by Masingita Mazibuko So, I’m stuck in slow-moving traffic when a minibus taxi tears past, missing my car by the smallest of margins, then screeches to a halt … before calmly and remarkably sedately reversing around me to pick up a customer hailing it down. It is not appropriate to pen down the thoughts that engulfed my mind at that specific moment. Relating this near-collision experience to a friend later, the discussion about the taxi industry took an unlikely turn.
One could argue that the minibus taxi is an evil necessity in South Africa, given our scarcity of public transportation. However, when one considers the yellow cabs in New York, the black cabbies in London or the mutatas in Kenya, it is obvious that the taxi as a form of transportation has endured for years, regardless of undulating economic conditions.
In fact, taxis feature in our songs and movies – there was Zola Budd in the 1980s by Brenda Fassie, and the iconic movie Taxi with Robert De Niro in the 1970s was remade in the 1990s, starring Queen Lafitah.
Pushing all prejudices and preconceived ideas of the minibus-taxi industry aside, what lessons can we learn? Often, insight and inspiration lie in unexpected areas. Here is an alternative perspective:
People are critical assets in any service industry.
For a taxi owner, taxi drivers could be classified as outstanding employees — those who are willing to go the extra mile to ensure they deliver and meet the needs of the customer base.
The job — getting commuters from point A to B, often picking them up wherever and whenever, and then dropping them off right at their doorstep — is a demanding one. As an employee, the taxi driver is resilient, taking on the chin abuse and disdain inflicted by fellow motorists. He’s always on the job, from sunrise to sunset, to deliver income for the owner.
An employee who goes the extra mile, relentlessly, is a critical aspect in service marketing.
A second consideration is the adopted communication system that informs the industry.
The taxi industry has managed to inculcate a communication system between seller and customer. I refer here to the hand signals which – if you are a virgin taxi commuter — could land you at the wrong destination; the fact that, if you pay with a large denomination note, you will be frowned upon by fellow passengers — the norm of paying by ‘row-forwarding’ the money to the driver. Additionally, the drivers tend to form close relationships with the commuters, intimately knowing their commuting habits.
A number of adopted cues facilitate these activities between seller and customer.
The industry has managed to create a defined service experience and customer knowledge. It is purely experiential and underpins the service-space per se.
Most importantly, this industry is defined by the wise saying that “customer is king”.
I recall two personal incidences that demonstrate this.
One was riding a mutata in Mombasa. With no real understanding of the local language, a friend and I told the conductor the name of our hotel. Knowing we were not local, he ensured we caught the right connecting mutata that would get us to our hotel.
The second was in Johannesburg, where I found myself stuck in the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge ring, unable to get to Pretoria. After much effort, I stopped parallel to a taxi driver to explain my predicament, and it was by following this taxi driver through the back roads of Gauteng that I got to Centurion.
How great to be a service that renders itself indispensable!
— Masingita Mazibuko, marketing director at Unilever, contributes the monthly “Africa Style” column to MarkLives.com. The views expressed within this column are entirely her own.