Today’s travelers have come a long way from waiting in queues, haggling with drivers, and negotiating prices to book a taxi - all hallmarks of a fragmented, largely de-regularized, and monopolistic taxi transportation system. But now, the passengers wield considerable power and carry it in their hands in the form of smartphones and tablets, when it comes to getting a taxi ride.
In the modern realm of on-demand taxi aggregators, taxi booking app like Uber has carved a huge market for itself. This has been possible only because of its robust taxi booking and dispatch system , customer friendly approach, and adaptability to local needs.
Inspired by the stupendous success of taxi booking app services like Uber and Ola in India, many other aspiring players have emerged in this flourishing industry. This business model offers numerous profit making opportunities for enterprising entrepreneurs but at the same time has its share of pitfalls also.
How to build a lasting business
Following the footsteps of a popular app like Uber and Ola, many aspiring entrepreneurs forayed into the sector but are yet to achieve the success they hoped for. Many of them had to suffer significant losses and had to shut their business down eventually. Why did that happen? No single reason could be pinpointed for this. However, it can be partly attributed to haphazard planning and shoddy execution along with poor market understanding.
To ensure that the future endeavors for an app for taxi booking and dispatch system do not meet a similar fate and are able to thrive like Uber and Ola, we have developed a step by step guide that can be followed to develop a well-rounded taxi booking app.
What should your Taxi Booking App look like?
The foundation of successful taxi booking app depends greatly on its user friendliness and comprehensive features. The app should be efficient and inculcate a dynamic taxi booking and dispatch system.
Some mandatory features that should be included are prompt booking and cancellation, live tracking and multiple payment options. To cover a wide audience, the app should be offered for all popular operating systems. Options to use local languages can help in capturing an even wider audience.
Accounts and Wallets
Provide users with login facility to make them more involved with the app. Login facilities enable users to use pre-payment systems like wallets and cards, which further improves the cab booking and payment experience.
Fare Estimation
By giving an approximate idea of the ride cost beforehand, many subsequent issues can be completely avoided.
Comprehensive Payment Options
For the comfort of customers include all possible payment options like Cash, Net Banking, Credit or Debit Cards along with Mobile Wallets.
Exhaustive Choices
Bombard the customer with a plethora of choices and user experience will shoot up dramatically. Offer different options such as rides by type of cars and additional services specifically for the economy, business, and luxury travelers, to get that exclusivity factor. Rideshare services will help capture bargain-seeking customers.
Safety of Travelers
It is important to make customers, especially women, using your app feel safe. Provide detailed driver information along with additional features like SOS option, Remote Tracking of the vehicle, Sharing driver and ride information with anyone in the contact list. Make the traveler feel totally at ease.
Tracking of Taxis
Increase the functionality of your app by adding a tracking feature with real-time taxi positioning with GPS and Maps. This sublime feature enables the users to find the exact location of the driver and check the route being taken.
Offer Incentives
Appreciate the customers for their patronage with occasional discounts, cashback offers, free rides, etc. to keep them involved with your services.
Cancellation of Ride
Provide the option to the customer to cancel a booking only at a nominal fee, if they have a change in their plans.
Distinct Features
Don’t just follow the herd. You have to stand out from the competitors. Incorporate features like booking now ride later, freedom to choose car variants, etc. to enable the customer to feel in charge.
Customer Care
Round the clock customer care services to answer all queries and resolve all disputes in quick time to ensure a great taxi booking experience.
Success cannot be guaranteed; it has to be earned in any business, but this step by step guide will definitely put you on the right path to developing an interesting taxi booking app . Such planned endeavor will definitely succeed with your client servicing and revenue generation objectives.
Ritesh Patil is the co-founder of Mobisoft Infotech that helps startups and enterprises in mobile technology. He loves technology, especially mobile technology. He’s an avid blogger and writes on mobile application. He works in a leading iPhone app development company with skilled iPhone app developers that has developed innovative mobile applications across various fields such as Finance, Insurance, Health, Entertainment, Productivity, Social Causes, Education and many more and has bagged numerous awards for the same.
Post new comment
Please Register or Login to post new comment.