Let me tell you about Meredith. She’s an Uber driver. Not just any Uber driver, but someone who goes the extra mile to show her passengers she cares. She has a spotless car, bottled water, and candy ready for her next app-trusting, forward thinking, early adopter, taxi busting passenger.
All of her passengers are greeted with a big smile ? and a friendly hello.
On a busy Saturday morning, in Uber language, a surge, Meredith picked up a young woman. Let’s call her “Kate” ?. Meredith greeted Kate with her omnipresent, over the top, smile and a warm hello. Kate replied with her own hello, but something didn’t sit right with Meredith. She could tell that Kate had been crying.
Meredith followed the route that Uber told her to follow and when they arrived at Kate’s destination, she quickly realized why Kate was crying.
Kate’s destination was a funeral home. Kate softly mumbled under her breath she was very early. At which point Meredith turned to Kate and told her that she would wait with her.
Now, remember that this was during a surge. For Uber Drivers, a surge is like standing in one of those money booths that blow dollar bills with the wind and you have to catch them and stuff them in all your pockets or your fanny pack! Here’s the thing with the money booth, or the Uber surge, you know you are going to walk out with a bunch of money, the only question is how much. Meredith could have been Uber-ing and earning money, not just some money, but bank!
Instead, Meredith turned the car off, closed her Uber app on her iPhone (so she would stop getting notifications of people needing a ride) and invited Kate to sit in the front. Kate accepted this invitation and quickly transitioned from the rear passenger seat to the front passenger seat. That’s when Kate began to open up. She told Meredith the reason she was at the funeral home was that her father passed away unexpectedly. Meredith waited with Kate for 45 minutes until people started to arrive at the funeral home. During that time she listened to Kate tell stories about her father. They laughed together, and… they cried together. When Kate left she gave Meredith a hug and thanked her. “There was something special about that hug”, Meredith says. “It felt like Love. Like understanding. Like Caring”
After Kate closed the door Meredith took a long deep breath, turned on her Uber app and drove towards her next pickup. She thought about Kate quite a bit more that day. She wondered how she held up.
Kudos to Meredith! Imagine how good it made Kate feel when Meredith took time out of her day to just sit and listen? What if you took time out of your day to just sit and listen? No phone, no computer, no distractions. Just listening to someone who needs to be heard. Think about the impact you could have on someone’s life by just listening. Do you think that Kate will always remember Meredith the Uber driver, who took the time to really listen? I do.