we had to. Not because we thought it was a great vision, but because we had to. And I think it paid off 20 years later.”

Keeping customers happy is a tall order. On the major challenges, Bordais said: “I think really just to ensure the reliability of all the airplanes, of all the segments that we have, and [ensuring] the operational costs are exactly what the customer is expecting.

“And I think this is exactly what all the customer support and services responsible for any OEM are looking for. To make sure you have the right cost of operation, and the availability.”