Colleen Barrett is one of my personal heroes. Alongside Herb Kelleher, Rollin King, and John Parker, Colleen was one of the founders of Southwest Airlines. And while she is far too modest to admit it, it was Colleen more than anyone who embodied Southwest’s unique culture of service and innovation.
Basically, she’s the Michael Jordan of customer experience and corporate culture. Anyone who has read this blog knows how much I admire her work (see The Customer Centric Personality).
About 7 weeks ago, I got the harebrained idea to cold call Colleen to see if she would spend 10-15 minutes giving her advice and counsel on how Signature could become the Southwest Airlines of long term care. I reached her assistant, Vickie, who was extremely polite but made no promises. Later that day, I got an email from Vickie saying that Colleen would be available for a short call. but she was booked for the next 7 weeks…
That call happened this morning, and 8 hours later, I’m still buzzing like a pre-teen after a Justin Bieber concert!
Now, I don’t get excited about celebrities or pop stars…I once sat through an entire wedding rehearsal dinner right next to Matt Damon, and I literally refused to engage him in conversation. I considered it a matter of principle. But I most certainly DO get excited about meeting people like Colleen!
She spent about an hour with me, and even though my intention was to take copious notes, I found myself just wanting to listen and be fully present in the conversation. She couldn’t have been more gracious or down to earth. Before we even began talking, she told me that she had just gotten a new set of hearing aids and apologized in advance for any misunderstandings that might result. I assured her that the less of my talk she heard, the more intelligent I would probably sound!
For the next hour, she spoke in the warmest, most personal terms about what it was like in the early days at Southwest, about how they tried to nourish and protect the Southwest’s unique culture in everything they did. It took total commitment from the leadership of the company–if people didn’t subscribe to the Southwest Way, they were gently but firmly moved out of the way. There was no value judgment in this, just a complete determination to reach their goals.
Over and over, she spoke about “Golden Rule behavior.” Southwest is extremely patient with employees who need help with the technical aspects of their job. But when it comes to exhibiting the Golden Rule, they are uncompromising: If you can’t or won’t treat colleagues and customers the way you would want to be treated, then Southwest just isn’t the right company for you.
She asked a lot of questions about Signature, too, and seemed surprised and delighted that a nursing home company would aspire to be like Southwest. We talked about our CNAs, and how important they are to our vision. She likened them to her gate agents–the true keepers of Southwest’s culture and the greatest customer service ambassadors in the company. She said that the most important things we could do were to let them know that we love them and to nourish their self-esteem. They need to know that their work is every bit as important as the work of an administrator, a DoN, a CEO, or a VP of Customer Experience. When a customer has a bad experience, they don’t say “You guys were great, except for such and such department.” They judge the organization as a whole, which means that every single member of the team is absolutely critical to our success.
She loved our pillars, and immediately saw the powerful connection between Spirituality and customer service. I felt so proud of our company as I described how we had invited God into our facilities and workplaces. Dianne Timmering has spoken often about “unconditional love” being the foundation of our Spirituality pillar. This tickled Colleen to no end! Southwest’s culture was always based on “luv.” In fact, their corporate newsletter is called “Luvlines,” and Colleen still signs her emails “Luv, Colleen.”
At the end of our call, Colleen said that she’d like to keep in touch, and even offered to come speak to us. Her schedule gets filled up a full year in advance, so it will take some juggling to make it happen. But I promise you this: if there is a way to make it happen, we’ll find it!
Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a brief quote of Colleen’s from the book “Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success”:
“We are not an airline that happens to have great customer service. We are a great customer service organization that happens to be in the airline business.”
Yep, she’s my hero.