Case Study_______________________________________________ CASE IDEA (Sai Rishik) Program: MBA, Term II Subject: Service Operations Theory Topic: Service delivery failure Company: Ola Problems: Cab drivers cancelling booking requests due to complex pick-up locations and destinations. Timeline: Recent (Incident happened 9 months back) Learning Objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Understanding importance of customer satisfaction. Ways to improve service effectiveness. How to identify problems of customer through feedback. Identifying problems faced by employers in service delivery Solution based thinking approach Case Study_______________________________________________ OLA Cab Service delivery failure Rishi is a 21-year-old college student from Hyderabad. He had an important doctor’s appointment booked for his father, Mr.Balaji who recently underwent a surgical treatment. It was crucial to meet the doctor on time as Mr.Balaji complained of uneasiness and displayed signs of weakness early in the morning. The hospital they have been visiting was 12Km away from their residence and would take about 30-40 minutes to reach by car. Rishi decided to book a taxi online on “Ola Cabs” to the hospital. The area where Rishi’s Apartment stood was about 2 km uphill from the main road which was fairly distant from the main city. The availability of cabs were very few in that location which created problems for Rishi to book a ride. When the first ride was booked, the driver cancelled the ride after 5 minutes of booking without informing. Rishi immediately attempted to book another ride. Ten minutes passed until a new ride was booked followed by incoming call from the driver. The driver asked Rishi where his destination was as they are unaware of the location until the booking OTP is provided to them after the customer boards the cab. The new ride booked was 15 minutes away from our pickup location and took up a lot of time to navigate through the GPS system. The driver stopped picking up calls after a few minutes and stopped giving the updates. Eventually the delay led to cancellation of the booking from our end. We tried booking a cab for the third time and a new ride was booked within 2 minutes. The driver called to ask the destination. Rishi was reluctant at first because it is their duty to serve the customer and drop them wherever they want to go. However on hearing the location the ride was cancelled again. Rishi was frustrated with the utterly unprofessional and irresponsible attitude from the cab drivers. He made a final booking attempt and managed to get a cab to the hospital, however the price of the ride increased than what it was previously set. Rishi had a very poor experience from the cab service which wasted a lot of their time especially during an emergency situation. Problems surrounding the delivery service From the above incident we observed certain issues that was faced by the customer and the cab drivers. One of the major difficulties faced by the cab drivers was navigating customer’s pickup location. This issue is very common if the cab drivers aren’t provided with proper training on how to use the GPS. It is not always necessary that the pickup address of the customers will be easy to locate, and the drivers must be prepared for the same. Case Study_______________________________________________ The second big problem involved drivers cancelling bookings due to distant drop location of the customers. Booking cancellations due to discomfort of covering far destinations is inexcusable in most cases. Exceptions to this would be going for an outstation travel in regular booking. However, this defeats the purpose of an online cab booking that is meant to reduce inconvenience for users unlike hiring an autorickshaw. Another challenge that Rishi faced was lower cab availability in unpopular areas. There are many customers like Rishi who face similar issues of lower volume of cabs available near their residence. This is one of the challenges for the Ola Cabs company, to ensure operations in such areas. When there is communication gap between the service provider and the consumer, it creates a hindrance in smooth operations leading to poor feedbacks impacting the brand image of the company. Post service experience In Rishi’s case it was crucial that he took his father to the hospital on time. But with the experience they faced Rishi decided to write an angry complain to the Ola customer service. This case presents a customer experience impacting the trust over a certain brand. Rishi will think twice before using Ola’s services next time he decides to book a cab. There are many other players in the market who are primary competitors to Ola. Rishi might be willing to try out the services of other brands like Uber and Meru Cabs who are the core competitors of Ola. Questions to ponder 1. In what ways Rishi’s customer experience will impact OLA’s brand image? 2. What steps should OLA take to ensure service delivery is smooth and successful? 3. Who should be held accountable for the experience Rishi faced? Rishi himself or Ola services? 4. How should Ola customer service respond to an unsatisfied customer? 5. Should Ola take action against the drivers who caused inconvenience to customers like Rishi?
