Uber Uses Technology and Data to Create a Happy and Human Customer Experience

If you are going to disrupt an industry, it makes sense to challenge a service that doesn’t provide a good customer experience. Most people who I know have had a negative experience in a taxicab at one time or another. Hailing a cab, rude drivers, cabs that are late and never show up, dirty and poorly maintained vehicles are just some of the problems people encounter. The best innovations identify and solve a customer problem in a new and unique way. Brand Storyteller, Blogger and author Bernadette Jiwa says that “the job of every single business on the planet is to do just one thing – to make people happy. When you find ways to do that you win”.

Uber is startup ride sharing service based in San Francisco. Uber was launched in 2010.  Uber utilizes mobile apps to connect passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire. Uber arranges pickups in over 200 cities worldwide. Consumers reserve a car by using a mobile app to request a car. The mobile app can be used to track the reserved car’s location, make, model, driver’s name, license plate number and estimated pick up time.

I started using Uber as a result of a promo code that a friend shared with me this summer. A key lesson for content marketers is that good and useful content is easy to share. I downloaded the app on my iPhone, requested a ride and the driver arrived within 5 minutes. I had dinner that night with a friend in the Fells Point section of Baltimore. After dinner, I requested my ride from Uber and the driver again arrived in five minutes. The driver was polite and the during the 20 minute ride home we discussed basketball and the Baltimore Bullets. My experience was great. Following that experience, I have recommended Uber to several friends. I love Uber’s tagline “Everyone’s Private Driver”. In 2013, the USA Today named Uber its tech company of the year.

For me, Uber, is more than a tech company. Uber is a brand that utilizes technology and data to create a great customer experience. Startup’s like Uber are very unique. They connect buyers and sellers through a unique business model. They use data to make sure users have a great experience. Data is also used to continually learn and improve the service. Consumers are able to rate their experience with drivers building trust in the Uber Brand. Uber is powered by technology but delivers a unique, human experience.

Have you used Uber and if so how was your experience?

Difference – Its The Story of How to Create Difference for your Customers

For the past year and a half, I have enjoyed reading Bernadette Jiwa’s Brand Marketing Blog “The Story of Telling”. Bernadette’s blog focuses on the importance of storytelling in brand marketing. Her posts are short, simple and inspiring.

Bernadette is a brand storyteller and strategist who challenges traditional approaches to marketing. She recently published a new book titled “Difference”. I highly recommend “Difference”. It’s a must read book for innovative marketers. Difference challenges you to re-think your approach to marketing. Many people view marketing’s role as creating demand for existing products. Conventional wisdom advocates developing a product and then creating a big marketing funnel in order to sell it.

Difference redefines how successful brands will be marketed in the future. In Bernadette’s view marketing is not a department, it’s the story of how we create difference for our customers. The businesses that succeed tell a better story because they have learned to recognize what’s true for their customers and then create solutions that matched their worldview. As Bernadette points out, “the truth is that people don’t fall in love with ideas at all. They fall in love with how those ideas, products, services and places makes them feel”. People don’t buy features they buy promises.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Bernadette shares her story of growing up in Dublin, the storytelling capital of the world. Bernadette describes how her little brother Johnny never greeted her by saying “hello” or “how are you?” The only question Johnny ever asked was, “what’s the story?” This is a common way to greet people in Ireland. It’s an open ended question that asks people to tell everything that’s important right now. Many great stories flowed from that simple greeting.

Difference thinking is more than the ability to connect the dots, though. It’s about seeing the truth, recognizing the opportunity in that truth and then acting on it. It isn’t the person with the best idea who wins; it’s the person who has the greatest understanding of what really matters to people.

The Difference Model outlined in the book flips product development on its head. Instead of starting with the idea, it begins with an examination of people’s current reality and explores what’s possible in a world where the problems and desires of those people are solved and met. A fundamental premise of the difference model is empathizing with your customer and asking questions to better understand your customer.

The Difference Model is consists of the following elements:

• Principles – What’s the truth about us, the industry, the market and the people we want to serve.
• Purpose – Why do we exist?
• People – Who are the people we want to serve? What do they value? What’s their current reality?
• Personal – How can we change how people feel?
• Perception – What do people believe about you? What would you like them to believe about you?
• Product – What do people really want?

Difference cites examples of many brands who have taken this approach to solving customers needs. Examples include Apple, Uber, By the Way Bakery, Warby Parker, Airbnb and The Rubix Cube.

Bernadette has created a Difference Map to help guide you through the process. You can download the map at Difference.is. It is a wonderful tool for planning innovation.

Read Difference and experience a new way of thinking about marketing.