A taxi company that thinks of itself as a tech company and is a great example of the experience economy and how to take a commoditised industry and create value. Bank's can learn a lot from the folks at Uber and here are just 10 ways how...

1. What
Bank's can
learn from
a taxi limo
company
Aman Narain
April 2013

2. Uber: The 'Apple' of Taxis Limo's
Couple of weeks back I was introduced to a service called Uber. A limo
service (they insist they are not a Taxi Company, more later) with a big
difference - they actually are a tech company that has embraced the
experience economy and is changing the way you think about cabs.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs Travis Kalanik and Garret Camp
(StumbleUpon) they have raised over USD 32 Mn in Series B funding
from Jeff Bezos, Menlo Ventures & Goldman Sachs in just 18 months of
operations and scaled to over 25 cities globally including Paris where
they got the idea to create the service which launched in 2009 in SFO.
But what is truly impressive is how they have overcome regulation and
taken an industry that was commoditized and static by storm. They
redefined its value curve and challenged convention to find a profitable
play that evokes the same inspired thinking like Apple or Zappos or
ZipCar. To do this they focussed on design, technology and business
models. Sounds familiar? Well actually not if you are in the Banking
industry, maybe it doesn't, and here's 10 ways we could learn from
them... amanwhoblogs.com

3. # 1. Simple World Class App
The most powerful thing about Uber is its
app. Simple, intuitive and intelligent it just
takes all the pain out of waiting for a cab.
Booking a cab has never been easier with
geo location based on your activities and
those of others, who have been in the
same spot before. Waiting or wondering
when where your cab is, is no longer a
guessing game. You get a map with the
location of your cab, time of arrival and
details of your cab driver including his
name and phone number. And when your
ride is around the corner a gentle sms
alert reminds you to make tracks to your
pick-up point. Lesson for Banks? I have
not yet seen such a seamless offline and
online integration of services in Banking.
Plenty to learn from here!
amanwhoblogs.com

4. # 2. Consistent Service Experience
Early days yet but in the last two weeks
every time I stepped into an Uber it feels
exactly the same. The car looks the same
externally and internally. The driver
offers you a bottled water, checks on the
temperature and asks you for your radio
preference. Travelling from Singapore to
San Francisco the experience you can
expect is exactly the same (with more
option on car sizes in SFO) just like
Singapore Airlines. The big difference is
Uber doesn't own a single car. They are all
private limo owners and yet provide the
same consistent service. All that in 18
months. Lesson for International Banks?
Flavours are overrated if you have one
simple, consistent, awesome offer for
customers globally and that itself could be
the killer feature customers are looking
for. amanwhoblogs.com

5. # 3. Seamless Payments
Disruptive plays in payments are a hot
topic with plenty of talk about contactless,
mobile, social and NFC payments. IMHO
the folks at Uber have nailed it on
payments. They have peeled back all the
hype and focussed on the core
experience, making it seamless by storing
your card details and credits. So when
your ride is done no fiddling with coins,
no waiting for a card swipe, you just step
out and thank the driver. Uber charges
your card deducts their 20% and the limo
driver's account is credited including a tip
if you pre configure your app to give one
based on your rating. Lesson for Banks?
Focus on the experience and creating
value through mutually beneficial
outcomes will lead to disruption.
Technology is the enabler not the answer.
amanwhoblogs.com

6. # 4. Making a Statement
One of the delights of using Uber is
getting your receipt by email once
your ride is done. If you are a
business user this is just super
useful as you no longer have to store
a stash of receipts as you travel the
world. In fact you can log on to their
website and print all old receipts
when you need them. And they
aren't some ascii code mystery notes
to decipher later. Instead they are
packed with information about your
ride complete with a map. Also
making the drivers life easier with
no in car printer needed. Lesson for
Banks? Customers transact
everyday on us how much insight
and ease do we create for them and
the people serving them.
amanwhoblogs.com

