I saw a tweet from @DizzyCab on twitter, where he said customer service in the USA is on a different parallel to the UK, this is definitely true. Customer service in the USA is almost a profession in itself. Smiles and politeness go a long way in life. I recently picked up a young Spanish family in the cab, Mum, Dad and three small children all under about six. All of them said Ola as they got in the cab and bye-bye at the end, even the little one in the buggy.It made my day.

There is no doubt when you pop into a shop, to be greeted with a smile and a thank you when you hand over your money it makes a difference and when you get someone unhelpful, it gets on yer tits!! Unfortunately, all to common in the UK. So can we improve in the Taxi trade?? A couple of years ago I went to Edinburgh for a weekend break, getting a black cab from the airport. The driver was fantastic,giving us tips on where to go and what to see and even supplying us with a city map. In London of course, the day can get you down. It’s not easy to supply a happy face when you have been stuck in traffic, or spent 5 hours waiting at the airport.

There is no doubt we have suffered an image bashing at the hands of the media for sometime, portraying us as money grabbing miserable wretches since the 90s, perhaps that was all part of the plan to dent our customer base?  All i know is if look after our customer’s they will look after us. After all, how many of us go back to the same restaurant or wherever after we have had great service? We must remember, when we get a customer on board we represent our trade and our city.  For tourists, we maybe the first person they meet in London, a cheerful helpful cabbie is great asset. A broomer or a rude one (only a few) tars the rest of us and our image. In this day of social media, a video showing a cabbie can be sent around the world and spread in seconds, we must be wary of this. Manners maketh the Taxi driver as well as many other things in life.

Be lucky and look after one another out there, Sarah