I travel to London on the train more regularly than is pleasant
At the end of each journey a steward passes through the carriages with a big plastic bag, collecting the rubbish. They never look too enamored with their job.
This morning the steward entered the carriage and announced with a flourish:
Any rubbish
Laptops
iPads
Mobile Phones
£50 notes
If you are not taking it with you, put it in the bag
He smiled, I smiled, everybody in the carriage smiled but I bet you one of those £50 notes that if his manager had been there, or better still his compliance or PR executives they would not have been so amused.
They would have been mortified
- He was off-brand
- He was irresponsible
- His behaviour was totally inappropriate for a 21st-century railway
Why do we take ourselves so seriously?
Why do we enforce rules that are so serious, that don’t allow our employees a little fun?
- Does it make our customers happier?
- Does it engage your employees?
- Does it make us more money?
Or are we just rearranging the deck chairs? There is enough misery in the world without adding to it. How bad would it be if we lightened up?
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Image by akabilk
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Thanks, James. This post made me think of Southwest – and how the flight attendants on SW could very easily say what your steward said without fear of recourse. Did he go off script on his own, or is it possible that there is a culture change afoot? Wouldn’t it be nice if it was the latter!
Annette :-)
Unfortunately I have no doubt what so ever that he went off script on his own.
He didn’t include a single legal disclaimer
Nice idea though
James
By coincidence, a few days before this post I changed my LinkedIn profile summary to read, “Radical Lean fundamentalist with zero tolerance for MBO infidels.” Kind of gives you an idea how I feel about this post, doesn’t it? At this point in my life I figure that if anyone has a problem with it they can, how do you put it in the U.K.? “Sod off?”
Very funny Mark.
Glad you are getting the hang of the cross Atlantic nuances
I have been heard to mutter, “What are they going to do? Sack me?” myself
Hello James
What can I say? What a delightful post! As you so rightly say There is enough misery in the world without adding to it. How bad would it be if we lightened up?”
In my work I don’t talk much about ‘value’ nor ‘creating value for customers’. Instead I talk about ‘simplifying-enriching lives’. I am clear that this steward enriched your life by connecting with you at two levels. First by looking at/towards you and smiling. And then using humour, to inject empathic humour, into your lives. Thus breaking you out of your existing state and for a moment or two energising/enriching you.
Once again, thank you for sharing this experience. It occurs to me that you are now more qualified to be a customer experience consultant-guru than many others. At the very minimum, you are my kind of customer experience guru.
All the best
maz
Thank you Maz, I have no doubt the guys in marketing will be falling over themselves to get at me
Great article. After many years and gold card points shuttling between London and Edinburgh I loved it when there was a pilot with character. There is a fine line between personality and intrusion but sounds like this guy got it right. Being happy at work made his customers happy! Brilliant!
Funny how it makes a difference. Though I do hope your pilot wasn’t wandering down the isle collecting rubbish.
Worth having a look at the SouthWest Rapper if you have never seen him before http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYA_ivyj3kE
Thanks for the comment. James