Many small taxi startups operating across the globe struggle to get good revenue and this is not necessarily because of very high competition. We have seen many small startups outperforming the bigger ones. Mostly the issue is at the grassroot level and by eliminating it, these startups can regain their lost glory.

Now let me give you some info about the reason, Why on-demand market leaders are in the position They Are. 

Uber taxi booking started small but quickly captured the market with unprecedented growth. In fact, Uber owns none of the cars it operates. Still, it completes millions of rides per day. How is that even possible? The one word answer for this is ‘trust’. 

Not only Uber, but many other top on-demand firms also work based on trust. Blabla car, a ride sharing firm conducted a survey among its users and found that 88% of them accept sharing only if they get full trust over the profile.

The same is the case for Airbnb. This peer to peer renting platform owns none of the space it offers. In Airbnb, the space is rented only based on trust. All these startups are pouring innovations and tech advancements to maintain and improve the trust between them and the users.

What’s Wrong with Small and Medium Taxi App Startups?

The one factor I mentioned above (Trust) is what lacks in most taxi startups and this is the problem. These on-demand taxi hailing firms do best on a business plan, taxi app solution and completely overlook customer engagement. Below are some list of reasons that can potentially create distrust among customers.

Unsecure payment system

The digital industries struggled in the last decade to make people embrace paperless payments. This is because people feared about data getting compromised.

Such an important process if made unsecure will definitely affect the trust and retention rate. More than the quality of service, this is important.

Poor social media activity

Smartphones are ubiquitous and more than 75% of users are active on social media. It is easy to reach people and promote on social media. Being inactive and failing to reach out to social media users will take a toll on the startup’s reputation. 

It is seen that many taxi riders comment and post on social media about their journey and inconveniences. Quick response is required for such queries.

Reacting slowly to complaints

On-demand taxi startups do get frequent complaints from customers regarding the service, booking, drivers or anything else. This is okay only when such complaints are dealt with quickly. Poor reaction to complaints and queries damages the reliability of the business.

It is also found that many complaints on drivers by riders are not noted and left free.

These reasons are only the tip of the iceberg. Take time to find out where you are getting wrong.  Now, let me give some tips to regain or re-establish customer trust in 5 proven ways.

This list is exclusive for taxi startups.

Being transparent

First, if you want the customer’s trust you need be deserving of their trust. So, starting from acquiring customers, promotion, do what you promised.

Please don’t do exaggerated claims and promises that you cannot provide. Be straightforward and honest in what you are going to do. This must start right from pricing, marketing, cancellation policy, customer grievances redressal, etc.

Also, get feedback whenever possible from riders, drivers, and all other stakeholders. This tells you how well you are transparent.

Branding

You can see that a startup service having large user base also have a strong brand. The branding will be such that it connects with the users. 

This idea of branding and acquiring customers through it really works and to create such a kind of brand, you first give some guarantee to users. For example, Airbnb gives guarantee up to $1 million for its guests.

The same way you can give automatic insurance cover to drivers and riders at the time when a cab is booked. This may sound impractical at first but it works.

Humanize more

Automated language processing and chatbots for customer grievances redressal and customer care may seem advanced and cost effective but nothing can replace human to human interaction. Since taxi startup is powered by people, a humane touch is crucial. 

A customer care person directly asking the users about ride experience establish a sense of connect to the customers.

Rating and review 

The rating system is seen in almost all taxi startups but the going beyond it you can introduce a written review system. This system is effective only if it is taken seriously. Prompt and polite reply to the reviews is a must. Again, using chatbots to reply to all reviews will backfire.

Final say

Understand that trust and loyalty are the building blocks of a strong customer base. As a taxi startup, you must always learn and evolve to build an everlasting service.

As a maker of quality taxi app solutions, I strongly recommend you to earnestly follow these points.

I hope that new people yet to start a taxi firm can also benefit from this article. For them, I suggest SpotnRides – taxi app solution like Uber. SpotnRides has responsive rating & review system, ad management, in-app chat, and many more.

I think it will be better if you launch your taxi startup using SpotnRides. To find more details, tap a message to [email protected]. Our business team is quick to respond to you.

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