Upping the Ante on Value.

A few weeks ago, I did something that I swore I would never do: I took a ride in a fully autonomous Waymo car.

I know, what's the big deal, right? But coming from the tech world, I know a thing or two about how things work…and how they sometimes don't work. It's the s**t happens scenario that always creeps into my mind. Even to this day, I see that happen with every bit of technology in my life — my phone, my laptop, my security cameras, and yes, even the “entertainment center” in my car. Nobody wants to see the spinning wheel of death on the screen of a car while it's driving down the freeway.

But something interesting happened after that one ride. I got out of the car at my destination, and the following thought popped into my head:

“If I were someone who drove Lyft or Uber for a living, I'd be very nervous right about now.”

Now, this is not a rant about how AI is going to take everyone's job away in the future. Far from it. I didn't feel that sense of wonder because the car drove itself, although I have to admit that was pretty cool. No, I felt that way because it was just a better experience all the way around. And that got me thinking about our collective careers.

The Elevated Experience.

I've taken probably hundreds of Lyft and Uber rides over the years, and I've had my share of great rides, as well as not-so-great rides. The great rides are the ones where the driver shows up on time in a newer, cleaner car. They're courteous, have good driving skills, and they get me to my destination on time. In all honesty, that's a pretty low bar to achieve for such a relatively simple task.

So what makes a ride-share experience bad? Here's just a few things:

• The ride is late, or not available at all.
• The car is old, smells like liquid garbage, and rides like it's on its deathbed.
• The driver has sub-standard driving skills, or is just a bit creepy.

You get from Point A to Point B, but it's not a great experience. So, what does Waymo offer that will put many Uber/Lyft drivers out of business?

• Clean, modern, electric cars (not susceptible to rising gas prices)
• 24/7, nearly instant availability. If you need a ride at 3AM, the car doesn't care.
• No tipping (don't get me started on our tipping-crazed economy).
• The ability to provide a better value. Their sheer economy of scale means they can easily undercut the cost of a human-driven car.

I'm not implying that the Waymo experience was perfect. It has an annoying habit of slowing down to 15MPH in a school zone at 11:00 at night (not necessary when kids aren't present), and the app couldn't figure out how to get me from SFO to San Carlos, so it wouldn't order a ride.

But those are easy problems to fix, and that's where these two ride methods diverge. It all boils down to the mission of the companies providing the service.

The incumbent is content with the status quo, while the upstart is trying to elevate the experience.

A Lesson For Everyone

The purpose of this post is not to do a deep-dive in to ride sharing. I used it as an analogy to underscore a very important concept: Believe it or not, we are all in the service business. Regardless if you're an engineer, attorney, real estate agent, spouse, firefighter, or truck driver — we all serve someone else. Heck, even CEO's have a person or entity that they serve and report to.

Because we are all in business to serve others, it's imperative that we constantly strive to improve the value and experience of the service that we provide if we want to stay relevant and gainfully employed. This is not just to ward off the threat of AI and automation, but also to protect against a competing service that provides a better overall experience… like Waymo.

That's in our DNA at Ektra Real Estate. We constantly strive to elevate the experience of buying or selling a home by bundling more services as part of our fees than our competitors do, and even providing additional services that they don't even offer. A good example is that all of our clients get complimentary legal service for their most common real estate questions (boundaries, easements, disclosures, tenant issues etc..) from a pool of qualified California Residential Real Estate Attorneys — all at no cost to them. I'm not aware of anyone that offers that service at all, let alone for free.

Our overall mission is to provide the most elevated experience for one of the most complicated and high-stakes transactions that most people will ever encounter. And we are always looking for ways to improve.

A Footnote – The Ride Share Irony.

Another reason that I chose the ride-share analogy is that there was an interesting twist in the evolution of that industry. You may recall how Lyft and Uber even came into being in the first place — they completely upended a very complacent industry that had no desire to improve itself because it held a virtual monopoly — the taxicab service.

Now, their own playbook is being used against them.

Don't sit still. Constantly look for ways to elevate the experience for the people you serve.