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8
TAKE YOUR CUSTOMER
TO ANIMPOSSIBLE
PLACE
To achieve the kind of customer relationships that separate you from
the pack, you must understand the power of taking your customers to
an impossible place.
To help you do this, I will tell you a number of stories over the
next few pages. The reason is that if I expect you to take your cus-
tomer to an impossible place, I must take you, the reader (no doubt
an analytically astute intellect), to a place you might consider impossi-
ble: a place of images, feelings, and impressions. Stories are often the
best way to do this. So letÕs begin with two unorthodox tales.
Organization Bob
My home is 35 miles away from San Francisco International Airport,
and I travel frequently. One day several years ago, I called the local
taxi company and requested a cab. The company sent me a fellow
named Bob because he happened to be in the neighborhoodÑand
there my story begins.
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Is there any service that is more commodity-like than taxi ser-
vice? We crawl into a cab, we go from point A to point Z, we pay, and
thus ends a purely economic transaction. We donÕt expect the experi-
ence to be anything other than bland and forgettable.
But there came Bob, wheeling into the driveway. He took my
bags from me and carefully placed them in the trunk. He courteously
held the door open for me, standing next to it in dignified, chauffeur-
style until I got in, then offered me the daily paper. Once I became
one of his regular clients, I began to understand that, whether we are
part of a one-person start-up or a $2-billion enterprise, we can all
learn important lessons from Organization Bob.
Woody Allen once remarked that 80 percent of success in life is
showing up. Whenever Bob picked me up, he arrived, on time, at my
home or at the airport, regardless of traffic or weather conditions. (A
couple times his cab broke down; he still managed to show up on
time.) When youÕre dealing with airports, such dependability is price-
less. More often than not, Bob would be the one on time and I would
keep him waiting. Sometimes, after completing an exhausting itiner-
ary, when I would see Bob patiently waiting in ÒourÓ cab right outside
the airport building late at night in our designated spot, even when
IÕd suffered unforeseen delays, I experienced a heart-warming ÒhighÓ
second only to reuniting with my family.
Bob was always available to his select corps of clients, whether it
be 6 a.m. on Saturday or midnight on Tuesday. Unlike other drivers
who worked a set schedule, he adjusted his work hours around the
needs of each customer. After the company got him a new vehicle
(which he was quite proud of), I complained that the back seat was so
stiff that my head (IÕm 6-foot-6) brushed the ceiling. Bob promptly
drove the cab back to the shop and had the technicians install an
older, more comfortable back seat. His reasoning was simple: I was a
valued customer, he wanted to keep my business, and, from his per-
spective, my complaint probably represented the concerns of other,
less vocal clients. He recognized a valued customerÕs ÒcomplaintÓ as a
strategic opportunity, and he adjusted the vehicle (part of his Òorgani-
zationÓ) accordingly.
Bob consistently impressed me with his business savvy. As a
ÒretiredÓ individual who had held a number of managerial and start-
up positions during his career, he could talk intelligently about
finance, investment, and marketing. In fact, he occasionally helped
broker business deals by introducing certain of his customers to eachHarari_08.qxd 7/26/06 2:05 PM Page 179
CHAPTER 8¥TAKE YOUR CUSTOMERTOAN IMPOSSIBLE PLACE 179
other. For example, he once connected two of his clientsÑone a con-
sultant to a major Russian bank, the other an executive in the
telecommunications fieldÑbecause he thought their business goals
were a natural fit. As a well-read Renaissance man, he could intelli-
gently discuss current events, art, politics, history, and travel. In all
cases, I learned something from our conversations (sometimes I took
notes in the cab), and the one-hour ride to the airport often zoomed
by. There were times I simply wanted to nod out, use the cellphone,
or look out the window. BobÕs Òcustomer antennaeÓ were acute. He
shut up. He adapted to the environment that I, the customer, chose,
rather than asking me to adapt to his.
