For the past year, our son has been living in Peru, volunteering with children in Lima who spent many years growing up on the streets. That’s the backdrop of this story.
One evening in San Bartolo, on his way to the laundromat with mountains of laundry, he made a mistake: he forgot his brand-new skateboard in one of the town’s 250 mototaxis.

The skateboard was more than just a board.
It was his main means of getting to work.
And it was a Christmas present, he had just received.

When he realized what had happened, the drama began.
No taxi number. No receipt. Cash payment only.

He spent the entire evening stopping every mototaxi he could find. Friends joined the search. Notes were written. Facebook and Instagram posts went live. Everyone tried to help.

The odds were not in his favor. The mototaxis aren’t connected to a central system. There is no dispatch office. And people said:
“Why would the driver return it? The skateboard is worth more than his monthly income. He’ll sell it.”
But something else happened.

José, the mototaxi driver, saw the Facebook post. And he brought the skateboard back.
What followed is where service turns into loyalty. Everyone in our son’s circle saved José’s phone number.
From that moment on, they only rode with his mototaxi. The story spread through the community.
Revenue increase in the first month: 310 %. And still growing.

So what really happened? Reliability and care are 2 of the 4 key dimensions that build trust and therefore long-term customer loyalty.
In this moment, both were strengthened to the maximum.
And as this story shows: it pays off.
Our son was overjoyed.
José was too.

This small, very human story illustrates how essential building trust is for doing business:
Trust is not a soft skill. It’s a hard skill.