Last week, I ordered my favorite laundry detergent (Persil) from Sam’s Club because it was $5 off for a limited time. Free delivery for the win — and I didn’t really need it yet. It arrived yesterday along with a couple other items in the same box.
The inflatable packing strips weren’t inflated and quite a bit of the detergent leaked into the box. It wasn’t the fault of FedEx, the blame rested on the shoulders of the person that packed it up for shipping.
Who packed the box?
My experience reminded me of a Charlie Plumb story, “Who Packs Your Parachute?” Captain Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions and only 5 days before he was to return home, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years — 2,103 days — as a POW in a communist Vietnamese prison. (Read a bit about his experience here.) Now, he’s a professional speaker.
Captain Plumb’s signature story is about meeting the man who packed his parachute… the man who ultimately saved his life. His words serve to remind us that sometimes your job is to pack the parachutes — not be the pilot — and that EVERY role on a team has incredible value.
The hero of my Persil story is…
Ruth, from a country I’ve never heard of and on behalf of Sam’s Club, offered to send a replacement or credit my account. That’s good customer service. But it was even better because she took time to make it personal by telling me Persil is her Mom’s favorite detergent too.
Good ole’ Ruth packs a mean parachute!