Confidence has a geography. Enter a room after a half-hour trek through Dereham Road traffic jam that you still have no parking issue sorted out somewhere behind you, and there is something about you that suggests it. It is barely noticeable, yet decipherable, the slightly increased tension, the half-inattentive nature of your concentration during the first few minutes, the intellectual shrapneling of a journey which was more expensive than it ought to have been. Norwich is lovely, has a rich historical background, and, really, is hard to navigate within. These features are in no contradiction with each other and impact any person who attempts to pass through the city in a hurry. Go here.

This is dealt with by a chauffeur service at the deep instead of the superficial level. The driver takes all the logistical variables on board — route, time, traffic check, contingency plan, etc.– to such an extent that it does not reach you. Neither diminished, not partly controlled. Gone. You get into a car that is already at your house, already facing the right direction, and the driver has already carefully thought through the morning more than most people even think through their own morning commute. In its place you get the thing that is truly difficult to produce in any other manner and that is the experience of getting to where you need to be in exactly the identical state in which you were before you got home.

In the case of corporate travel, this is directly operational value. A professional going to Stansted at the time when this should most likely be unlawful has only two ways to go, either drive when tired or be on his way with refreshed mind. The maths isn’t complex. Airport transfers every day, pick ups of clients, multi-location days in Norwich and the surrounding area, all these become easier to implement, cognitively cheaper, and more professional when the transportation is handled by a person who is only thinking about the logistics involved in the journey and not other things that the day requires. The client entering an executive car at Norwich train station in a clean and punctual car is making an impression at this moment. That impression either is in your favor or not but the decision is totally under control.

There are times when special occasions have a point to make and it is a compelling one. There is the hen group that is interested in actually riding together instead of showing up in three different vehicles using three different excuses regarding where we should park. There is the anniversary couple who wishes that the evening was going to be counted starting at the very beginning and not at the stage when the couple was finally able to find a restaurant that was able to accommodate the couple. There is the wedding celebration, at which the arrival time and appearance count a lot, and the tolerance toward any transport-related accidents is zero. The chauffeur service can take these occasions as seriously as it should be, something that cannot be said of most of the options.

It is impossible to differentiate a really reliable service and the one that looks good online unless one considers operational behaviour in normal conditions, not extraordinary conditions. Does the driver beat you to your phone checking? Is a delayed flight absorbed and is it necessary to flag it? Does it maintain its standard in a booking, of a midweek, without audience, as well as in a booking, of a high-visibility Saturday? Does the change in plans at the last moment meet with problem-solving or resistance? These are the questions that can not be answered on a site but in the experiences of individuals who have used the service many times and can easily speak about it. With professional and social networks so intertwined as they are in Norwich, such a natural recommendation creates a reputation so consistently generated that it is, in effect, self-selling.