Customized service – a study on Ola Cab customer

service

Abstract

Customized service is the present buzzword of service sector. The case documents successfully the growth story of
Ola Cab and how they customized their service depending upon the customer and their emotions

Ola, which started as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai, now resides in the Silicon Valley of India
Bangalore, and is also known to be one of the fastest growing businesses in India, out-beating its
competitors Uber & Meru. Founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola is one of the
world’s largest ride-sharing companies. Ola integrates city transportation for customers and driver-
partners onto a mobile technology platform ensuring convenient, transparent, and quick service
fulfilment. Ola is focused on leveraging the best of technology and building innovative solutions ground-
up, which are relevant at global scale.

How did it start?

Ola initially started in the name of olatrip.com, a website through which you can book weekend trip
packages. It was founded by was founded by Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal and Mr. Ankit Bhati in December
2010. Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal has graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT
Bombay in 2008 and worked for Microsoft Research for 2 years .During their operation they have faced car
rental issues several times, so they decide to combine the car rental services and this was the foundation of
the current Ola cab. . Ola cabs are now referred as Ola. Ola is a Spanish term which means hello! This
indicates that hiring a cab at Ola as well as the services provided are easy and friendly as conveying hello.
Initially Ola operated from Mumbai as a taxi aggregator service and Bangalore is the current head office.
The company had expanded to a widely distributed network which comprised of 9, 00,000 vehicles across
110 cities and a million empowered entrepreneurs as driver-partners on the platform supported technically
by 6000+ employees who work tirelessly to provide better ride and service.

Ola also tried to incorporate autos on trial basis in Bangalore. After its success there it initiated the same idea
in Delhi, Pune and Chennai by December 2014. In the year 2015 Ola also started its auto services in
 Chandigarh, Indore and Jaipur. In March 2016, Ola started its two wheeler services in Bengaluru as a trial
venture.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

First mover advantage as a taxi aggregator in India • Drivers are the face of the company and hence
It achieved the no.1 rank in the sector after acquiring Taxi for their misbehaviour directly effects the brand
image
The services offered by ola are well appreciated by the public • Monetization becomes difficult due to the
• Increase in customer base due to strong network effect demand
• Online Application
• Financial condition of the company has improved after
investments by various firms

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

• Unorganised market is huge(85% of the total market) • Increasing competition

• Increase in the number of smart phone users • Heavy usage of cash to attract customer due to
• Rising in Disposable income strong financial root of Uber.
• Acquisition of smaller company of the market. • Customer loyalty is rare in this segment

MARKET SHARE

Over the last several years, India’s taxi wars have been limited to two players, Uber and Ola, which
together hold nearly 95% of the market. The firms have been at loggerheads since San Francisco-based
Uber entered India in 2013, two years after Ola was founded. But developments over the last few months
suggest that home grown Ola might be pulling away in India, even as Uber struggles with internal issues
and realigning its focus.

Ola operates in 110 cities, far more than Uber’s 31.This gap has persisted for several years now, which
has led to Ola reaching far more Indian smart phones users than its US competitor.

Ola caters to category of users through three different services: premium (prime, lux, rentals), low-cost
(including autorickshaws), and car-pooling. “We see a lot of growth coming from these three buckets,” an
Ola spokesperson told Quartz, adding, “Auto rickshaws are doing really good in tier-2 cities where
distances are shorter.”

The reach of taxi apps among Indian

smartphone users
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00% Ola
30.00% Uber
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

Ola due to its wider network has helped ola to increase its market share from 53% in July 2017 to 56.2%
in December, according to market intelligence firm KalaGato. During the same period, Uber’s share
slipped from 42% to 39.6%.The other industry player like Meru Cab,Jugnoo, Ixigo cabs contribute the
remaining 5% of the market share .

Market Share
Others
4%

Uber
40%
Ola
56%
Business Model

In the initial stage the booking was done through the numerous channel like call centre, website etc. But
later on Ola reconsidered their methodology and made appointments just through the application..Ola
does not own any of the cabs, ola act as a middle man to connect the taxi with the user at a fair rate by
providing technical help and quality service.

