Polle de Maagt 
Polle de Maagt
Story.
Employee-motivation speaker Barbara Glanz tells this story. She once spoke to about 3,000 employees of a large grocery chain. Her message: every one of you can make a difference and create memories that make customers come back.
Some time later, a young bagger called Johnny, who has Down syndrome, contacted her. He had thought about her advice and made a plan.
Every evening, he typed a thought for the day on the family computer and printed it. The next day, he put a slip with that thought, signed with his name, in every bag he packed.
What they did.
Johnny did not wait for a programme or permission. He used the one touchpoint he owned: the bag.
The response was astonishing. According to Glanz, customers came to the store more often so they would not miss a thought. His checkout line ran the length of the store. People refused to switch to shorter lines, because only Johnny’s line gave them the thought for the day.
Why it works.
It shows how exceeding expectations at a seemingly irrelevant touchpoint can have huge consequences. Nobody expects anything from the person packing the bags. That is exactly why it lands.
I cannot verify every detail. But even if it is not entirely true, it makes you think.
Try it yourself.
Find the touchpoint in your organisation that everyone considers irrelevant. The receipt, the packing slip, the confirmation email, the hold music. Ask the people who own it what they would do with it.
Ask one frontline colleague: if you could add one small thing to what you hand customers every day, what would it be?
Source: Barbara Glanz’s story of Johnny the Bagger, and my original post of August 2010. Grocery bag made with Midjourney.
