First the scene. Christmas eve at a busy SW Airlines gate. The gate agent is suffering from a cold; she is away from her family for the holiday season and feeling as miserable as the weather.

This is a story about angels. Two of them. One is an “angel unaware” named Rachel. The other is named McDonald.

Now, in the words of Angel Rachel:

“I looked up and saw the sweetest-looking, old man standing with a cane. He walked very slowly over to the counter and in the faintest voice told me that he had to go to New Orleans. I tried to explain to him that there were no more flights that night and that he would have to go in the morning. He looked so confused and very worried.

“I asked if he had a reservation or if he remembered when he was supposed travel, but he seemed to get more confused with each question. He just kept saying, ‘She said I have to go to New Orleans.’

“It took a while but finally I was able to discover that this old man had been dropped off at the curb by his sister-in-law on Christmas eve and told to go to New Orleans where he had family. She had given him some cash and told him to ‘just go inside and buy a ticket.’ When I asked if he could come back tomorrow, he said that she was gone and that he had no place to stay. He then said bravely that he would ‘wait right here until tomorrow.’

“Naturally, I felt a little ashamed. Here I was feeling sorry for myself about being alone for Christmas, when this angel named Mr. McDonald was sent to me as a reminder of what being alone really meant. It broke my heart to see him standing there.

“I told him not to worry, that we would get everything straightened out. Cynthia, another agent on duty, helped book him a seat on the earliest flight the next morning. We gave him a senior citizen’s fare, which left him a little extra money for traveling. About this time, he started looking very tired and I stepped around the counter to ask quietly if he was all right. That’s when I noticed that his leg was wrapped in a bandage. He had been standing on it the whole time, holding a plastic bag full of clothes.

“I called for a wheelchair.

“When the wheelchair came, we both stepped around to help him in, and noticed a small amount of blood on his bandage. I asked how he had hurt his leg and he explained that he had just had bypass surgery and that an artery had been taken from his leg. Can you imagine? This man had heart surgery, and shortly afterward had been dropped off at the curb to buy a ticket with no reservation to fly to New Orleans alone.

“I had never really had a situation like this, and I wasn’t sure what I could do. I went back to ask my supervisors, Kathy and Mercedes. When they had heard the whole story, I asked if we could find a place for him to stay. They both said absolutely.

“We gave Mr. McDonald a hotel room for the night and a meal ticket for dinner and breakfast. When I came back out, we got his plastic bag of clothes and cane together and gave the nice World Services employee a tip to take him downstairs to wait for the shuttle. I bent down to explain the hotel, food, and itinerary again while I patted him on the arm. I promised him that everything would be just fine.

“As he was about to be wheeled away, he said, ‘Thank you,’ bent his head, and started to cry.

“I cried, too.

“When I went back to thank Kathy, she just smiled and said, ‘I love stories like that. He is your Christmas man.’”

Merry Christmas to You & Yours

Share This

It was a school night, not for me but for our grandkids who live just a few doors down the street. “Hey, Pops,” croaked a puberty-laced bass voice that threatened to crack into soprano without notice.

“Hey, Big Guy! What’s going on?”

“Do you know why the sky is blue?”

“Sure!  I see you have a science project.”

There are probably plenty of reasons why the Big Guy and the Princess like to drop in on Pops and Granny Buns and I’m guessing that the chance to pick up a short life-lesson is one of them. In the last couple of months I taught the Princess how to fold an American flag and how to put a spit shine on a pair of shoes. (I think she likes the spitting part.)

Monday night the family popped in and the Big Guy fired up the grill as he assumed cooking duties that used to be left to me.

Why would the bluest eyes on the planet want to shine shoes or a teenager take charge of cooking dinner?  Because people like to do what they are good at and knowledge is the key to getting good.

Now stretch the idea a little further and let’s talk about product development and marketing.

My grandkids, and I, and you, and I’d say everyone including your customer, values knowledge.  A recent survey by BIGresearch revealed that experience and competence are the two most important factors when choosing a healthcare provider. Experience could be defined as exposure to knowledge and competence could be defined as the expression of knowledge.

Being a touchy-feely kind of guy I had hoped that bedside manner would be the critical attribute. Bedside manner is important but knowledge trumps feel good. That same survey uncovered that if customers knew they would get superior treatment, they would be willing to pay more than an additional $12 for a simple office visit. Knowledge has value.

I bought a cheap television for the bathroom… I like to watch the morning news!  I bought it at Wal~Mart and I think it was only $78… but it had a $100 worth of knowledge built into the product. (When color TV first came to market, sets were incredibly expensive. You didn’t take them home from the store. They were delivered. And then a technician came to handle the set-up.)
I fired up my Wal~Mart cheapie and it asked me to choose a language, quizzed me for my favorite channels, and politely inquired how I felt about the picture quality. That’s knowledge content built right into the product.

Think about this:
How could you add value to your product by adding knowledge?
How could you let your customer know you have added knowledge?

If you include knowledge without informing the customer, you add to the cost but not to the value.

“So, Pops, why is the sky blue?”

“Well, the shorter wave lengths of light… shades of blue… are absorbed by the molecules in the air and then scattered when they radiate out again. But you really need to come over and we’ll look it up together.”

Why?  Because knowledge that has a cost has more value.

Share This