On-demand mobile services How to create user satisfaction to compete with offline competitors?

Uber

Recently, Uber seems to be in the public opinion swirl, people to it is mixed, but I want to emphasize is: I like Uber very much.

I remember clearly that my first time with Uber was in 2010 September 28, when I used the Uber service, the mobile phone map shows a little green dot, that represents my position. Then I can see on the map the car icon representing the car moving to my little green dot. From then on, I knew I would always say good-bye to the taxi, airport pick-up service and parking attendant at the San Francisco Center.

How do you describe the popularity of Uber in the world? Because tens of thousands of users like the service, Uber has even become a verb. As much as $40 billion trillion in market capitalisation has made Uber a synonym for, say, the demand-for-mobile service (ODMS) in certain areas as "Uber of such a domain". It seems that any start-up company that can offer offline services via smart phone bookings, in-kind delivery, and virtual transmission can become a uber--in this field.

Some of these leaders will grow into global internet brand giants, occupy a larger share of the market, and even market capitalisation higher than those who want to innovate. However, it is more likely that they will only have a small impact on their industry and serve a limited market.

I have my own approach to which market or company is truly transformative, and it's simple to look at the services that they offer, so long as the overwhelming majority of users are dissatisfied with existing service providers, the service will be truly transformative. Yet many service areas now have more or less usability, quality, transparency, and pricing problems, which are bad for consumers but are a lucky thing for entrepreneurs and investors.

Of course, not all of these problems are difficult to accept, because people may receive massages or take part in yoga classes, but they are not necessarily able to accept problems with renovations or personal selling of used cars. Because people use different frequencies of service, it makes the service that is often used a habit rather than a one-time impulse, so it also makes us more motivated to solve everyday problems rather than occasional problems.

After figuring out the type of problem we need to solve, now let's think about how mobile services on demand can make use of smart phone technology, network effects, economies of scale, large data, crowdsourcing, and technology entrepreneur vision tools to create a truly customer satisfaction, can greatly improve the user experience of services.

Obviously, this is the hardest part.

Shared economy
In general, it is difficult to continue to provide quality services, and some services are inherently challenging, such as furniture repair or car repair, the essence of these two services is to diagnose and repair consumer confusion or worry about practical problems.

While "on-demand mobile services can fix the most fragmented service industries" is a motivational proposition, the idea of a complete solution to such problems may need to be pushed forward. And it is the gap between the standard service level and the redefined ODMs level that creates the opportunity to create a great cause.

So how to create customer satisfaction on demand mobile service to compete with offline competitors?

Immediacy and reliability

Most ODMs's gimmick is to take the smartphone as the remote control in the life, the user only then presses the button, the corresponding ODMs will as soon as possible continuously service. Uber uses the local network effect between drivers and passengers to invest heavily in research and development in data science and artificial intelligence simulations to ensure that the waiting time for passengers is as short as possible and drivers are as rejoined as possible to maximize revenue. I think this is why we like Uber, after all, the long waiting time will erase all our patience.

Another example of instant gratification is been on Demand. The service allows users to communicate with professional physicians through smartphones, so that users do not have to wait days or weeks for regular medical needs to make appointments to their doctors, or go to night clinics or emergency rooms. Of course, if you have severe chest pain or massive bleeding, this service is certainly not available. However, we encountered a lot of time is small pain, there is no need to go to the clinic, only the use of DoD services, not only very convenient and only 1/3 of the price. This advantage is attractive and many employers regard DOD services as employee benefits.

For most services that do not provide virtual forms (for example, been on demand services), the expansion of a city's urban sprawl model is time-consuming as well as expensive. They need to invest in basic funds to recruit and train employees, to win the user base through marketing campaigns, and to ensure quality of service.

If the service can make a revolutionary breakthrough, you will soon be able to achieve a high growth rate, and then you'll attract more investment, so that you can realize a global expansion strategy like Uber and Airbnb.

For many ODMs that are only gradually improving the traditional mode of service, the geographical expansion may not be as fast as the services mentioned above, but it may also break the boundaries of the region, sweeping the entire United States. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because many slow-growing companies eventually become the most technologically advanced companies in the region.

