Sam, a Sydney taxi driver, delivered one of the most amazing customer service experiences I have ever had. Yes, a Sydney taxi driver!
Sam, I don’t know his surname, has been driving taxis for nine months. Prior to that he owned a couple of Italian restaurants and had worked in hospitality in Sydney for thirty years.
I met Sam at around 9:30pm Thursday night when I had to catch a cab from Sydney airport back to the city when I had left my laptop at my hotel. This caused me to miss my flight. While I will not bore you with the details, because of Sam I picked up the laptop and made it on a flight to Melbourne, overcoming airline and other obstacles along the way.
Sam made it happen. Just when had resolved to staying the night in Sydney and catching a 6am to Melbourne Friday, Sam made it work out.
I don’t usually talk to taxi drivers. Nothing against them it’s just that when I travel I stay in my own world. Sam made that difficult. The moment I slid into the passenger’s seat next to him he turned and with a big grin said help and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Sam, welcome to my taxi”.
It was such a different experience to what I experience from the hundreds of taxi rides I take each year that it was a shock. With his greeting Sam set the mood and that was key to resolving the challenges of getting getting to the city, collecting my laptop, getting back to the airport and making a flight I had no booking for.
The experience with Sam was the kind of experience I am sure all newsagents crave to have delivered across the counter in their shops with every transaction. In our 40 minutes together Sam got to the heart of good customer service based on his years in hospitality:
- Love the customers. If you don’t get out.
- Enjoy yourself. If you don’t then get out.
- Be good at what you do. If you can’t, get out.
- Always do something extra, unexpected. If you don’t then you don’t love your job.
Sam made it clear that by living by these rules we was able to find for himself the life he wanted. I have Sam’s number and will call when I next need a taxi in Sydney.