Taking Customer Service on a ride

A year or more ago I got into this cab from Matunga to Andheri. As I entered I noticed that the cab had a magazine jacket attached to the back of the front seat. It had in it the some of the morning dailies and a couple of film glossies. I was for a moment taken aback, because it was not something I had walked in to expect from a cab in Mumbai. I began talking to the cab driver who also happened to be the owner of the cab, complimenting him on having newspapers and magazines for his passengers. He simply smiled and thanked me. It was a neatly maintained cab and had been apparently for over 20 years on the road. It looked not more than two years to me.

As I kept admiring the cab, my eyes turned to switches placed one on either side of the back seat window, and I inquired what these were. He just mentioned that the one on the right was for English Music and the one on the left was for Hindi music. My jaw dropped, never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would have a choice of music channels to choose from that too in a cab. Being a doubting Thomas that I was, I couldn't help trying them out only to get what I was told. He also told me that he had a well stocked first aid box, which is a rarity in cabs these days.

He later told me that he was also covered in some of the local dailies for the innovative methods he had applied to satify his clientele, some of whom had his phone number and would call him to reserve his cab. As I got down from the cab and paid him his fare, I thanked him for the ride and the time we shared on this journey. I realised that this probably not so educated cab driver understood customer service more than what the students of the best B-Schools would learn but not know how to implement.

Personally, it just drove me to believe that no matter who the individual is, there is so much to learn from what they do in their daily lives. How they get innovative in their own worlds and make a difference to themselves and to the people they come in contact with. I don't know the name of the cab driver, but I would like to thank him for giving me a lesson in customer service in a little less than an hour for a sum of Rs.150, not forgetting the ride ofcourse.