I was recently in a midwest city with some colleagues attending a meeting with a current customer of ours. I had a number of other meetings in this city over the couple days I was there, so I chose to rent a car. But my colleagues were coming in for one meeting and then leaving again, so they chose to take a cab downtown to their hotel for the meeting. Nothing strange or unique about this for most of us that travel a bit for work. What happened next can teach us all a bit of a lesson about a unique customer experience and it's impact on a business.
After our meeting took place and my colleagues were getting ready to return to the airport, they got out their phones and dialed up the taxi driver that had dropped them off from the airport the night before. Nothing real unusual about this in my mind, but we were in a mid major downtown area that had plenty of taxi cabs zooming by, all anxious for a fare to the airport. So I asked them why there were so intent on calling this one taxi driver to drive them. They said to me that they felt obligated to ring him back up and have him drive them. I found this a curious response, so I probed a bit and this is where it gets good.
They said that they felt obligated to call this driver in particular because when he dropped them off at the hotel the night before he declined payment from them and just told them they could pay him tomorrow after he drops them back off at the airport. Just like your mouth is right now, mine hung wide open in the universal sign of being dumbfounded by what you just heard. Then, I started thinking about why this guy did this and I turned from dumbfounded to chuckling at his utter genius.
Part of what he was doing was genius because of the experience that he was creating for the customer by making it simple to just pay one time and not worry about multiple swipes, knowing that you will have a cab waiting for you when you need it and not having to manage multiple receipts for multiple trips in a cab to expense back to the company.
The other part was genius for him and his business as a sales man. By creating this unique offer for you as a customer, what he was doing was pulling on the internal moral string that all of us have to be fair to the people around us. He was taking a calculated risk that has likely paid off handsomely for him and his business. He was betting that the moral compass and willingness to do the right thing was going to outweigh that desire to skip a fare. And in taking this bet, he has likely built an incredible base of business and virtually guaranteed himself literally hundreds of fares that would have likely gone to his competition.
I love this story because it speaks to how unique and differentiated experiences can create opportunities for those that are willing to be creative. For those that are willing to step out on the edge and find their own voice in customer experience, there is untapped business to be had. But you have to be willing to try new things and sometimes trust your customers will do the right thing in return.....
How are you stepping out on the edge today?
