I got to have a wonderful conversation with Deepa from Uber the other day. We had a great example that came up that’s perfect to show support at it’s finest.
I’m sure you’ve used (or at least heard of Uber), the app that gives everyone a personal driver. Every experience I’ve ever had with them has been outstanding. Only once have I ever heard of a bad experience, which is what prompted this idea the other day.
A friend ordered a Uber taxi only to find that the taxi driver could never find where they were. Instead of continuing to look, the driver just gave up and cancelled the trip request. The driver drove away and left my friend stranded.
Talk about a bad experience.
From the customer standpoint, they could try again with another driver. But what happens if that customer just gives up on Uber instead? Uber loses a customer because of a driver that they can’t really control.
There’s got to be a better way, right?
How to make it better
The trick here would be for Uber to be proactive rather than reactive.
Reactive in this case is the customer emailing Uber to let them know about this bad experience. Sure, the team there could give them credits and all to try to keep the customer. But that might not be enough to convince them to keep using their service.
Instead, what if the team was proactive?
Imagine if they knew when a ride was cancelled by the driver with the customer still there. They could give them a call as soon as that happened to see what had gone wrong. In this case of a rogue driver, Uber could dispatch one of the best drivers to take care of the customer. Then make sure to include the trip for free.
Instead of an angry customer, you earn a fan who’s going to keep using the service and probably recommend it to everyone they know.
Proactive over reactive
Proactive wins every single time. If something goes wrong and the support team contacts me before I even have a chance to let them know, that shows the team is on top of their game. It let’s me know they really value having me as a customer. And when I know that, I’m going to stick with them for as long as I can.
Think about ways that you can be proactive with your customers, especially when something goes wrong. Whatever time it takes to build that into your product will be well worth it in the long run.
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