Why Ride Share Is Dangerous For Your Dealerships and What You Can Do About It
What You Are Going To Learn
On this page, you are going to learn why having a "Business Objectives" document is critical to the overall success of your shuttle department. Get the contents of this document right and you will have a measuring tool that will allow you to analyze potential solutions and determine their true viability.
Using your business objectives document, you will analyze and determine if ride share is a truly viable option for your shuttle department. This document will reveal how ride share actually jeopardizes your long-term relationship with your customers and prevents you from meeting your business objectives.
So, let’s begin with establishing what your shuttle departments business objectives are.
Shuttle Department Business Objectives
Why Having a Business Objectives Document Is Critical
Having a comprehensive list of business objectives establishes the basis and standard for:
- Determining if the department is running optimally.
- Having an objective yardstick to compare competing solutions.
- Evaluating whether a specific tool meets your objectives.
Proposed Content For Your Business Objectives Document
1 - Do The Obvious
Be safe, legal and ethical. Don't do anything that puts yourself, your employees or your customers in jeopardy. This one is so obvious that it goes without saying.
2 - Be Effective
This means use the right tool for the right job: one that manages your entire shuttle department. All team members must have easy access to the information they need to do their job successfully. All customers should have easy access to information that will keep them well informed and prevent them from complaining.
3 - Strive For Total Efficiency and Zero Waste
Realistically you may not be able to achieve zero waste, but you should be aware of the areas where waste is occurring and attempt to eliminate it. Do not waste any limited resources including money, labor, and time, not only yours but your customers as well. Use the least expensive tools that get the total job done.
4 - Strive For Total Customer Satisfaction
Realistically, you may not be able to achieve total customer satisfaction, but it is something for which you can strive. Everything that can be done should be done to let your customers know you value their opinion, their time and appreciate their business. Improving customer satisfaction will improve your CSI scores and Yelp reviews.
5 - Strive To Generate Revenue
It is important to set yourself up to generate revenue. As long as you provide true value to your customers, you have the right to ask for compensation. At the grocery store, the deli counter offers a free slice of cheese in hopes you buy a pound. This is smart marketing because everyone wins.
6 - Be In Control and Be Proactive
Be in control and put yourself in a position that if your department has a problem or your customer has a legitimate complaint, you can address and fix it.
Be proactive and fix problems permanently so that no one else experiences the same issue.
7 - Strive For Excellence
Excellence is a healthy striving to be outstanding or above average. The only prerequisite for excellence is being open to change.
Do You Agree With The Above Business Objectives?
In the interest of saving yourself time, if you don't agree with these business objectives, then you can stop reading and click away. Because in a moment, you will be introduced to a solution that addresses and solves all these business objectives!
If you agree that the document should contain the above list, great! If not, make it yours by editing the list to include any other additional items. In either case, we will refer to this list as "Your Business Objectives Yardstick" or "YBOY" for short. :)
Evaluating Ride Share Using "Your Business Objectives Yardstick"
Pro
1
If you are considering implementing ride share that means you are open to other ideas.
Agreement of YBOY #7.
Cons
1
Ride share means no brand loyalty. You might be putting your customers in a nicer car than what your dealership sells.
Violation of YBOY #3. Waste of dealership's advertising dollars.
2
Ride share means no personal touch. The last touch you have with your customers is outsourced to an unknown person who doesn't care about your brand, your dealership or your customers.
Violation of YBOY #4. Potentially hurts your CSI scores.
Violation of YBOY #6. You have no control over the ride share experience.
3
No Safety Control. Zero control over how fast and how safe their driver is driving.
Violation of YBOY #1. Be safe.
Violation of YBOY #2. You don't have access to the driver's historical safety record.
Violation of YBOY #2. You don't have a way to monitor the safety of the current ride.
Violation of YBOY #6. You have zero control over their driver.
4
Outsourcing In-House Talent. Dealerships are in the transportation business and ride share means you are outsourcing your transportation needs.
Violation of YBOY #3. Waste of resources.
5
No Control Over Conversation. If the ride share driver is passionate about religion, politics, underwater basket weaving or is just rude and unpleasant, it could be offensive to your customers.
Violation of YBOY #3. Potentially hurts your CSI scores.
Violation of YBOY #4. The ride share driver will not thank your customers for doing business with wiNo control over the driver's conversational interests.
Violation of YBOY #6. No control over the driver's conversational interests.
6
Ride share drivers use their personal vehicle and have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. It doesn't usually happen but they do have the right. If your customer is not wearing a face mask, is smoking, has an odor, has a pet or for any other reason, the driver can refuse service. If that happens, who is your customer going to blame? That's right, you.
Violation of YBOY #4. This results in longer customer wait times.
Violation of YBOY #6. No control over the driver's personal vehicle
7
Expensive. The dealership pays the ride share service for each individual ride.
Violation of YBOY #3. Less expensive options are available.
8
No way to forecast daily, monthly or yearly ride share costs. No way to forecast an accurate budget.
Violation of YBOY #2. Doesn't give your accounting department the information they need.
9
Doesn't provide an opportunity to generate revenue. In fact, ride share prohibits generating revenue. In order for your shuttle department to generate revenue, you must first have a shuttle department.
Violation of YBOY #5.
Conclusion
By using "Your Business Objectives Yardstick", we found 9 areas and 16 violations. If there were only 1 or 2 at the most, then it might be a justifiable risk...but 16??? You tell us.
Ride share is an excellent option for personal use. It is cheap and allows the rider to have a night out on the town and drink to his hearts content while remaining safe. This is the proper and intended use of ride share.
Businesses on the other hand tend to have a set of standards on how they want their customers treated and tend to have many of their own customers who need rides. This makes ride share expensive and leaves the business out of control.
So, What Is The Answer?
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