Great Service Is a Choice..

No one can make you serve customers well. That’s because great service is achoice. Years ago, my friend, Harvey Mackay, told me a wonderful story about acab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in line for a ride at theairport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxiwas polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, andfreshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car toopen the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated cardand said:“I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like youto read my mission statement.”Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:Wally’s Mission Statement:To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapestway possible in a friendly environment.This blew Harvey away.

Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cabmatched the outside. Spotlessly clean!As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I havea thermos of regular and one of decaf.”My friend said jokingly, “No, I’d prefer a soft drink.”Wally smiled and said, “No problem.

I have a cooler up front with regular andDiet Coke, water and orange juice.”Almost stuttering, Harvey said, “I’ll take a Diet Coke.”Handing him his drink, Wally said, “If you’d like something to read, I have TheWall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.”As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. “Theseare the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to theradio.”And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the airconditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then headvised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. Healso let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of thesights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.“Tell me, Wally,” my amazed friend asked the driver, “have you always servedcustomers like this?”Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. “No, not always. In fact, it’s only beenin the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my timecomplaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personalgrowth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book calledYou’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morningexpecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stopcomplaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Bean eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’”“That hit me right between the eyes,” said Wally. “Dyer was really talking aboutme. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitudeand become an eagle.

I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. Thecabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. SoI decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customersresponded well, I did more.”“I take it that has paid off for you,” Harvey said.“It sure has,” Wally replied. “My first year as an eagle, I doubled my incomefrom the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. You were lucky toget me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore.

My customers call me forappointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If Ican’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take apiece of the action.”Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I’veprobably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and onlytwo took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them acall. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasonsthey couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.Johnny the Bagger and Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. They decidedto stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about you?