Any taxi driver with valid permits duly authorised and verified by transport authorities can sign up with
OLA and they could be either self-employed or work for an operator who owns multiple cars. Once they
register with OLA, driver will get access to the driver mobile app on their smart phone. The drivers have
a flexibility to decide their own time to login to OLA Application and accept requests for rides from
customers. They may choose to remain logged out of the system as per their convenience.

The source of revenue for OLA is the commission for each drive and the costs they incur are also quiet
low as they majorly have to invest only on the technology. Ola has turned out to be an awesome
innovation stage for transportation and offers simple alternatives of booking a taxi through an application
and offers adaptability to the driver as far as readiness to work.

Empowering the Drivers

Ola offered micro entrepreneurship for the drivers by helping the drivers buy their own cars at huge
discounts and affordable repayment scheme as they collaborated with leading car manufacturers.

Not only it has helped the drivers it also bought micro-entrepreneurship among the college students, it
serves as an extra income for the students to support their education and their family and they also seem
to enjoy driving. Since OLA does not have any strict contracts regarding days, hours and time period for
driving cars, it’s all on the time availability and convenience of the students.

Employee Training
When a driver joins Ola cab he has to attend a short session organised by them. It consists of two sessions
one technical and business session. Technical session give enough attention to the driver to make sure that
he understands the functionality and business session focus more on the ethics and also make them
understand how they would earn from partnering with Ola.

Due to the number of negative reviews from the customer by criticising the arrogant and miss-behaviour
of the cab drivers , Ola has started providing classes to the cab drivers about treating the customer with
polite and respect. Also Ola started giving classes to the drivers about the seriousness of sexual
harassment and it’s after effects. The selection criteria for the employee selection they have made police
verification compulsory. And if a driver consistently gets unfavourable feedback, we recall them to
undergo training again

TREATING CUSTOMER WITH CARE

For any company to perform well its customer satisfaction Index should always be on higher side. Below
mentioned scenarios explains how OLA CAB handled two different situation by providing world class
customer service experience by creating a memorable first ride to Ishwari Singh from PUNE and winning
the trust of a dissatisfied client, by giving a world class service

Case 1: Story of Ishwari Singh

"Midway through the trip, the baby's cries were suddenly heard in the backseat – the baby was born."

Ishwari Singh Vishwakarma, a 21-year old woman from Pune, went into labour during the wee hours of
last Monday morning.

It was three weeks before her expected delivery. Her husband, Mr Vishwakarma, booked a cab through
Ola to take her to the hospital, which arrived at 7:20 am. Mr Vishwakarma decided to ride his motorcycle
to the hospital, while her brother-in-law and mother-in-law accompanied Ishwari. But just as they had
travelled 4-5km, her husband got a call from his brother informing that Ishwara had to deliver the baby in
the cab itself

As soon as they travelled 4-5kms her situation became worse and cab driver said Looking at her situation,
I decided not to stop the cab anywhere and continued to drive to the hospital. However, after travelling
for hardly four to five km the customer delivered the baby in the backseat with the help of her relative.

They reached the hospital in 30 minutes, where a team of doctors were already waiting for Ishwari’s
arrival, as they were alerted by her husband in advance. They had to detach the umbilical cord in the cab
itself and later took both the mother and son inside the hospital for treatment.

After the incident, Ola announced that Ishwari and her son could travel in their cabs for the next five
years without any charge. “These rides can be availed by a special coupon, named after the baby,” read
the release. Ola also sent the same cab driver to take the mother and son home from the hospital
Interestingly it was the maiden cab ride for Ishwari which have became a memorable life
lif experience for
her family. Ola came up with a genuine acknowledgement by showing his creative world class service by
announcing officially in tweeter about the free ride package specially customized for that family.

Case 2: Frustrated customer to a Brand advocate

It was Nov 21st and a start-up co-founder

founder in Delhi needed to book a cab for his wife and daughter, who
were supposed to go to a birthday party in the evening. In order to avoid any last minute issues and
booking traffic, he pre booked Ola cabs, one by 11 AM for 5:15 PM departure from his home.

At 4:50 PM he received a call from his wife expressing her fru

frustration
stration towards Ola cabs, who would just
called her to inform about cancellation of the cab due to non
non-availability.
ty. He was about to enter into an
important meeting but found himself in a difficult situation despite his best effort to book the cab well in
time. He started looking for other options and ccalled other cab providers in Delhi.

