Why I think Yellow Cab will go the way of Blockbuster
-A good experience between a Brand and a user makes the user feel empowered. The brand should encourage a sense of trust in the relationship. Suggest the user is special. Brands that break these rules are ripe for disruption and nowhere is this more apparent than between Yellow Cab and Uber.
Uber is capitalizing on Yellow Cab’s poor brand perception as a terrible, terrible, experience.
It all starts with the ordering process. Uber uses your GPS location and a simple to interface app to allow a car to appear at your footsteps in minutes. No moment is a mystery to you as you watch the car come to you on the map on your screen. You even see your drivers face and learn their name before the car is ever there so that he or she seem like someone you’ve met before by the time they arrive.
Yellow Cab (YC) on the contrary leaves you in the dark after you call in. Operators seem over taxed and stressed on the call and often respond curtly never treating you as a person but only as another task to execute on. The operator will often hang up without giving the curtesy of offering an estimated time. If they do a non-descript 15 to 20 is the best you will get. This was an acceptable use experience 10 years ago before the smart phone advent. However leaving a customer without understanding of his or her position today leads to them leaving the service before it has a chance to begin. Should another cab drive by or a friend offer a ride, leaving the requested Taxi driver hanging seems only logical. No commitment has been made to that driver and the company has made no commitment to you.
Uber’s real time map and showing the name and face of the driver creates that sense of commitment. Due to this sense the user will wait for the driver even if another opportunity arises as they don’t want to upset this person. The user reviews from the driver only add to this principle.
Entering an Uber car the AC or heat is on. A water or candy awaits you and the driver is friendly. Your destination is already in their phone and you see the directions appearing on the screen as it sits on the dash. You barely need to mention where you are going.
YC on the other hand makes you feel like a fool. If the cab you find yourself in is clean and smells good you still have a screen in your face telling you are already out $2.50 just getting in. As the plastic seats stick to your back, the cabbie is closing the windows and turning the AC back on and the scent of cigarettes and human musk hit you. He asks where you are going and you tell him. You wait as he enters it into his archaic box on his dash. You look at the ticker again, why is it already 3.50!?
As you drive across town in the Uber the driver will ask what music you would like to listen to and engages you in polite conversation.
I have never once been asked what I’d like to hear in a Yellow Cab. Not once. And the conversation usually is about what a jackass the driver in front of us is and how traffic is a nightmare.
One of YC’s challenges here lies in how many old Crown Vics are still being driven by their franchise owners. Because Cabbies work to buy the car they drive once they own it they do not want to buy something new again. Those that use the shared company owned car have an old vehicle that gets passed around between multiple drives with differing levels of concern for maintaining its cleanliness. Uber wants drivers with newer cars and helps drivers with loans to make purchases. This simply translates to cleaner more comfortable vehicles. Since the driver is the sole owner they take better care of their property.
The cab itself reminds you with stickers posted throughout that smoking will incur a fee. Puking will incur a fee. And the price per passenger and mile. These signs inside the cab are a subconscious statement that there is no trust. In fact it seems to suggest that vomit and cigarettes are such a common occurrence within the car that a sign had to be placed to reduce the frequency. Now you know why the seat feels so sticky.
Uber creates trust with the way the order began, you know the driver, you are in a nice clean car, you know the driver owns the car they are driving and you want to respect their personal space. Trashing in anyway an Uber car seems much more rude and inappropriate. Whereas the YC feels public like a bus or plane. It’s been trashed by others before you so what is a little gum or a wrapper left in the door well?
The way Uber uses normal cars the driver also is sharing the ride with you. You are bonded for the journey. YC often puts a divider making the driver an other separate from your experience in the rear of the cab. Cabs without dividers create visual barrier with Ads, price screens, and map / radio boxes between the driver and you.
The price reminders posted on windows and doors take a hardline on cost making an argument no one seems to be asking, these prices are non-negotiable. In an effort to explain the cost to the passenger YC has instead alienated them. The prices for standing, moving and per passenger must have evolved over time createing a complex mixture of add ons. Simplifying the pricing would likely make the signs unnecessary and present a more fair experience.
Uber creates a fair process by showing you the cost before you have finished ordering your ride. Imagine asking the YC cabbie what he thinks it will cost to get to your destination!
Arriving to your destination via Uber you thank the driver and hop out of the car. Your saved credit card is charged the total and you can add a tip as you walk away. You can rate the ride and driver with ease.
Getting out of a Cab is an ordeal. The cabbie tells you the total after hitting a button that adds another 2 dollars to the last amount you saw on the ticker. You are confused how all the numbers have added up as you hold out a card. Then the biggest breakdown occurs; every cabbie will ask, “do you have cash?” DO I HAVE CASH!? In 2015? Of course not!
Any company must accept payment in the way that is easiest for their customer. Get on the Credit Card ball and while at it get ready for people who will swipe their phone in the next few years.
Since you don’t have cash that means you are going to sit here on the vomit seats for 10 minutes while the cabbie tries to run a card on 1980’s technology or do a carbon copy sheet. Inevitably he asks if you want to add tip because they can’t add it back after the fact. At this point it’s likely you don’t want to but it’s too uncomfortable to deny so you say yes. You do some rough math in your head and give him a number. You sign the receipt and finally get out.
There is no reason that Yellow Cab should operate the way they do other than the fact that the company has gotten lazy. There is a simple magic in the experience of holding up your arm to a passing cab and being offered a ride. It’s a magic Uber is yet to be able to do as they can’t pick you up unless you connect via the app. But after that initial grab the experience takes a nose dive. The cars are often old and dirty. The drivers look unkempt and shabby, hardly someone you want to place too much responsibility in. And the company and brand is busy plastering their concerns in your face rather than inviting you on a journey.
Without a major change to the YC business model I imagine they will go the way of Blockbuster.
As such I have a few suggestions I’ll posit.
1. Give operators etiquette classes and judge their work on politeness not speed.
2. Build a robust modern app that closely mimics Uber’s (why reinvent the wheel?)
3. Remove all extraneous stickers, labels, warnings, fees and Ads from inside and outside the cabs. Treat your customers like guests visiting your home not kids who are going to trash it.
4. Hygiene and appearance class for drivers. Airline flight attendants must take these as part of training as it is understood they represent the brand and company. Cabbies are no different.
5. Encourage the purchase of new cars through helpful loan programs.
6. Remove the clunky aged technology that often doesn’t work in the car and replace it with cell phones or tablets with card readers.
7. Instate rule “no one will ever ask do you have cash?” any form of money will be taken without hesitation.
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