Bob viewed himself as a businessman, not a Òcab driver.Ó He did
not slip into the role of powerless, oppressed employee of the cab
company. Bob regarded himself as the head of a private business that
happened to lease a means of production called a vehicle. As far as he
was concerned, he was part of the fast-growing outsourcing market-
place. He ÒoutsourcedÓ to the cab company the mundane work of
administration, maintenance, insurance, accounting, and licenses and
fees. As he pointed out, ÒMy fixed expenses are $30,000 annually.
Everything beyond that is what I make of it.Ó
As the CEO of Organization Bob, Bob was an active niche-cre-
ator rather than a passive recipient of orders. Early on, he targeted
the airport-bound business traveler as his preferred customer base.
He then slowly and carefully selected the customers he wanted to
work with. A week after my first ride with Bob, my wife came back
from our home mailbox wearing a curious frown. Somebody had sent
us a box of SeeÕs chocolates. Yes, it was a gift from Bob, with a signed
note that read, ÒThank you for your business. I appreciate it.Ó I was
amazed. When was the last time you received a gift from a cab driver?
Bob has been known to shock customers by ÒfiringÓ them if their
behaviors and values do not mesh with his. One such individualÑa
hard-driving, arrogant CEOÑliterally begged not to be fired and
promised he would do better. In fact, I have to confess that Bob ulti-
mately fired me. Once too often I absentmindedly left debris and
food in his cab. I was stunned, and angry, but I had to grudgingly
respect the dedication Bob brought to his business.
By providing his chosen customers a seemingly impossible level
of service, Bob built an enduring business for himself. Even as other
drivers tried to get into the lucrative airport business by lowering
their fees, Bob charged a premium price and still cornered much ofHarari_08.qxd 7/26/06 2:05 PM Page 180
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the business. He rarely does local runs because his appointment book
contains from five to eight airport runs per day, around which he
leisurely runs his personal life.
You do the math. He leases the cab at about $100 daily. Each one-
way run, depending on point of origin, yields a $70Ð100 fee including
tips (which tend to be generous). This man makes a nice six-figure
annual income doing what he likes. ÒAt the end of the day, IÕve made
money driving with friends,Ó Bob says.
Last year I gave him a call. ÒWhy havenÕt other drivers copied
you?Ó I asked. ÒMany have tried,Ó he replied, Òbut they lack the dedi-
cation.Ó (I suspect many of them also lack his Renaissance expertise.)
When I asked if it had become an issue that his fees were nearly the
same as those of limos and town cars, Bob told me that several of his
newer clients had defected from limo companies. He said that the
wife of one of his clients told her husband that for what heÕs paying
Bob, he ought to hire a town car. The client told her, ÒI could take a
limo, but then I couldnÕt take Bob.Ó There it is: Bob not only drives
his customers back and forth from the airport with absolute attentive-
ness to their needs; he also drives them to an experience that the
average person who hails a cab would consider impossible.
Schooling for Success
In the late 1990s, something provocative was emerging in Guatemala.
Like any entrepreneur, Maria Elisa Alvarado, a practicing clinical and
school psychologist in Guatemala City, saw a gap in the marketplace
that she could fill. She believed that her countryÕs middle- and upper-
class parents would be willing to pay for a private school that system-
atically developed critical skills in their childrenÕs very formative
years. With three fellow psychologists, she took the lead in launching
Colegio Pequenitos. IÕve been to the central Guatemala City campus
of Pequenitos (there are two other campuses), and I can say I would
have sent my own kids there without a secondÕs hesitation.
The grounds and facilities are extraordinary, with immaculate gar-
dens, plenty of space for outside activities and play, large classrooms,
big stocks of papers and crayons, boards and games everywhere, and a
very impressive computer facility. Alvarado makes sure that
Pequenitos selects and cultivates its teachers with equal care and
attention. Nearly half the faculty have advanced degrees in psychology