Little Things Mean More Than You May Think

Although my birthday doesn’t arrive until October 10, I received my first card last week.

The sender always remembers my anniversary and let’s me know they’re thinking about me. In fact, they started celebrating when we barely knew each other.

Several years ago, when I still lived in Minneapolis, I was in Sacramento to teach three seminars. At the end of the day, I headed to the airport to fly to Burbank so I could spend a little time with my daughter. I had booked my flight on Southwest, an airline that didn’t serve my hometown, primarily because of the ticket price and flight time. I was expecting even worse service than I was used to with more expensive carriers.

When I got to my gate, I walked up to the counter to ask the pleasant gate agent a question. That led to a little chat. I learned he’d been a schoolteacher prior to joining SWA; he learned I was off to celebrate my birthday with my family. I sat down in the waiting area and watched the growing group that would become my fellow travelers. 

Moments later, I was startled by an announcement that said, “Passenger Winter, please come to the podium.” I grabbed my suitcase and followed orders. The moment I reached the podium, the message continued. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special person flying with us tonight. This is Barbara and it’s her birthday. Join me in singing Happy Birthday to her.” And they did. 

Now that I’m a regular SWA passenger, I know that such spontaneous behavior isn’t that unusual. However, at the time of my serenade, I was (reluctantly) a frequent flyer with Northwest Airlines who had a strong monopoly in the Minneapolis market. I’d spent years being treated as their adversary by gate agents and flight attendants. A birthday card from NWA? Never. In fact, when I hit 1,000,000 miles flying with them, I didn’t even get a thank you note. NWA and SWA are polar opposites and their corporate cultures show it.

SWA continues to surprise me. To my delight they’ve taken on bully NWA and I’m now able to fly with them to Minneapolis, as I did for Follow Through Camp earlier this month. That trip was made even more delightful by their in-flight magazine which happened to be a special Entrepreneur’s Guide which declared Make Your Bright Idea Bear Fruit. I couldn’t stop laughing over Jay Heinrichs editorial which began, “There are two kinds of people in this world: entrepreneurs and naysayers. I belong to the second group…Entrepreneurs never follow the advice of people like me.”

Of course, their magazine is always worth reading and seems to be written with the intention of adding another layer of pleasure to their passenger’s flight. 

Last week on my return from Denver, our flight was staffed by a flight attendant/Elvis impersonator—and another who seemed to be working on his standup comedy act. As the lights of my new hometown came into view, Elvis impersonator led the plane on a rousing (and respectable) rendition of Viva Las Vegas. Everyone was smiling as we touched down.

Surprise. Delight. Care. You don’t need to run an airline to put those to work for you.