In the middle of his efforts, he received a message from Ola cabs with details of the driver for the cab. He
called the driver only to realize that the driver was at least 40 km away from his home and thus would not
be of any help. He tried his best talking to other service providers but couldn’t find success till next 30
minutes. Finally, he gave up and had to accept that his 66-year
year daughter will have to miss much awaited
birthday party of one of her best friends. Obviously it impacted his participation in the meeting at office.
He reached home frustrated and listened to his wife’s experience in dealing with Ola cabs’ customer
service personnel. He decided that he would at least write a detailed review tomorrow. In order to show
his frustration, he tweeted his experience with Ola ca
cab

As soon as he tweeted he got a response from the Ola cabs apologizing for the inconvenience caused and
asked the details of the trip and promised to do something.

He shared the trip details and he told them that there’s nothing they can
an do now to control
c the damage.
Ola customer service department texted him that they will call him tomorrow. On the very next day he
received a call from the senior customer relationship manager at Ola cab. The representative patiently
heard his experience and once again
in apologized. The representative mentioned that he had listened to the
conversations customer’s wife had with Ola cabs personnel a day before and deeply empathized with the
customer for spoiling the party especially for the child
child.. Without any argument and justification of the
mistake Ola representative admitted the mistake they have committed by incorrect allotment of the cab
and the representative assured the customer that they will not let this experience repeat and will also do
something to make up for their mistake
mistake.. Still he was not happy with the service and again thought of
writing review against Ola cab. After reaching home, he was pleasantly surprised to know that his
daughter was happy for the gift she had received from Ola cabs. Ola people have sent
s a birthday cake and
box with a letter asking apology to the kid for spoiling the best friend’s birthday party.
 The box carried this message

He was surely touched and decided to forgive Ola cabs and give them another chance. Obviously, he
cancelled the idea of writing a review. From there he changed from a frustrated customer to a brand
advocate, he thanked Ola cab for showing concern and solving the issues. He referred Ola to his friends
and registered his two taxi car with Ola Cab.

KEY TAKEWAYS

• Quick acknowledgement pacifies a frustrated customer: The moment Ola cabs

acknowledged their mistake on Twitter and promised to call tomorrow, the frustrated customer
was bit relaxed. If you can give the ‘experience of being heard’ to a dissatisfied customer, you’ve
done half of the job.
• Genuine Apology: There was no attempt from Ola cabs to defend and justify their mistake.
The fact that they took responsibility of the situation encouraged the frustrated customer to give
Ola another chance.
• Creativity works even in crisis situations: Ola tried their best to know the intensity of the
emotional damage caused due to their irresponsibility. Rather than concluding the issue in just a
phone call Ola team has send a Birthday cake as well as a note asking apology and gift of free ride
with his mother.

Ola has been always criticised for the bad customer service and poor behaviour from their customer
support team but this incident has shown that Ola cab started improving on their customer support team
by valuing customers more.The above mentioned cases explain how Ola developed creative service
strategy depending upon the type of the customers. In the later part Ola converted their exisisting
frustrated customer to a brand advocate by showing genuine apology and retained the customer.
In the former one Ola has converted their maiden customer to a brand loyal and delighted customer by
providing world class service by respecting the situation.
This both cases show how Ola has shown flexibility in providing excellent customer service by without
sticking with the documented rules and regulations but modifying according to the situation and the
customer emotions.
CONCLUSION
Ola has seen a tremendous growth in the taxi market sector. There is surely no looking back for Ola as it
is improving day by day in every prospect. Revenue of Ola has increased almost 10 folds over the past
four years. Today, it is the largest cab service provider in the country. Ola has successfully achieved
public support and has created a buzz about its brand in the market. Furthermore if some more
technological advancement is done at Ola then the customer base can be increased by providing better
experience to the customer. Ola now has shifted its focus on target markets and is focused on providing
desired service to the people in the target market. The economic segregation depending upon the income
group and requirement of the people is well appreciated. On one hand Ola promotes its brand by
traditional methods and creative service. At the same time it does not forget to highlight its name in social
safety, creating social awareness and promoting acts of humanity. The key element in making Ola a
successful brand is the efficient and quick accessibility which is offered by the firm. The firm not only
improves through its intense promotional activities but also due to the services and comfort offered to
users and employees.