You can soon book an Uber through call or text in local languages.

Key Highlights

Uber India is in the plans of opening a call centre using which the customers can book a taxi by calling the helpdesk.

The company wants to make its app more accessible by introducing this feature.

This feature will also be beneficial to senior citizens who aren’t comfortable with navigating an app

Rise hailing app soon plans to make the task of booking a taxi when there is no 4G connection easier. Uber India is in the plans of opening a call centre using which the customers can book a taxi by calling the helpdesk. While this new step by the company might not sound like much but refraining from using call based booking systems is one of the major reasons that has helped Uber to lower its operation cost and expand quickly.

Currently, the company does run a call centre for passengers in emergency situations and drivers. The riders can press the SOS button and will get a call back on their number. However, this isn’t enough for the passengers that are not familiar with the navigation of the app. Unable to operate the app, these customers forgo booking a cab. Thus, the call based booking service will be a boon for such passengers.

Related : More than 10 lakh Auto Drivers go on strike demanding Ola and Uber shut down operations in Maharashtra

The company wants to make its app more accessible by introducing this feature. This feature will let its users book cabs via a call or text in their local language as opposed to just English or Hindi. This feature will also be beneficial to senior citizens who aren’t comfortable with navigating an app

The call centre facility for booking cabs was already in use by Ola. However, once Uber entered the market, the cab company had to shut down its call centre operations to cut its costs and look for better ways to expand. The company chose to focus on running their operations efficiently rather than maintaining a call centre that was time and money consuming.

Uber is now taking cues from its biggest rival in an attempt to expand its reach in the Indian market.   

 Apart from this, in order to compete better with its competitor Ola, Uber has also set up a Customer Obsession team in the country. This team is tasked with providing customer engagement platforms that will be end-to-end. The team also functions to improve the overall customer experience to its users. They use ML supported, data-driven solutions for the same. This team is all set to double in size as the year comes to an end.

Related : Government to push ride-hailing platforms Ola, Uber to convert 40% of their fleet into electric.

There are over 500 employees working in the engineering division of Uber in Bangalore and Hyderabad technology centres. The employees are expected to grow by 50% by 2020.

Also, Uber is currently testing the booking of their services in local Indian languages via call and texts. They are looking to bring on board the sections of the society that they have been neglecting as of now. However, this feature is currently available to only selected customers. While helping certain sections gain better access to their services, the ride-hailing company also wants to keep a check on the running cost of the call centres.

Apart from call centres, the company is also looking at other access channels such as live chat or even artificial intelligence. If Uber starts using AI, soon a customer will get an automatic refund if the driver takes a long route or if they are overcharged even before the customer can raise the issue with the company. 

Stay connected with us for latest updates!