Exceptional London Calling

For the most part I have had nothing but extraordinary service while in the UK.

Let’s start with the taxis.

While Uber is winning my heart in the rest of the world, London taxis continue to reign supreme while in the city.  It could be the rigorous training, the spotless cabs, or the overly polite drivers who seem to defy Google maps (always for the better). On the other hand, it could be that they are easy to spot, have an endless supply on the road, use their available / not available lights correctly, and take credit cards or cash.

London might be the only city in the world that does not need Uber because the taxis are THAT good. In too many other cities, taxi services are back peddling. Justifying their service, and attempting to clean up their act because Uber is taking away their customers. They are fighting back with regulations, calls of unfairness, and bylaw infractions. In London, I suspect Uber is up for a different fight. Indifference from the consumer, because there is just no need for an alternative.

The Marleybone Hotel is the only hotel I have stayed in where the staff in the lobby always call you by name, and where you can’t stand still for more than 2 seconds without someone asking to help. Everyone from the check-in desk to the doormen appears to have been trained as a concierge. Amazingly you can always receive an answer to your question on the first try.

It’s intriguing to me that they deliver every request quickly. Typical room service in North America might arrive in 45 minutes. At the Marleybone, they tell you 20 minutes, and it arrives in 15. When I call for any room requirements (coffee pods being the most urgent!) they arrive in less than 5 minutes. The other day I had an employee tell me he would be at my room in 1 minute, and he was! (Or very close).

These hotel and taxi practices are not difficult to replicate nor are they expensive to implement. They will encourage repeat business and increase profits from referrals. Why aren’t more service providers catering to customers in this way?