Listen to John's podcast on how he started his taxi business...
John on the reason for his success...
"Our competition in the minicab industry is very poor. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king and I was a one-eyed man. It didn’t take a lot to be honest, we didn’t have any magical ingredient, but common sense runs the world.
"I was a customer as well as a proprietor, I know how it feels to stand in the rain and this infuriating minicab company tells you the car's around the corner and they know its not. It really winds you up.
"It’s simple stuff really, poor competition that was one of the major ingredients for our success."
On the marketing lessons he's learnt...
"Nothing beats good service and word of mouth is the best marketing tool we employ. We don’t advertise, we know its word of mouth that will tell people best.
There’s no customer loyalty in the minicab world, it’s purely a service industry and if you do it right customers will come back, if you do it wrong they go somewhere else
"We don’t advertise, we know its word of mouth that will tell people best. You will never see an Addison Lee advert, just like you wouldn’t see an advert for the best restaurant in London.
"Customer service is very important, it's our bottom line. There’s no customer loyalty in the minicab world, it’s purely a service industry and if you do it right customers will come back, if you do it wrong they go somewhere else."
On John's day-to-day involvement with the business...
"I’m in the business every day and going to work is a joy for me. I'm involved in other things other then Addison Lee, I have other entrepreneurial enterprises that I’m engaged in, and I enjoy using some of my new found business knowledge.
"Addison Lee itself now has a training arm, so we’re now into training and we’ve started with drivers and youngsters. Generally speaking the company is ticking over, good companies actually benefit in the recession.
"We are now 22% up this year from last year, in a recession that’s quite good. Trade is generally about 20% down. So there’s a 40% swing here and that’s because we do it right."
