DECEMBER 11 — Ms Herta Kriegner, a graphic artist from Austria, likes the German word, uber. It conveys, she told me recently, both a European sensibility and a sense of going above and beyond for a customer. In fact, she likes the word so much that 15 years ago, when she started her own small New York design firm, that was the name she gave it: Uber.
Naturally, Ms Herta listed Uber’s number in the Manhattan phone directory. She set it up so that after three rings, the calls were routed to her mobile phone. Her sister Elena, a jewellery designer, also used the Uber office space and the two women shared the phone number. For the next 12 years, this arrangement worked just fine.
Then, about three years ago, another Uber moved into town — Uber Technologies, the app-based car company that is competing with taxi companies in cities all over the world. In New York, a city where the taxi monopoly has meant a chronic shortage of cabs, Uber has become very popular.
But unlike her company, Uber does not have a phone number listed in the Manhattan directory. Like many online companies, it believes in the efficiency of communicating via email. The messy business of actually talking to people, well, that is just so old-fashioned, isn’t it?
But just because Uber does not want to talk to customers does not mean customers do not want to talk to Uber. Sometimes, there are problems that scream for human communication: An accident, a mobile phone left in a car, a mix-up with a bill. And sometimes, even though online communications may be more efficient, people are simply more comfortable talking to another human being.
Which is how it came to be that Ms Herta and Ms Elena Kriegner became experts in Uber’s customer service, or lack thereof. When customers or drivers tried to find a number for Uber in Manhattan, they often wound up with the number for their company instead. At first, the calls came every few days. But as the taxi firm has gained in popularity, the calls have come more frequently. Ms Herta showed me a phone log listing more than 500 Uber-related calls that her little company has received only since August.
“I already had my first call this morning,” Ms Herta told me when I went to see her and Ms Elena a few days ago. “It was 8.30am. A woman wanted a ride to the airport. I told her she needed the app.”
She and Ms Elena have received calls from drivers who are having trouble with their applications or questions about their insurance. There are mornings when Ms Herta wakes up, turns on her mobile phone and hears a voicemail from an unhappy Uber customer spewing expletives. Recently, she had to go to court to prove that a driver trying to get workman’s compensation was suing the wrong Uber.
What constitutes real customer service?
Early on, when Uber first learned of this problem, an executive named Mr Ed Casabian told Ms Herta that it was all because user-review site Yelp had mistakenly listed her company’s phone number — and that when it was removed, all would be well. The number was removed, but the calls kept coming. A short time later, she bumped into Mr Casabian at a trade show, where Uber had a booth. She asked him why the company did not talk to its customers or drivers.
“Because it’s not in our business model,” he replied. Thinking that the issue was cost, Ms Herta suggested that the taxi firm set up a call centre in India. “We don’t want our customers to talk to someone in India,” said Mr Casabian.
“You would rather have them talk to me?” she asked.
These days, Ms Herta and Ms Elena get between one and 10 calls a day. Not long ago, a woman called to report that her daughter had been harassed by an Uber driver and asked what she should do? Ms Elena told her that the taxi firm did not talk to customers and that she should instead go to the police and then to the news media. (In a statement — emailed, of course — an Uber spokesperson said the company’s “average response time” was less than an hour when customers emailed them with problems.)
As annoying as the calls have been, they have taught Ms Herta and Ms Elena a few things about what constitutes real customer service. One lesson is that many customers are always going to be more comfortable explaining a problem in a conversation with another person rather than in an impersonal email. Yes, it is inefficient and cuts into profit margins, but firms that actually care about their customers do it anyway. Zappos’ customer service number is on its home page. Amazon’s is not hard to find either.
Last week, Uber raised US$1.2 billion (RM4.15 billion), giving it a valuation of US$40 billion. The company’s chief executive Travis Kalanick said some of the money would be used to continue its breathtaking expansion. He also said the company needed to invest in internal growth and change.
Here is a suggestion: Hire some people who will answer the phone.
* Joe Nocera is a business journalist, author and op-ed columnist for The New York Times.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
