Taxi Drivers – The Frontline Service Providers To Tourists

Day 179 – 821 days to go

I traveled to more than 10 countries in the world from the very developed countries such as USA and Australia to the less developed countries such as Southeast Asian countries. The first service experienced was with taxi driver essentially. Therefore, to a tourist, the service provided by taxi drivers will affect a tourist’s perception of a country.

For this trip I took a few times of taxi in Hong Kong and I had mixed feeling about the service provided. In general, the older generation is more friendly and polite but may not be true if they are younger i.e. below 40 years old. Some of the younger ones do not give me good impression in terms of the way they treat their customers. Some are very impatient and do not provide much help to us when we are not sure about certain places or when the name given is slightly different from the actual ones. Instead of helping us, they asked us to refer to our hotel staff who is very helpful and patient. What a big contrast to the taxi driver. Another one teased us as we do not speak Hong Kong style Cantonese. He even argued that resident and citizen means the same thing. I do not know why he brought up the issue but one thing for sure is that I will not simply argue with my customers especially if the issue has nothing to do with my company or my work function.

A lot of tourists do not have very good impression about the services provided by sales and service support staff in Hong Kong. This round I experienced some very nice ones especially the hotel staff and also one old taxi drivers. So are some sales staff in shopping malls. Of course the same type of mixed experiences applicable to any countries. However, service providers should know that their service will have perpetual impact to the reputation of a country in the service industry. Therefore, they should provide their best service to tourists so that they will recommend their friends and family members to visit the countries that they enjoy the most. They will become repeat customers if they are happy.

I still love to visit to Hong Kong but I may avoid taking taxi if possible due to some bad experiences as I do not want my holiday to be spoiled by a rude taxi driver by chance.

Happy events:

1. Visited the Avenue of Stars and tried the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
2. Went to Temple Street and other shopping areas for more shopping.
3. Had a very nice dimsum lunch at a very popular Chinese restaurant that has many branches.

Creativity: Flexibility to change or even do not proceed with initial plans is a must for results.

I have been talking about eating the stinky tofu at Temple Street but I finally do not proceed with it today so that we can go back to our hotel earlier.

Not so happy event:

Had two bad experiences with two taxi drives today.