I have written a lot on Uber (some positive but also some more negative things) but never took the time to try. I eventually did and it was great.
On the day of the public services strike in Belgium, I decided it was a good opportunity to try UberPop, the carsharing option of the group. The least I can say is that the experience was very positive.
Uber mobile app : so easy to use
Clearly one of the strengths of Uber is its mobile app. It’s incredibly user-friendly, complete and yet super easy to use. I dare to say it. It’s probably one of the greatest app I’ve ever come through.
The guys at Uber did a great job at improving the customer experience. The onboarding is extremely easy, done in two steps and it’s hassle-free. The same great recipe was applied to booking a cab. This couldn’t have been easier : it’s done in one step. In other words, you’re one step away from booking a cab.
A message popped-up that my cab was arriving. I turned my head …
… and here it was.
When think about my Uber experience as a new customer, this is what comes immediately to my mind.
Once I had ordered my cab the waiting time (4 minutes in my case) was immediately displayed as well as the position of the cab.
I stopped paying attention and was waiting on the sidewalk when an alert came in. My phone vibrated and displayed a pop-up message from Uber “your Uber is coming”. I just had the time to turn my head left, and here it was.
Service quality is the motto
You know that service quality is extremely important to me. I’m a hard-to-please customer, I’m easily dissatisfied and dare to complain (which probably explains my passion for studying complaining behaviors). One of the biggest weaknesses of traditional taxis was the unpleasant behavior of their drivers, unclean cars, … With Uber, all those leviers of (dis)satisfaction have been tackled. The driver was very cool, respecting speed limits, the car was immaculate. We had a very good chat about his experience as Uber drivers, his motivations to do this kind of work. It was a very positive experience from A to Z.
Conclusion
Uber is definitely an amazing customer experience. You should experiment it yourself.
It represents indeed a threat for traditional taxis, but who is to blame ? There were many gaps in the market that Uber exploited very cleverly : a satisfaction gap and a financial gap. I think banning Uber is not the right choice. A legal framework must be built around this new form of activity AND (most importantly) traditional taxi drivers must change to accommodate this paradigm shift. The first lesson they should learn is that service quality matters and that the customer must be satisfied by all mean. This includes clean cars, nice and respectful drivers. As you may remember some companies have already understood they had to change if they didn’t want to die (read this post to learn more).
Photo: Shutterstock
Posted in Marketing.
