Customer Comes First
I’m just going to say it right from the off – I think Uber are great!
I know, I know London have banned them or are trying to but I think Uber are wonderful. I’m coming from the customer’s perspective of course and I don’t know what it is like to be an Uber driver.
My newfound love of Uber comes from my experience on recent holidays to Poland. We went to Poland last year too and on arriving at the train station we went to the taxi rank. But as we don’t speak Polish it was hard for us to explain where we wanted to go. But eventually the driver understood. Anyway, we found out afterwards that the local taxi driver had taken us “round the wrekin” as they say and charged us appropriately.
So, after that experience, we decided to download the Uber app for the rest of that trip and on our return journey to Poland Uber was my number 1 choice for getting around.
Why do I love Uber then?
Easy to book
The app was easy to find and easy to use. I could book it as soon at the plane landed or a train pulled into the station. You can also now I’ve noticed pre-book an Uber.
On time
Uber were never late – never! I’ve used a lot of taxis in my years on earth and I expect a local cab company to turn up late – don’t you? Even when I pre-booked an Uber I could choose a 15 minute window and they arrived as expected even in busy cities in the rush hour.
Price clear before you book
In case you’ve never used Uber before when you choose your destination you are told the price. There is normally a window – so it was typically between 10 to 12 zloty for a trip from where we were staying to the city centre. And if we wanted an Uber Surge we were informed of the increased price before we booked – it was up to us to accept it or wait a bit later. And if you are travelling with a lot of luggage because you just couldn’t resist the shops then you can choose a bigger Uber when you book.
Easy to pay
When you sign up with Uber you can add several payment methods – your cards or PayPal are the most common options. We only wanted to pay in cash on our final journey to the airport to spend the last zlotys we had. Cash is now being accepted in some countries I believe.
Location tracking in a strange place
Perhaps like you I usually have location tracking off on my phone. I don’t know if it’s really off but I hope it is. Anyway for Uber I turn it on and it is a great help that I can. It new places you don’t always know where you are and can’t perhaps say the same of the streets. There is a big square in the centre of Warsaw and we didn’t have clue sometimes whether we were north, south, east or west. But when we wanted an Uber the app found us on the map and the driver knew where to collect us from. How easy is that.
Safe as it can be
You may know that Ubers don’t have any signage on the cars. But on the app I know the make, model, colour and number plate. I also know the name of the driver. I think that is better than trying to see which black cab is yours at Euston station for instance.
Customer always comes first
So that was my defence of Uber taxi company. And yes it may be half the story. But I am the customer.
Implementing technological innovation is easier now than it has ever been. It seems to me that Uber were successful faster than they were expecting and now they have to catch up with some of their procedures. I think Transport for London had issues with the background checks on the drivers and how Uber approached criminal offences as well as a couple of other important issues. Uber have apologised and are sorting things out hopefully.
And I wouldn’t want to have to stop using Uber either because from my perspective Uber are great.
There are many parallels here with designing and running your website. The most important is that the customer’s experience on a website has to be as easy as possible. That can cover such things as:
- How easy they can find what they are looking for?
- How fast does the website load?
- Does everything on the website work?
- How easy they can buy from your website?
- How easy they can get in touch with a real person?
- How safe do they feel in paying for products and services online?
Conclusion
That’s just a taste of what you need to consider when thinking of the customer’s experience on your website.
You want people to say when they think about your business that the customer comes first – I do.
