Perhaps the mark of a product’s impact is when it becomes a verb. We now ‘google’ to find out something online and, according to the Cambridge Dictionary the definition “to change the market for a service by introducing a different way of buying or using it, especially using mobile technology” is from the verb to ‘uberize’. Something that is essentially a taxi service is now an entry in our dictionaries.
Uber regularly appears in the pages of the press and the top of news feeds. Last year the firm was testing an autonomous vehicle that hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, forcing the grounding of its fleet of vehicles. Not surprisingly, the tragedy created headlines and column inches in the mainstream media with calls for the company to retract its driverless programme indefinitely.
A year on, cars that drive themselves are still very much on the tech agenda with their integration a case of ‘when’ and not ‘if’. In fact, Uber are already working on further features they can add to their autonomous taxi product.
“Driverless Uber could ask ‘Are you OK?’ and slow down to cut stress,” read a choice headline from The Evening Standard in London. The headline grabbed me and I scanned down the article. “In-car tech could monitor changes in heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, sweat levels and how many times a rider peers through the rear window,” the piece continued going on to reveal the firm had already submitted a patent for the tech suggesting the idea was firmly rooted in its development.
While it still seems extraordinary that we can hail a lift at the tap of a button, Uber – like any great disruption outfit - are looking beyond this and moving into the next innovation: driverless cars is well underway but having these cars monitor a passenger’s vital signs so it can adapt the way it travels to suit them is quite something and the concept doesn’t seem that ridiculous. Given what the company have already achieved why shouldn’t it materialise? In fact, as consumers we expect it to; after all, who saw “Shall we catch an Uber?” becoming common parlance amongst people leaving the pub on a Friday night searching for a way home?
"Service providers can no longer rely on past processes, phone calls, out-dated technology when trying to provide an exhilarating customer service..."
However, technology’s swift rate of advancement will run concurrently with customer expectation. As Uber innovates, raising the bar higher and at a faster pace, firms who offer service must keep up with the pace Uber are setting or risk being left behind.
“I think this new level of service that they’ve [Uber] got the consumer to, is now impacting other verticals,” says Ziv Barcilay from Click Software, who I met following his presentation at Field Service Connect in Warwick, a presentation called, The Uberization of Field Service. I was keen to push him on some of the points he raised and align it with my own theories.
“Service providers can no longer rely on past processes, phone calls, out-dated technology when trying to provide an exhilarating customer service.” he explained. "This is a major shift in the industry and those service providers that will be the early adopters of those technologies can really grab a nice market share and can take the lead in their verticals.”
Barzilay is an enthusiastic observer of the Uber effect on service, almost scholarly but with a genuine desire to help companies learn from Uber’s pioneering approach to customer service. Firstly though, for large organisations to adopt this same approach, he tells me, then they need to be more flexible, a task made more difficult by historical, ingrained operations compounding the challenge of initiating change at a cultural level.
“Big companies are not agile because they use complex processes and maybe outdated technologies,” he explains, citing the issues. “They need to go through transformation including change management and get the right innovation and the right technology to push their organisation to maximum efficiency.”
“Everyone is talking the talk but not walking the walk..."
Large organisations he says, struggle to balance heavy operating costs with “providing an exhilarating customer experience” and are reluctant to adopt an uber-based innovation model based that would be too expensive with little return.
A survey Click carried out polling 600 of its suppliers on service strategies found that over half prioritized customer service; an encouraging statistic, yet Ziv suggests large firms may be paying lip service to the question, rather than committing fully to an Uber-based service strategy that, for a firm to adopt, must disrupt what’s gone before.
“Everyone is talking the talk but not walking the walk. When it comes to execution you need to deal with the whole of the operating cost, and you need to be profitable and you can’t lose money on the expense of providing an exhilarating customer experience.
“I think that the balance of those two are very tricky for large enterprises because they need to transform their business completely. They need to use innovation; they need to automate a lot of processes. It’s a complete disruption.”
Applying the Uber model to an already established service strategy is tough, where should a company even begin? According to Ziv, personalising the customer experience is a good place to start. “This will create a memorable experience that will get the customer coming back again and again,” he says. “We talk about Uberization and the experience they provide. The car is usually new, and it smells good, the driver is polite. There is no money exchanged so you can just go in and out and keep your privacy. You can even use Spotify in the car to play your own playlist. So, they are touching your ears, your senses so it’s a very sensual experience.
“The more you personalise, the more you show the customer that you care and you personalise the service the more you can increase your market share and get more loyal customers to stay with you.”
"Most customers will measure KPIs in terms of performance, but I haven’t heard of any customers that measure it in terms of costs..."
Once you step out the car, Uber will ping through a notification asking for feedback on the experience, which is measured in a five-star rating system. This request comes through quickly meaning feedback is fresh, pure and accurate as the experience still lingers in the mind. To replicate this system in larger service interactions transactional Net Promoter Scores (NPS), Ziv suggests, should be carried out right after the engineer visit. “You want to capture the experience immediately,” he explains. “If the consumer gives a score to a technician then you know which technicians are rated higher and which ones are rated lower and you can deal with those by training, for example.”
Transactional NPS are one thread of KPI analysis which is used predominantly to monitor performance. However, for firms to fully embrace an Uber approach, Ziv feels that disrupting what you’ve always measured can give you the complete picture, including budget issues.
“Most customers will measure KPIs in terms of performance, but I haven’t heard of any customers that measure it in terms of costs,” he offers. “Imagine that you can have a breakdown of costs related to your technicians, so you know how much the cost of each technician visit is. If you have a budget leakage you can drill down all the way to see exactly which technician, which team, which region is causing this leakage and you can actually address it from a costing point rather than an operative KPI standpoint.”
The process of disruption is peppered with feedback and learning. It doesn’t run smoothly, and in fact, the bumps where new nuances are learned, and old nuances ironed smooth is par for the course. But which industry is well primed to integrate the Uber blueprint? Ziv thinks telecommunication companies (Telcos) will be in pole position. “In telco, the competition is the fiercest and companies,” he says. Telcos are usually the early adopters and they will be the first to adopt. Healthcare will follow and then other home and business service verticals will be next.”
However, this up-take could be a long process among other service providers; a process that according to Ziv, could take several years and is dependent on investment to fund the disruption. “Most of the service providers are still struggling. They haven’t yet adopted the technology or capabilities in order to provide that Uberization level of service,” he predicts.
‘Yet’ is the important word in this sentence. Service is set in on a path to Uberization and there is no turning back. Firms will realise it is the only strategy to pursue in order to hit peak efficiency and in ten years’ time (if not before) all service output will be operating this way.
As Ziv says, it’s time for the sector to stop talking and start walking. However, given the rate of Uber’s innovation running may be best.
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