I recently received this email from a person in Europe sharing how she and KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, are using my story of “Johnny the Bagger®” to inspire their clients and employees:
My dear Barbara,
In concordance with your ‘theme of the month,’ “Giving”, I would like to share something with you since with giving comes grace and gratitude to those who have given to you. You may not realize it, but you have given me so much with the story of “Johnny the Bagger®.”
The first gift was receiving the inspiration of your story of Johnny when I was acting as Chief Customer Officer on the European board of UPC Broadband, the European subsidiary of Liberty Global. The end result of that inspiration was that the reputation of the company made a 180 degree turnaround from worst to best in class in the telco & cable industry in Europe, not mentioning the bottom-line impact it also had! But to me, most gratifying was the fun and pride the customer service people had started to take in their jobs. They themselves were the ones who turned around a negative, self-fulfilling prophecy into a positive one, and Johnny definitely made a large contribution to that!
Now I use Johnny as an example almost daily. In 2008, as a practitioner, I published my book, “Customer Advocacy–When You Care, People Notice.” I mention Johnny in my book. A while back, I gave my book to a friend, who works as a captain for the Dutch Royal Airlines, KLM. I gave him the book to inspire him and help him understand how each employee can choose to make a difference for themselves, each other, and the passengers they serve.
As a result, he invented the “blue mouse” which has a positive connotation, opposed to the “gray mouse” which is negative, Blue is the signal color of KLM– the Dutch speak of “the blue feeling” as representing the emotional pride they have in KLM. A gray mouse, on the other hand, is a Dutch expression for an insignificant person nobody pays attention to.
He had 50 mice produced as bag-hangers, and each one comes with a small card that says: “Dear colleague, you are a TOP performer. You’re a blue mouse, who does an excellent job serving your customers.” The first ones were handed out by the CEO of KLM to the members of a KLM crew that made a difference to their passengers in very tough circumstances, heavy snowstorms, and yet they achieved getting their passengers home safely in time for Christmas.
This initiative is passionately owned by the employees of KLM. They even made a website and a page on Facebook, to share their experiences. I’m sure you don’t read Dutch, but I told you the jist of it already. To be complete, here’s the url of their website: www.deblauwemuis.nl/. Now a wave of 50 blue mice circles around through the organization. Johnny’s story touched their hearts and inspired them to touch the hearts of their colleagues and passengers!
I am a maverick in Europe, spreading the same message you do. It’s a challenging mission , as you know, but it’s things like this that make it worth it! So, I say to you, THANK YOU!
With grace,
Nicolette
I am constantly touched by how this precious story of one person making a difference is inspiring people all over the world. To view the 16 minute movie of “Johnny the Bagger®,” go to www.johnnythebagger.com. And remember that Johnny was inspired by my message to make a difference and turn his whole organization around, so if you are looking for that kind of inspiration for your colleagues and employees, email us at bglanz@barbaraglanz.com or call us at 941-312-9169.
