Challenge 19 of 52: Regular Taxi vs Uber vs MyTeksi

What do users want? Fast, cheap, and safe mode of transportation. What choice do they have now? They have regular taxis, taxis augmented by MyTeksi and UberX.

Regular Taxis
Truth to be told, taxis are a regular punching bag. The chief complaint is wildly inconsistent service. The car condition can range from super clean to intoxicating kretek smoking den; charge by the meter to arbitarily exorbitant charges; polite professional drivers to downright criminals.

It’s tempting to lump all these taxi drivers into one category but the reality is they come from all walks of life. On one hand there’s people who work as taxi drivers as last resort, some are just part-timers (including civil servants!). On the other extreme, there’s ex-top civil officials (ie; JKR Engineers) who drive taxis to fill their time and genuinely seek to serve people post-retirement.

MyTeksi


MyTeksi seems to smooth out the wild inconsistencies in taxi service. So far, I’m yet to find a rude MyTeksi driver. They are a pleasant bunch of drivers. In fact, I found one of the most professional driver ever through MyTeksi.

However there’s still some inconsistencies such as whether who should pay for the booking fee — some choose to absorb it while some pass the cost to the passenger. Other than that; we can expect that the drivers charge according to the meter, dress decently and drive safely.

In short, taxi service as spelled out in government regulations.

UberX

The first ride with UberX is in a brand-new MyVi. No idea whether it is owned by Uber or the driver, forgot to ask. The ride is from Avenue K to IKEA with a young male driver and the total charge is RM18. The small car strained a bit climbing hilly highways but overall experience is still good.

Only when I came back from IKEA with a taxi I realized a critical difference — UberX uses SmartTag lane while taxis are still bound to cash lanes. This create a remarkable difference in experience as it shaves off precious minutes. Imagine how valuable it is when you are chasing a bus trip or an important meeting.

That was before SPAD issue any statement so to be thorough another round is required.

As for the second ride the app informed me that I’m getting a Mini Countryman. Wow! But then a Nissan Teana came along and picked me up from Low Yat Plaza to KLCC. The car clearly have a limousine license and the driver is an ex-VIP driver who is bored chauffering them to the same place.

The icing on the cake for UberX is there’s no need to whip out my wallet and fumbling with small change. So you can focus on getting your stuff out from the car and whatever you wanted to do next.

Thoughts on Related Issues
No Internet?
Tough luck, IKEA was super congested on Merdeka weekend so no Internet service. I can’t hail UberX nor MyTeksi. Even though the signal indicator shows full strength with 3G all packets get dropped and I have to wait until the crowd disperse before able to use either app.

Surge

This is the bane of any kind of centralized commercial clout. Uber’s algorithm can automatically drive the price up when the demand is high. On the other hand, taxi drivers at bottlenecks such as train stations and bus stations form mini-cartels to impose an all time arbitary surge pricing.

Credit Card
Uber requires credit card and that might be a deal breaker for many. They fear unauthorized usage or over-charge. Uber has mistakenly over-charged me once but later promptly refunded in the form of ride credit. Recent survey by Nielsen indicates that more than half of Malaysian respondents (55%) say they are either hesitant or would not shop online and use their payment card details on either a smartphone or tablet device although their personal information is protected.

Note: This is a part of my take on Uber vs Malaysian authorities showdown. It was originally published on Medium and later syndicated by TechInAsia.

Challenge 13 of 52: Chatime Menu

Sometimes, UX problem crops up due to the pace of innovation. This grotesque menu is the victim of Chatime's success in creating so many variation of beverages. The dense menu is frankly intimidating to new customers and made old customers stick to whatever drink they tasted before. That's a waste since it will discourage new customers and make it difficult to increase revenue per customer.

Personally, I hesitated several time before buying anything from Chatime until I'm guided by a friend who patronized Chatime in Australia before. Even that he sticks from whatever he bought before and I only picked among the featured drinks. I consider myself fairly adventurous when it come to food and drinks so Chatime barrier seems disporpotionately high.

There's some visual hierarchy in this menu. The top bar features flagship drinks and this is a saving feature. Customers usually just order from the featured line. But then, more adventurous customers and those who don't like any of the feature drinks will have a hard time navigating the ala-carte menu.

A clear visual hierachy is missing here, choice of drinks and their personalization options sits on the same level and only separated by different color blocks. This is a stark contrast to Subway's logical layout that guides customers step-by-step; from bread, filling, cheese, condiments, sauces and sides.

Thus, a better menu design should guide the customers step-by-step. From the base drink, to sugar and ice options. Finally, the upsell to toppings. This should make it easier for new and old customers alike.

Challenge 8 of 52: Laptop Repair Service

[L-R] Mr. Edzwan, Mr. Syahrudin & Mr. Ifwat during our Business Model Canvas coaching session

This week I had the chance to meet Mr. Edzwan, one half of Dr Laptop.my. It's a laptop repair company originally based in Bandar Baru Bangi before moving to Ipoh. He attended my Business Model Canvas coaching and we discussed the Channel block in detail.

Typically, most customers come personally to the shop with their broken laptop. This limited the scope of potential customer to Ipoh City and surrounding area. Few are willing to courier their broken laptop and those who are willing didn't know the best way of securing their laptop for shipping.

Currently, they suggest the customer to find bubble wrap or egg cartons to pad their laptop. However, not all customers have the time to find the packing materials. Furthermore, how to establish stronger credibility to earn enough trust for potential customers to send in their broken laptop? If they are able to do that, it will expand their scope of potential customers nationwide.

Inspired by Zappos, I suggested that they provide packing kit to provide convenience their customer. Their customer can bank-in a minimal amount of money first and receive a package complete with bubble wraps and a sturdy box to secure their laptop. To step it up further, they can also provide pre-paid waybill to make it even easier to ship the laptop back to the repair center.

The goal of this User Experience re-design is to reduce friction and resistance for customer to move from Evaluation phase to Purchase phase. Less resistance means increased conversion rate for the business and increased revenue. This re-design also will convince that the Delivery phase will be a reassuring experience for the customer.

Need ideas to innovate in your business? Contact me at firdaus.ariff@gmail.com