If you fly into Cleveland and need to rent a car….
OK, that’s an unlikely scenario, but for the sake of today’s story imagine that it’s possible.
If you fly into Cleveland and need to rent a car, I hope you get to ride the shuttle with Felicia.
It’s not that Felicia is a particularly adept shuttle bus driver. She clipped a curb or two in the ten-minute ride from the airport to the rental car center.
That’s the “what you do” bit of this story. Our takeaway today is all about the “how.”
Felicia’s got a pretty good “how.”
Cleveland Hopkins International is a fine airport. It’s not huge but it has a quirk of geography that requires a shuttle from the terminal to the spot where all the rental car agencies are located. There’s no option. You have to get on the shuttle.
Felicia probably makes that drive about 40 times a day. Maybe more.
This is a repetitive task. Same route. Same bleary-eyed set of travelers, only with different T-shirts.
It would be easy to stare off into the distance watching jets drop on the landing strip and wonder what to make for dinner.
Or, you could personalize the journey like Felicia and make it memorable, at least for the kids and parents on board.
Felicia talked about her kids, grandkids and her first great grandkid. She asked questions of the kiddos. And then she did her song.
“The wheels on the bus go round and round…”
You know the tune. But then it became more theatrical.
“The wipers on the bus go slap, slap, slap,” with an accompanying squirt of washer fluid.
“The horn on the bus goes, beep, beep, beep.” Three toots of the horn.
“The seat on the bus goes up, up, up.” And this is where it got a little concerning as she bumped up three notches, but still, it was good.
The kids loved it. The parents were happy for the diversion.
And you couldn’t help but jump in with, “all around the town” at the end of each verse.
It was a memorable little moment in a long day of travel.
It’s also a great example of “How You Do What You Do,” one of the central themes of OnStage, the customer experience training we teach at FiveFour.
There are opportunities at every step of the customer journey where, with intention and creativity, the routine or mundane tasks can be turned into memorable experiences.
Book a time with me and we’ll discuss where to find those moments in your business.
Talk soon.