What does an exceptional customer experience feel like?

I’ve recently had to undertake some travel between Melbourne and Sydney, which has required the need for a cab between Melbourne airport and home. For those familiar with the cab rank process at Melbourne Airport (or anywhere else for that matter), it is an absolute lucky dip as to the quality of the cab (and driver), that you get. Old, New, Yellow, Silver, Maxi, Experienced, Novice, Clean, Dirty (and that’s both cab and driver - yuck).

But last week, I struck it lucky. I jumped into a car, that was owned and driven by Omar.

The immediate difference I noticed was, wait for it, crystal clear rear windows. Anyone who owns a car knows that it is one thing to wash your car. But it takes additional effort to clean the windows: inside and out. But there they were - windows as clean as a whistle. Spotless.

And that was the conversation ice-breaker, for me to hear from Omar about how he considers his humble cab to be his office. Just like the reception level of a hotel is created to give a great first impression, his cab is his "front of house". He wants to provide an immediate positive first impression, because he knows he will not get a second chance to make a great first impression with his customers.

Sitting in that humble cab, I felt special. Spotlessly clean, professionally presented, uniform pressed, with a complimentary bottle of water in the door. It was a limousine experience, but without the limousine price. His equipment was exactly the same as every other cab on the road, but he had differentiated himself from the competition by providing, quite simply, an exceptional customer experience. I was not a $75 fare; I was his customer.

And that customer experience felt awesome.

So I’ve taken his card, and his number is now in my Contacts under “Omar - awesome cab”.

Sometimes, you need to know what exceptional customer service feels like, in order to know what your own customers expect of you.