Don't be a Duck, Be an Eagle

(Excerpt from The Simple Truths of Service)

No one can make you serve customers well. That’s because great service is a choice. Years ago, my friend, Harvey Mackay, told me 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 my friend 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 rearview 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. How about you?

Today’s Lesson: The Question “How are You?”

I can think of a lot of expressions or words that people use so insincerely nowadays. I love you, I miss you, friend, love…and I realized “how are you?” is also being asked insincerely. I’ve come across several people who asked me “how are you?” when they saw me walking in the office corridor then walked past me without even hearing my answer. Huh? I thought they wanted to know how I was. Has it become the mechanical “hi” or “hello” in the office or in school?

Anyway, this morning I asked someone “how are you?” Now, this question wasn’t rhetorical. People who really, really know me know that I exert the effort to make sure I am sincere and honest with what I say or do by asking myself whether I am being honest or truthful; otherwise, I exert more effort to keep my mouth shut (all the more when I have nothing good to say). Once, someone told me that she missed me. I was at a loss for words. How was I supposed to reply when I didn’t feel the same? I smiled. So, when I asked that someone “how are you?” I was really expecting an answer.

Three things, I realized, why people ask “how are you?” Of course, there’s that insincere, rhetorical, mechanical question like the usual “hi” or “hello”; two, they really are interested in knowing the goings-on in someone’s life and want to be involved in it; and three, it is their way of asking whether someone was free enough for them to talk to about their own problems. I remember when someone asked me how I was. I answered I was fine and he replied back by telling me about his anxieties. By asking me “how are you?” he was just actually looking for an opening to tell me his problems. I was glad that I answered his question because I felt that with my answer, he was encouraged to confide to me what had been bugging him. He could have been feeling lonely all along until he found someone he could chat with. So what was my purpose for asking that someone “how are you?” The last two reasons I cited.

I learned a lesson today. When someone asks me how I am, especially someone who’s really close to me, I should exert the effort to answer. I will never know but maybe he is just a lonely soul looking to strike a conversation or a problematic one looking for someone to confide to. A seemingly innocent question may actually save someone’s day.