Mel shares a bit of his story, and how the human touch can help him—and perhaps you—stay successful.
When it Got Personal, He Saw the Need
BC Cab was strictly a taxi company, although, as Mel says, “we had always done some contract medical transportation in the cab industry, but it wasn’t more.”
“More” developed when his father ran into a situation. “My dad used a transportation company for his medical appointments,” he says, “and after his appointment he was left there, sitting. And when we called to ask where his ride was, they said ‘Oh, the driver was there, but he couldn’t find your father,’ when all this time he was sitting in the lobby. I’m like, wait a minute, that’s not right. He’s been sitting in the lobby talking to me and nobody came in there to check for him.”
Which got Mel wondering: “I wonder how many people get the same treatment, that nobody’s even calling them, notifying them where they are. I saw a need and thought, well, we need to get into that side.”
Dispatchers on Display
Mel says, “Some patients call Modivcare and say, ‘[BC Cab] is my company, please send me BC,’ or call us directly and say ‘I want that driver. He is my driver.’ It makes you feel you’re doing something right.”
But, he notes, “One of the first people that customers talk to is your dispatcher. The customer might never see the dispatcher, yet they talk to them all the time,” he says. “I’m a big believer in, when somebody calls you, we answer the phone and there’s a human voice. I don’t like ‘press one, press two.’ When you call, there’s a human answering the phone and that is the dispatcher sitting in the office, whether it’s to tell them what the ETA for the customer is or where the rider is, or they want to just make modifications, or cancel a trip. So the dispatchers build that fast relationship with that member before the driver ever goes there.”
Now, About Those Drivers
Mel muses, “I tell the new hirees ‘you are not here to drive a vehicle, you are a complete package. You’re going to be the driver, listener, and psychologist, you’re going to play politics with them, discuss church with them. At the end of each trip, that passenger needs to get out of your car and have a smile on their face, like that driver made my day.’ You don’t know what they’re going through, what kind of health problems they have, how they’re feeling that day. So just make them feel good. And most of them just want to be listened to. They live by themselves. You just stay in the car and you listen to them and, at the end of the trip, they will be like, oh wow, I never have this. People always talk back.”
Is it just good manners? Or good business? Maybe a little of both. “We train our drivers to talk to these people, listen to them more, see what they want. Because you want to make that 20 minute ride as pleasant as you can,” he says. “And it’s good business, because you want them to call and say, ‘please send me that company and the driver back.’ So you’re not just taking care of them, you’re also taking care of business.”
And Mel’s a hands-on owner, too. If all of his drivers are occupied and he gets another call, “I get in the car and go pick them up so they’re not just sitting there at the doctor’s office. Now I can talk to them about my drivers, how they’re getting treated, how’s their experience. And then they get to know me, too. And if my driver’s having problems, I know more about their situation and the personalities involved.”
Adding a Soft Touch to the Software
“We are digital,” Mel says. “Digital technology is great, but you cannot rely on it a hundred percent. Some members book their rides three days, a week, a month in advance. And sometimes they forget they booked. So the minute we gather information from Modivcare, we put it in our system, and the member gets a text message right away, letting them know who we are, when we are going to pick them up, what our company is. On the day of service, they get another message from us saying your driver is on the way. And then again, the human touch is the driver will give them a call, say, ‘I’m Bob from BC Cab, I’m on my way, I should be there in about 10 minutes to pick you up.’ So now they know who’s picking them up. When the driver gets there, they swipe on my app and they get a message with the description of the vehicle and the license plate number. So now they’re not looking around to figure out which car is theirs. And people love it. We had a member say, ‘I wait for the text message where I can see that the driver’s getting dispatched and that’s when I put my shoes on.’”
In addition, “We call them the night before and confirm their trip. So that way they get that human touch,” he says. “And that way, if their appointment got canceled or rescheduled, we avoid no-shows—just by connecting with them and talking to them, instead of just relying on the technology. And this is where a lot of providers are suffering: they’re not communicating with their members and they end up going on dry runs and it’s a lose-lose situation.”
Nice Touch, Mel
Thanks for sharing—and for keeping our faith in the idea that so many people are in the business because they truly care about others.
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