Be happy and air it: ‘Happiness Kiosks’ installed at malls in Dubai

Dubai — After Happiness Meters at Dubai Municipality offices, residents of Dubai now have a platform to air their happiness, satisfaction, complaints and suggestions about civic services.

The civic body is reaching out to the public through “Happiness Kiosks” installed at popular malls in the emirate.

The kiosks were launched at the Dubai Mall and the Mirdif City Centre on Monday. Another one will be installed at the Mall of the Emirate on Sunday.

Members of the public are encouraged to visit the kiosks and give their feedback. Two staff posted at each kiosk will help them record their suggestions and complaints and will also forward them to the call centre of the municipality for follow up.

The municipality was the first Dubai government department to launch the interactive Happiness Meters that help customers evaluate services and record the level of their happiness and satisfaction about the services of municipal employees and departments using different smileys.

The meters were installed in line with the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, who also aims to make Dubai one of the happiest cities in the world.

The civic body had also launched the Happy Dubai online initiative in which residents and visitors can post their selfies and other photos and comments on various social media channels to express their happiness about Dubai.

The municipality said the kiosks, part of the Happy Dubai initiative launched last year, will be kept in the malls for a period of three months and will be followed by innovative ideas related to the initiative.

The move follows the launch of the municipality’s Creativity and Innovation Lab last week, in which senior officials attended workshops on best practices to reach out to the public.

Laila Abbas, head of marketing and exhibitions at the Municipality told Khaleej Times the Happiness Kiosks will also publicise and create awareness about municipal services and market the municipality’s projects.

“There is an iPad there. People can enter their mobile numbers and record their feedback,” she said.

Compared to some other local departments, officials feel, there was less awareness about the wide spectrum of services that the municipality is offering including public health services, food safety, waste management, parks and beaches, environment among others.

The Happy Dubai website also shares information about the municipal services and indicates the level of happiness in the city based on the number of comments and photos posted with the hashtag #HappyDubai.

Since its launch last year, about 64,000 posts have been put up online with the hash tag #HappyDubai, the municipality said. Also, some 7680 users are now following the initiative’s Twitter handle @MyHappyDubai.

The municipality said it has selected some nine images of people of different nationalities, who posted their pictures related to the Happy Dubai initiative to advertise it. These pictures will soon be put up on the roadside boards to advertise the initiative, said the municipality. — sajila@khaleejtimes.com