What an Uber Driver Taught Me About Customer Experience

Backseat of an Uber. Last week.

I climb in, and for once, I’m not looking at my phone.

I’m staring at the seatback organizer directly in front of me.

Water bottle and Pringles. Smarties and Tic Tacs. Tissues, hand sanitizer, and gum. Even an air freshener clipped above it all, because every detail of the sensory experience was accounted for.

I sat there and mentally mapped out his customer segmentation.

The person with a sweet tooth? Covered.

The person needing a mid-day salt fix? Covered.

The executive needing fresh breath before a meeting? Covered.

The passenger feeling under the weather who just wants to wipe down and rest? Covered.

Nobody asked this driver to do this. Uber doesn't pay a bonus for it. No rider ever leaves a 1-star review over the absence of Smarties.

Yet he engineered a full-tier customer experience for a ride that lasted twelve minutes.

Most businesses obsess over their core product and completely ignore the twelve minutes around it: the onboarding, the wait times, the checkout process, and the post-purchase follow-up. That peripheral touchpoint is exactly where brand loyalty is won or lost.

You don’t need a massive innovation budget to stand out. You just need to sit in your customer’s seat, look around, and ask what they might need.

This driver did that with a $15 mesh organizer and $30 of snacks.

Five stars. Obviously.