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Allen Togwell's Marketing Place |
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Firstly may I take this opportunity of
expressing my thanks for being re-elected back onto the Board of Management.
With the licensing of PH now a reality and the emergence of two new radio
taxi circuits, the work this year and next at DaC is going to be greater
than ever and I am looking forward to playing my part in that work. I have in previous issues of Call Sign, spoken on the subject of damage caused by passengers to taxis. With the cost of new cabs and particularly those with the additional trimmings, the necessity to be vigilant of negligent passengers is extremely important. However I must emphasise that you cannot automatically expect recompense for damage just because the passenger is a credit client. Occasions often occur where damage is caused by clumsy passengers, which in many instances could have been avoided had the driver been more helpful or observant, or there are debateable situations where there is difficulty in laying blame. A typical example was a claim I was dealing with at the time of writing. A passenger enters the cab from the roadside in busy stationary traffic. The passenger on opening the door and attempting to squeeze into the cab in a restricted space inadvertently rested the door against the side of a stationary lorry. The lorry moves forward, wrenching the door in the process. Who's to blame? The lorry driver isn't. The client claims he couldn't get in from the pavement side. The cost to repair the damage was £635. Could it have been avoided? I'm sure the editor would like your views... Either way the passenger won't accept liability. He claims he had little choice in getting in where he did. He accepts the incident was unfortunate and was sympathetic, but concluded that as a taxi is a public hire vehicle, it should be insured for such eventualities and ended with the obvious chestnut - what would have happened had he been a cash-paying granny off the street? So I ask all of you, particularly when arriving to collect and I might add also when dropping off your passengers, to be forever conscious of any difficulties the passenger may have in getting in or out of your cab. I know some of you are bored at my forever repeating myself, but in keeping with the philosophy of advertising, the more it's repeated the greater the chance of getting the message across! With the economic climate continuing to have an adverse effect on all businesses and in particular the service industry, it is important that everybody associated with these businesses play their part, no matter how small, to generate new business or retain the business they already have. An example of this can be seen at the top hotels and restaurants and why they stay relatively busy all the year round. They instil in their workforce a policy whereby every member of staff from the management down act as though they individually own the company and their job depends on their attitude, helpfulness and the quality of the service they give. Admittedly they spend fortunes on sending their staff on motivational courses and to have something done to their mouths to leave them with a permanent grin, but it works! Equally they allocate considerable sums of money on marketing with the emphasis on adjusting costs and offering incentives according to the market place. Needless to say, for us to send almost 2000 members on motivational courses would be out of the question, but then in theory as all of you are the owners of your own company, you shouldn't need motivating. But for it to have a noticeable impact, there needs to be a concerted effort by ALL of you all of the time, not just some of you some of the time. I'm sure those of you who have visited the USA for example have been impressed by the friendliness of the staff in restaurants and hotels etc and the reason we notice it is because it is in such stark contrast to the average service we receive in London. By coincidence, I had just penned the above comment about hotels when I noticed in a newspaper that day an article that many of the top hotels in London were slashing prices to below £100 for the first time since 1997 to tempt tourists into beds normally occupied by high-spending US executives. Unfortunately, unlike in the provinces and other European capitals, London relies strongly on the US business traveller, which has dropped considerably due to the US economy and the continuing effect of 9/11, all of |
which has had a dramatic effect on the cab trade. The hotel business is very similar to ours when comparing the cost of a bed not used and the cost of a cab floating around empty, once lost neither costs can be recouped. So the object of any successful hotel is to sell that bed at any price rather than lose on it completely. Which is what we should be seriously considering... By the time this article goes to print, the Mayors congestion charging should have started and the public would be in the first throes of deciding on the various options of travel. In addition to public transport, many no doubt will consider using taxis or private hire, either on a single basis or sharing, some may open accounts or females travelling alone may use our female taxi card. Others may prefer to pay by cash or use the various credit card booking facilities such as our special credit card telephone line or our on-line Internet service, or simply use our credit card hail and ride service off the street. We have the technology, we have the facilities, we also have a huge database of one-time cash users that we intend to target, because we need to lure these on-time users into the habit of using our service on a regular basis. But we also need an attractive product, a cost effective product that frankly I can only envisage ever being available if supported by a complete change of attitude of you, the drivers. During our entire fifty years of trading, our method of operating has never altered. A trip is allocated to a cab. The driver puts the meter down to initiate a required run-in. At the pick-up address the meter continues to run plus there is an extra charge for any time waiting, a further charge is incurred should the pick-up be from a theatre or station. The journey is executed over a variety of different routes giving a variety of different fares and on completion and without any written confirmation of the cost to the passenger, the driver is trusted to 'blow in' the correct fare, added to which is a non-negotiable 10% gratuity. At the billing stage, there is a transaction charge and an administration percentage charge on total, plus VAT. For a greater part of our existence when there was limited competition and demand was greater than supply, this method of charging was sustainable and still is to a degree, but it is slowly but surely being threatened, and not just by the natural peaks and troughs of seasons or the economy, but by the dramatic irreversible changes to our industry. Between 40 and 60 thousand licensed PH legally servicing London in addition to 20,000 plus licensed black cabs is now a reality. Two extra circuits operating this month is a reality. The smart money investing in creating reputable PH companies offering all manner of services is a reality. The superior quality and competitive charges being offered against black cabs is a reality. Those in control of PH when tendering for new business, have the power to negotiate on the back of being able to dictate their rules of operation, working practices and rates. This is a reality... Barely a month goes by when we don't hear of rumours or idea's being discussed at TfL concerning PH that could be in direct conflict with the way in which licensed black cabs have operated in London for the past 300 years, or indeed the way in which the radio circuits have operated. But like it or not, change is inevitable and it will only be to our benefit - and I am referring to Dial-a-Cab now - if each of our 2000 members collectively plays his or her part in pre-empting and being prepared for that change. We have a Complaints Officer kept constantly busy dealing with all sorts of issues concerning the negative side of our business, be it DaC v driver, driver v driver of client v driver. All three needs to be eradicated, but the issue that concerns me most is client v driver. It beggars belief that in a climate where every client is treasured, we still have the odd jerk prepared to jeopardise that account by doing or saying something stupid. There is little we can do to prevent it happening, but once the damage is done the only way we can repair it is by the rest of you going OTT in the service that you give. Be it the way you dress, the way you act, your attitude and how clean you keep your cab. Obviously you wont know the client in question, but you cannot go wrong - particularly if it's part of the changes that need to be made - if you apply it to everyone all of the time. Oh yes! And don't forget that smile...! |
Now that first part is the easy bit. The next part takes just a teensy
bit of effort. When I first started the Sales & Marketing department at
DaC, money was short and a cheap and efficient method of generating business
and putting our message across was to use scout groups to distribute our
leaflets and it was extremely successful. Hand flyers have and will always
be successful, hence the reason you see so many newspaper supplements
stacked with them. However, in our case we only want to target those that
actually use cabs, so I will ask all of you yet again to come to the office
and take as many packs of leaflets as you can and distribute them to
everybody who uses your cab, be it cash users or credit clients. Also when
picking up or dropping off a client, to make a habit of putting a leaflet or
hand out cards in the house or flat either side of their premises. AllenTogwell |