Personally, we still like the purple Tie's dry cleaning home courier service. The Purple tie was initially driven by venture capital to promote an online dry cleaning service across the United States, but failed to succeed and was eventually acquired by a self-made cleansleeves (the company seemed to like the Purple tie).

15 years later, Purple tie.com only in San Mateo and San Jose value Love your Bay Area to provide services, business development seems to be very healthy, but has not been the original glory, Perhaps a new generation of ODMs dry cleaning express start-up companies can go farther than cleansleeves, we wait and see. If they do, I think it's also because they've found ways to create higher user satisfaction, not just the next single and efficient courier services on mobile apps. My wife has been wanting to try Wash.io's service recently, but will she be swayed when she encounters the next cheaper dry cleaning service? I think it depends on whether Wash.io can turn this relatively commodity-related service into a truly differentiated experience service.

Quality control

It is difficult to create a service-oriented business because they rely more on customer service than on computer programs. Know that managing employees (especially the workers of independent contractors rather than full-time employees) is more variable than executing computer programs. The core elements of any ODMS include recruiting, screening, training, and managing employees, while screening includes background checks, license validation, detailed application form completion, and interviews.

Most services rely on users to score service providers and eliminate service providers that are below the required rating, which is a fairly high threshold. The been on demand service checks the lighting, sound, and doctor's appearance before each virtual shift. Services like Red Beacon even provide satisfaction with the tasks that have been completed.

In fact, the quality of service also depends on the user's personal preferences. For example, although the Homejoy such as home cleaning service satisfaction can reach 9/10, but to maintain cleanliness is very picky user satisfaction is very difficult. To do good quality, not only to solve problems, but also have some necessary tricks to make users satisfied.

For example, good eggs will randomly provide one or two free gourmet services to users who have just used the service. When users become regulars, such free gourmet services are no longer available, but their high quality, friendly service and intimate behavior, such as handwriting labels, can keep users loyal. On the whole, there are no shortcuts to success, and only continuous service delivery will keep the profit, not the mobile apps.

Price

Compared with traditional enterprises, the use of technology services in digital channels, viral marketing and brand high exposure to obtain users and aggregate demand to be more efficient, eliminating the link in the value chain. In addition, ODMs can save a large amount of space and equipment spending compared to offline peers. A big chunk of the money that seems to be saved is the smartest way to get a trial, get fast growth and attract repeat customers.

Bloomthat is a flower and gift service that is well served on selected goods and delivery services, and its price advantage is much better than 1-800-flowers. The money saved has also dramatically increased the frequency of their daily gift delivery, not limited to traditional festivals such as Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. For price-sensitive industries, the pricing scheme will include advanced and ultra premium services, such as Uber Black and Uber Lux. But the mass market does not overlook quality services, especially when it comes to trying a new service.

In the long run, people want to be able to use enough technology to form certain economies of scale, and removing the odms of intermediaries can make you a highly profitable and low-cost provider in the industry, rather than a company that is willing to subsidize losses indefinitely.

Pay

One of the most attractive places to use the UberX service is to pay without cash or credit card.

It is also necessary to order meals through services such as DoorDash and seamless without having to check with the meal delivery staff. For this newly emerging on-demand mobile service, consumers seem to default on this seamless payment approach directly.

This kind of payment can solve the problem such as employee's contact with cash, credit card number, user's deadbeat problem and employee's private pulling. But there are also problems, such as high fees for low consumption between credit cards, which can significantly affect service margins. A large single service, such as a home renovation, that needs to be estimated on site may not be suitable for such payment. However, over time, we will see that most ODMs will use the background processing payment method.

So, is there a company like Uber in every service industry? The answer is yes, but it's hard to be a global leader like Uber and have a high value. Because some service industries are not very important in our daily life, other industries are faced with more difficult services challenges, and it takes a lot of time to see results.

From the Business-to-business mania of the 90 's, we can see that the consumer services sector has been experimenting on a large scale, and that will continue. With the development of this trend, the traditional offline service enterprises will be forced to upgrade their service level and deepen their understanding and application of technology. So while winners like Uber rarely appear, there are still a lot of small odms to achieve some degree of success, and the biggest winners will be consumers themselves.

Source:tc