7. # 5. Monetized Real Time Analytics
When your ride is completed Uber
prompts you to rate your experience. In
fact it insists you do so before your next
ride. The reason - consistency of service. If
a drivers ratings fall they get warned with
consistent low ratings resulting in them
being taken out, which, given the variable
cost model of Uber, is easy. Meanwhile
Uber know exactly how you are feeling
about their service which allows them to
crunch this data with their Phd's to come
back to you with relevant offers. Lesson
for Banks? Plenty of talk about big data
and analytics. But let's not forget that little
insights collected frequently when acted
on make a big difference to customer
loyalty. Especially when you are offering a
premium service. And connect your Phd's
to your marketing folks that's when you
delight the customer. amanwhoblogs.com

8. # 7. Buzz Marketing
Uber does not spend on 'above the
line' marketing. Instead as Gigaom
described it lets its customers do the
job with word of mouth marketing.
From on demand ice cream trucks
to celebration parties (I was actually
invited to a cocktail party after a
favourable tweet) Uber recruits
young urban, smartphone owning
individuals to be evangelists. Some
of this cannot be measured by
analytics but it's what brings out
Uber's brand personality. Lesson for
Banks? Focus on delighting
customers and recruit them to be
your marketing team. And while the
internet is the most measurable
channel let's not forget to trust our
gut and do things that Kotler may
amanwhoblogs.com
not have written about.

9. # 6. Social Member Get Member
Buzz Marketing is so much easier
today with social and Uber shows us
just that. They celebrate moments
with you. Your first ride. Their
anniversary. All of these moments
are used to send you links to share
your experience and empower you
to give a discounts to your friends.
And its not about giving, get friends
to use them and get credits. Uber is
paying its customers to market in
the best currency it has - its service
which also ensures throughput and
growth. Lesson for Banks? When we
delight customers we should give
them the chance to share this with
others and 'pay it forward' in simple
social ways that extend our loyalty
loop. Bit harder with complex
amanwhoblogs.com
services but possible.

10. # 8. World Class Service Recovery
Bad experiences happen and once in
awhile we don't live up to the growing
expectations of the customers. But what
really matters is how we recover. Uber did
this brilliantly recently when I tried the
service during their beta and could not get
a cab. They wrote a note that seemed
heartfelt and gave me credits for my next
journey. Not only did they convert me to a
customer they took a detractor and made
him a fan instantly and made it easy for
me to tweet and share this. Lesson for
Banks? Accept service recovery as a cost
of doing business and empower service
staff not just to resolve but also promote
services. This requires budgets, investing
in people and giving them the freedom to
interact with customers with a single
metric of delighting customers. It is not
just good service but also good business.

11. # 9. Crowdsourced Scalable Biz
Model There is a lot to admire about Uber's but
what is their secret sauce in my opinion is
their business model. They have scaled
rapidly and globally in an industry
notorious with its large infrastructure and
operational costs. They did this by tapping
into the latent supply of limo drivers
around the world creating a variable
model where the only capital investment
is a loaned iPhone handed to the no doubt
delighted driver with their app on it.
Lesson for Banks? In the new world order
do we need to own expensive
infrastructure to be be able to deliver a
great experience or do we focus on
becoming tech companies with great
software and experiences and shared
infrastructure with partners who share in
a growing pie.
amanwhoblogs.com

12. # 10. Sweating the Small Stuff
Predictive Analytics: Uber has been busy collecting data that it now uses to
create capacity models to maximise between drivers 'idle time' and riders
'wait time'. Example, they claim to know exactly how many taxis to send to
downtown SFO for Giant's game and beat this - they change the model if the
Giant's win (demand rises) or lose (opposite).
Cancellation Policy: Many cab drivers complain bitterly about customers
cancelling on them at the last minute. They are committed once they take
a call the customer isn't. Uber now has your credit card so they did
something simple. Cancel your cab more than five minutes after and you
get a fee that goes to the driver.
Enterprise Edition: Uber Perks introduced this year now lets companies
offer taxi credit's at discounts to its employees. Happy employees, smarter
billing, breakage if they don't use their credits and tapping in to a whole
new segment.
Lesson for Banks? Creating a profitable proposition isn't only about adding
value but also eliminating value destroying elements.

13. amanwhoblogs.com
amanwhotweets