Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

Now let’s go over the ceiling, let’s go through, let’s talk about the service mindset that’s way above its at the level of downright unbelievable and see what happens, because as we saw with product and delivery it came sliding right back down.

One of the taxi companies here in Singapore has a way of getting in touch where you can telephone or you can telephone with a corporate card or you can fax for a taxi.

Now I find that very convenient because if I try to call for a taxi sometimes when I really need one it’s very busy, so I get an engaged tone , but if I use a fax and it’s engaged I simply leave the facts to auto redial and 30 seconds later it will try again and it will try again and eventually my fax will go through and then they’ll call me back and tell me the taxi number, terrific.

So at my homeI have two phone lines one’s for the fax one’s for the phone and what I usually do is it about one o’clock at night just before I go to bed, our fax, so that there will be a taxi waiting for me the next morning when I get up so I’ve made a little form for myself because I do it so frequently.. “Hello, Comfort Taxi, this is Ron Kaufman, here’s my address I need a taxi at..”and then there’s an empty line right there and so I write in my hand 7:30 AM, my destination is and there’s another little line and that day I had a flight from the airport at eight thirty so I wrote airport and then there’s one more line I added it says please call me to tell me the taxi number at and there’s another little empty line.

Now you see if I fax at one o’clock in the morning I don’t want them to call me at 1:15 in the morning right like you I would hope that I’m already fast asleep but it would be very convenient if they would call me at about six-thirty in the morning if the tax is coming at seven-thirty with as much as I travel in the hotel’s I always going to wake up call so now even when I’m in Singapore I get a wake-up call.

So I sent off my fax and at one o’clock in the morning I fell asleep what I didn’t know is that when i had my last phone call that night about 11 PM and I put the phone down on the hook it didn’t go all the way down on the hook whatever happened to you where you put the phone down and it looks like it’s down but it’s not all the way down but you don’t know that it’s not all the way down because it looks like its down but if somebody tries to call you they know it’s not down because they get “beep beep” 

So the next morning at six-thirty in the morning the woman in Jurong, at Comfort Taxi radio control booth tried to call me, to tell me the taxi number for 7:30 and she got loud and clear “beep beep” and so she waited for five minutes and she tried again at six thirty five what did she get? 6:45 ? 6:47? 

She sat there, on the other side of the country scratched her head and  thought to herself Mr. Kaufman and I have got a problem. Good thing for me she had a good service mindset otherwise she would have SAT there and said “Mr. Kaufman’s got a problem”

Now I didn’t know I had a problem because I was still sleeping at seven o’clock in the morning my doorbell rang and I woke up and I got four shocks in a row.

Shock number one- I looked at the clock. It’s half an hour after I’m supposed to be up.

Shock number two- I didn’t get my wake-up call.

Shock number three- I’m late to go to the airport.

Shock number four- I don’t know if there’s a taxi waiting for me and shock number five there’s somebody at my door!

So I jumped up like running over to the door, I yank it open. Guess who’s standing there on the 21st floor? A taxi driver. I looked at him and I said “huh”?” he goes “Are you mr. Kaufman?”

“Yeah”

He goes “Your phone is off the hook” I look back in the house I looked at the phone it didn’t look like resolve it was it “How do you know” he said “Well on the taxi company, we’ve been trying to call you for half an hour,look you must be kind of concerned about your flight coming up at the airport don’t worry at seven-thirty there will be a taxi waiting for you downstairs” and he told me the taxi number then he looked at his watch “You know, right now young man you better go take a shower” and boom! He closed the door.

I went screaming in. I took a shower while racing back downstairs waiting for me. I jumped in and screamed off to the airport. Yeah, I made it on time. It was only on my way to the airport that I realized what that woman in Jurong must have done she with her mindset must have called up on the radio system to all the taxi drivers in Singapore ins that I need one of you to go to his apartment and park, get out of your taxi walk the 25 meters get to the elevator, go up 21 floors, find his apartment, ring the doorbell, wait for him the wake up, reassure him that there’s a taxi coming, tell him that his phone is off the hook, make sure he takes a shower, close the door, go back down the your taxi and drive away.

How much money did that taxi driver get? Nothing. I would have tipped him but I was in shock. Now that was one instance of service mindset that was clearly above the glass ceiling it wasn’t surprising it was unbelievable!

What happened to me with Comfort Taxi because of that one instance of unbelievable service mindset my loyalty to that company has become so strong that if I’m standing in line somewhere and there’s a line of taxis coming and then I’m the next one but the next taxi is let’s say black but the one after it is blue you know what I do? 

I step back and I say you go ahead and take this one. I’ll wait for that one and they look at me like this “What’s the matter with that on?” you know I even hold the door you know you go ahead and sometimes like a little old lady she’s because I’m a tourist it goes “Young man” oh thank God you still call me young man”, thank you.. “Young man, all taxis in Singapore are the same” and sometimes she’s right I mean sometimes it is exactly the same physical product except for the paint job and I say well I know I understand but you go ahead I take the blue one.