How your consumer's will guide your future business
The smallest changes in industries can highlight what consumer needs need to be addressed and how quickly it will affect your business. Here's how staying on top of the trends will allow you to stay on top of the market.
What did Uber look at? They looked at a process that sucked.
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Uber disrupted an industry massively, yes? And they really made a dent.
Here's what they didn't invent. They didn't invent traveling by motorcar. They didn't invent traveling in the back of the motorcar.
They didn't even invent traveling in the back of the motorcar with somebody else driving who was paid to do so.
All of that stuff existed.
What did they look at? They looked at a process that sucked.
Does anybody remember ordering a Minicab? Let's see if the process, my experience, is anything like yours.
So, you need to get to the airport tomorrow morning. You need to be there for 9am. So, what you do is you call today to book the Minicab. It will take you about an hour to get there, so you ask it to be with you at 8 am.
Reasonable conversation happens, Minicab is booked. 8:02 am the next morning, where's the Minicab? It's not there, right? So, you're making a phone call through and what do they say?
What do they say, “It’s on its way!”
What did they say next? 8:17, it clearly wasn't around the corner, was it? Finally arrives. You get into the car after putting your own bag in the trunk.
You get into the car and the driver says, “What? Where are you going?”
I'm like, “I told you this yesterday!”
But you politely tell them anyway, right?
And then they say, “Which route do you want to take to get there?”
And you're like, “That's your job!
But anyhow, you still navigate them to be able to get there. Finally, you get to the destination, correct? Running a little later than anticipated.
They say, “That's $37.42.”
So, you hand them your credit card and they say, “Cash only.”
So, you rummage around in your bag finding the only cash you could find. You hand them a $50 bill and they say, “No change!”
So, Uber show up - create a process that is slightly more efficient for the consumer than that - and what did the Minicab companies do?
They say, “It's not fair. Just, not fair!”
And how well did that work out for them? Didn't work out too good did it?
They stomped their feet, they tried to push through legislation. They said every version of, “It's not fair.”
Yet still, who won? The consumer won. Not Uber. The consumer decides what level of service they're looking for. Not the company. The consumer decides.
And Uber won because they put the consumer first.