The Uber Experience and Digital Disruption
I had my first Uber cab experience a few weeks ago whilst visiting London.
I know for Londoners it’s now the norm to get an Uber but as a first time user and marketer I found the whole experience fascinating. It’s an example of a company who have come into a traditional market and have really shaken it up. In the marketing world we call this digital disruption.
How Uber works
For those of you who haven’t experienced Uber this is how it works: you download the app, set up an account, enter your personal details and debit card details – it’s a cashless system. Then whenever you are ready you set your pick up location and destination. You get sent a photo of your driver, along with his car (usually a Toyota Prius) registration number, et voila the driver picks you up and takes you to your destination. Both the driver and passenger is scored out of 5 at the end of the journey so bad behaviour should not be tolerated on either side. Furthermore, new Uber vehicles now have cameras installed and you can even send your journey details to a friend if you are travelling alone.
Uber drivers
Chatting to the drivers they felt it was as much for their protection as for the passengers. As one of the world’s biggest employers Uber apparently take the safety of their staff extremely seriously. I was told that drivers have to go through a thorough interview process to become an Uber driver, are encouraged to hire their car through Uber (hence the large number of Prius now on London roads) and 25% of each fare goes back to Uber. In return the drivers get as much work as they want. In the words of one of the mini cab drivers “I used to belong to a small mini cab firm but as soon as Uber came along we struggled, if you can’t beat them join them.”
What I loved about the Uber Experience
Despite the global power of Uber what I loved about the whole thing was that in my experience it was a seamless and truly omnichannel customer experience, where multiple touch points had been considered. Secondly both the drivers and the passengers knew the rules and how much the service would cost. I became slightly too obsessed with getting a 5* score myself but the whole thing seemed fair for both the customer and service provider. Although black cab drivers of course would probably disagree….
What can the stationery industry learn from the Uber experience?
This got me to thinking about how the Uber experience relates to the stationery industry, where I work as a retail analyst. How many companies are still in the black cab zone of complacency when it comes to the power of the digital world and what it could mean to our industry?
Secondly have retailers got the balance of fairness right and where does the power lie – with the consumer or with the retailer? During a few store visits last week I observed some pre Back to School price establishment going on. In view of the Which? campaign to end misleading pricing practices how many retailers will be continuing a strategy of high low pricing during this summer’s Back to School promotion and how will consumers respond?
This subject will be covered in greater detail in the 2016 Bright Disposition Back to School report.
