Customer Service
Training: Ducks Quack,
Eagles Soar
- James A. Baker - Customer
Service Training Center
(This isn't really related to home inspections, but
then again it's related to everything...)
“No one can make you serve customers well….that’s
because great service is a choice. Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful
story about a cab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in
line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first
thing Harvey noticed was
that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a
white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab
driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger
door for Harvey. He
handed Harvey a
laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wally, your driver. While I’m loading
your bags in the trunk I’d like you to 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 cheapest way possible in a
friendly environment. This blew
Harvey away. Especially
when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside.
Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, ‘Would
you like a cup of coffee? I have a 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 and Diet 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 The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports
Illustrated and USA Today.’ As they were pulling away, Wally handed
my friend another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and
the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’ And as
if that weren’t enough, Wally told
Harvey that he had the
air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for
him. Then he advised
Harvey of the best route
to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that
he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if
Harvey preferred, to
leave him with his own thoughts.
‘Tell me, Wally,’ my amazed friend asked the driver,
‘have you always served customers like this?’ Wally smiled into the
rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the
last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time
complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the
personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just
written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said
that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day,
you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining!
Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an
eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’
‘That hit me right between the eyes,’ said Wally.
‘Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and
complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle.
I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were
dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy.
So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my
customers responded 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 income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably
quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at
cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell
phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick
them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a
piece of the action.’
Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service
out of a Yellow Cab. I’ve probably told that story to more than
fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran
with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest
of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they
couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He
decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like
eagles.”
-
What would you say if you saw
this?
- the joys
of old wiring!
