Utter Disappointment With Brand Inaction!

Dear fellow marketers,

This edition of Marketing Love Letters is less about 'Love' and more about 'Disappointment'.

Let me narrate a short story that lead to this repeated disappointment with a brand that is otherwise well appreciated.

The sad tale of Uber and Ola service...

Last week, my brother had to go to Ahmedabad from Mumbai for a trip. Being a frequent flier, he knew that on his return, he is going to have major issues getting an Uber or Ola from the airport.

He felt that paying for parking the car at the airport was better than wasting time and patience to get an Uber or Ola from the airport.

To make that possible, he even booked his to and fro flights such that they came and went from the same terminal. All so that he could park the car at that same terminal for the duration of the trip.

But sadly, his efforts were for naught.

Based on his previous few trips, he had assumed that A, B and C airlines operated out of T1 and the rest from T2. So he booked accordingly.

But after the booking was done, he found out that there was no such consistency.

Hence, unfortunately, he ended up with airlines operating out of different terminals.

So he was back to square one. He would have to be at the mercy of Ola and Uber to get home late in the night.

Related article: You can read unusual marketing ideas for Uber here.

Now, look at what actually happened after he landed at 12 am at the domestic airport.

As anticipated:

These are just two screenshots.

He still did not get an Uber. After waiting for at least 20 minutes, he finally gave up and took a prepaid taxi because it was pouring and it was the middle of the night.

Just imagine if it was a lady, instead of my brother, who was arriving late and needed to find safe transportation at that hour and in such weather, with luggage?

We women prefer Ola / Uber because there is trackability and hence, better safety.

Imagine, not being able to avail of that safety in the middle of the night all because of the sheer disregard of the drivers for their duty?

How utterly disappointing!

Uber and Ola, why have you'll so conveniently forgotten your original USP?!

Uber was launched to address a major problem in public transport (especially in countries like India) : access to safe taxis on-demand.

All these on-demand cab services took off in India because we were (and still are) beyond frustrated with regular cabbies and autorickshaws refusing point blank to take us if the fare is a short distance one.

So so many times, they didn't even stop despite seeing you wildly flagging them while vacant.

So all of us heaved a collective sigh of relief at finding new on-demand cabs that would take us however close by or farther off we wanted to go, no questions asked.

Alas, this promise was extremely short lived.

Within a short time after launch, Uber and Ola drivers too started behaving like regular cabbies : asking about our destination and then deciding to come or cancel.

I am sure no brand worth its salt can stay blind and deaf to such a glaring problem in its offering when it is being spoken about from the rooftops, so to speak.

Then why has no action been taken to tackle this problem??

That is the root of my disappointment with Uber, Ola and their entire management teams.

After 9 years of operation in India, if Uber still cannot find a solution to restore its USP and brand promise, then do they even deserve the patronage of us customers?

Since the last couple of years, I have barely taken Uber or Ola because I do not have the patience to wait and wait and wait and THEN have the drive cancelled and a new driver being assigned and THEN have him also cancel after making me wait some more.

I had rather stand on the road and flag a passing cab. If not the first two, I know at least the 3rd one would stop and take me as a passenger.

All within max 10-15 minutes.

Let me leave you with a question for the week, my dear fellow marketers, especially Uber's and Ola's marketers:

If despite hearing from a large chunk of your paying customers about their repeatedly faced pain point with yoffering, you don't do anything, then, pray tell WHAT will it take to get you to revamp/ repair/ overhaul your offering and restore your brand promise?

Total abandonment from ALL customers??!!