I
would like to share an interesting experience that happened recently. Few days
back, I was in Chennai and I had to do some local travel. On having seen many
newspaper ads and having heard from friends about Ola cab services, I thought I
would give it a try. So, I downloaded the app from the Google Play store and
installed it on my mobile. As I opened the app, I found it to be a quick and
easy way to book a cab. For the sake of those who have not used this app, let me
briefly explain how it works. Once we download the app and open it, the app
asks for some basic information about ourselves, which we require to fill in,
in order to sign up. Once we are done with it, we need to make sure that the
GPS is kept on, in our mobile. When we open the app, we will find two icons
with options: “Drive Now” or “Drive later”. If we choose drive now, the message
request gets delivered to Ola team and Ola tracks our exact location based on
GPS. It then searches for all the Ola cabs near our location. Once it
identifies them, it sends out the request to all those cab drivers and
whichever driver accepts the request is assigned to pick up the passenger. The
driver is sent a SMS of the passenger name along with his exact GPS location.
So, the vehicle automatically comes to the customer, wherever he is. The
passenger is also sent a SMS with the driver name and car Number.
Using
this facility, I too made a request and within 3 to 5 minutes a cab arrived. As
I was new to Ola, I was not sure of how it works. I did not check my SMS too. I
was just amazed to see an Ola cab approaching me, within few minutes of sending
a request. I just got into the cab and said Adayar. The car started moving
towards the destination. After few minutes of travel, I got a bit curious to
know how this system works. So, I initiated a chat with the cab driver, asking
how Ola is doing and how is it they are able to reach the customer so quickly.
So
he started explaining the process and in the process he said, “just like you
would have received a SMS from Ola giving the driver name and car number”. It
was here, I got a bit puzzled. I told him, I did not receive any such SMS. He
said, that I should have received it. So immediately, I picked up my phone and
checked to find that it was there. So I just read out the message loud which
had the car number and driver name. The driver was shocked. He said that was
not his name and that was not his car number. It was then he figured out, that
he has made a wrong pick up and blamed me for not checking out his name, before
boarding the car. I from my point of argument said, “I am new to Ola and I
don’t know how it works. It is you who should have verified the customer name,
before I boarded the vehicle.” After all the finger pointing, I asked him to
proceed to my destination. He said that it was possible, as the trip is
monitored by the Ola team and he has to drop me back at my pick up point and
pick up the right customer. I had only two options. Either I get down right
there and board a different vehicle or go back to the point of pick up, where
the right cab assigned to me, would be waiting. I chose the latter and so he
drove me back to my starting point which was around 3 kms. He then dropped me
back, where luckily the car assigned to me was waiting.
It
was altogether a funny episode, but it also made me reflect on my flaw of
assuming, without seeking clarity. A saying goes, the word ASSUME itself means,
don’t make an ‘ASS’ of ‘U’ and ‘ME’. I realized I had just done that, by making
one such wrong assumption.
Many
times in life, we make some quick assumptions like this and end up in trouble.
No doubt we are too busy and we act in a hurried manner, but that should not
disturb us being sharp in our day to day activities. We need to pay attention
to details. We need to be more effective
in communicating and make sure that the other person has clearly understood
what we have told them. Does it not happen, that many a times, we give some
instructions to our subordinate, colleague or family member, assuming that they
have understood, but end up seeing that they have totally misunderstood and
done something totally different. Later
we blame them for doing it wrong. If we
take the little extra effort to clarify our communication, we can avoid ending
up in such a messy situation.
Let
us stop assuming and start clarifying.
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil Kannan
Article Dated Apr 2015
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