Saturday, February 16, 2019
Side gigs part 3, or...
The power of speech...
As mentioned in my prior blog post, driving for Lyft enabled me to me lots of people, and most didn't end up puking in the back seat. It wasn't always a gab fest, but most people wanted to chat, and my reviews often mentioned that I was a friendly driver who liked to liked to talk. I guess some other drivers were more taciturn, which can been seen as unpleasant. This affects your reviews, so being personable, though not pushy, is important. I always let the passenger lead the way. I would welcome them into my car with a smile (something I learned waiting tables), helped them with their bags if needed, and open the trip with a small joke or two. If they jumped on their phones or if there were multiple passengers and they started talking amongst themselves, I would then keep quiet unless asked a question or if I needed information. On the whole, people liked to talk. It's a little awkward to have a stranger pick you up and drive you someplace, so a little communication puts everyone at ease.
Schmoozing with customers isn't exactly new to me. I've been in the service and hospitality industries for most of my working life, and those who cannot engage their customers either don't last very long or and end up washing dishes. As for what we discussed, people's favorite topic is usually themselves or what they're doing. I encouraged this line of discussion, for many reasons: first, happier passengers leave better ratings. Second, it helped my tips, though this begs the question of cause and effect or correlation, i.e., were the people made happier by our talking, and so gave me a tip, or do nice people like to talk and they're more likely to tip anyway? Who cares. All I knew was that talking = $. Third, eternal dilettante that I am, there's always a chance to learn something interesting. I found out more about the edible marijuana industry than I ever cared to know, and that topic came up multiple times. Evidently there was a series of trade shows in Denver over the summer. Another ride taught me that a hedge fund was buying the veterinary emergency room in Westchester. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that, to be honest. Finally, I like learning about people and helping them in some small way if appropriate. Just listening helps, but I've given out my work email on more than one occasion if the issue concerned financial aid, though to date no one took me up on the offer.
Occasionally, our conversations would take a more serious turn. One ride had a gentleman arguing with his girlfriend on the phone that he was not cheating (and I believed him), but I was driving him to work and we were halfway there already. This was one of the mornings when I was trying to pick up an airport run, but I was happy with Ossining to White Plains. Still, I knew this was at an inflection point, so I offered to take him home to try to work things out with his lady. Flexibility with destinations is rare when driving for Lyft and Uber, but I didn't care. He took me up on the offer, grateful for the chance to speak to her in person. I can only hope it went well.
Finally, there was one ride where I was helped, and this led me to my next side gig, working the Halloween season.
As mentioned in my prior blog post, driving for Lyft enabled me to me lots of people, and most didn't end up puking in the back seat. It wasn't always a gab fest, but most people wanted to chat, and my reviews often mentioned that I was a friendly driver who liked to liked to talk. I guess some other drivers were more taciturn, which can been seen as unpleasant. This affects your reviews, so being personable, though not pushy, is important. I always let the passenger lead the way. I would welcome them into my car with a smile (something I learned waiting tables), helped them with their bags if needed, and open the trip with a small joke or two. If they jumped on their phones or if there were multiple passengers and they started talking amongst themselves, I would then keep quiet unless asked a question or if I needed information. On the whole, people liked to talk. It's a little awkward to have a stranger pick you up and drive you someplace, so a little communication puts everyone at ease.
Schmoozing with customers isn't exactly new to me. I've been in the service and hospitality industries for most of my working life, and those who cannot engage their customers either don't last very long or and end up washing dishes. As for what we discussed, people's favorite topic is usually themselves or what they're doing. I encouraged this line of discussion, for many reasons: first, happier passengers leave better ratings. Second, it helped my tips, though this begs the question of cause and effect or correlation, i.e., were the people made happier by our talking, and so gave me a tip, or do nice people like to talk and they're more likely to tip anyway? Who cares. All I knew was that talking = $. Third, eternal dilettante that I am, there's always a chance to learn something interesting. I found out more about the edible marijuana industry than I ever cared to know, and that topic came up multiple times. Evidently there was a series of trade shows in Denver over the summer. Another ride taught me that a hedge fund was buying the veterinary emergency room in Westchester. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that, to be honest. Finally, I like learning about people and helping them in some small way if appropriate. Just listening helps, but I've given out my work email on more than one occasion if the issue concerned financial aid, though to date no one took me up on the offer.
Occasionally, our conversations would take a more serious turn. One ride had a gentleman arguing with his girlfriend on the phone that he was not cheating (and I believed him), but I was driving him to work and we were halfway there already. This was one of the mornings when I was trying to pick up an airport run, but I was happy with Ossining to White Plains. Still, I knew this was at an inflection point, so I offered to take him home to try to work things out with his lady. Flexibility with destinations is rare when driving for Lyft and Uber, but I didn't care. He took me up on the offer, grateful for the chance to speak to her in person. I can only hope it went well.
Finally, there was one ride where I was helped, and this led me to my next side gig, working the Halloween season.
