Hunter Hood

Uber Case Study

A. Introduction and Summary:

Uber has been under fire from the public recently from a lot of different problems consumers and
non-consumers see their company. This all starts with how their “public satisfaction” is
somehow amazing based on their ratings system where riders and drives are just handing out five
star ratings like its candy to remain being able to use the system. Dana the person writing the
article talks about how a driver is asking to get good feedback just in case because he knows he
job relies on the feedback he receives and vice versa for the rider. This has struck an epidemic
for everyone involved including, Uber, their customers, and the drivers. The company is truly
struggling with how it is more worried about the money and not actually about the drivers and
riders that use the Uber service. People that have noticed how little Uber cares have started even
a hashtag “#DeleteUber” which has had some part of Uber dealing with over 200,000 deletes of
the mobile app worldwide. This is a significant “punch to the stomach” for Uber who cannot
afford to lose that type of market share because how they are viewed from the communities that
use this service.
B. Statement of the Problem:
a. Uber is not connecting and listening to their customers or drivers about how
customers and “employees” response is just a number on a scale and is not a true
indicator of accurate feedback they are receiving.
i. Causes:
1. Flawed Rating system on both customer side and driver
2. The grading system is not a true indicator of the experience
3. Uber is more worried about the dollars than the actual experience
for the involved parties.
ii. Symptoms:
1. Negative reviews
2. The system prioritizes a “5 star” rating to use the service
3. Uber is losing their customers because of their money-oriented
view on the experience
4. Uber is disengaged from both customers and drivers
iii. Uber has to decide a new structure for their grading system or their
dominance in the transportation field will be short lived.
C. Decision Criteria and Alternative Solution:
a. An effective solution for Uber will be changing the rating structure to include
more criteria and feedback.
b. Alternative Solutions:
i. Take advantage of their social media platforms and reach out to customers
directly asking for concerns or ideas to give their company a customer-
friendly feel.
ii. Reach out to customers in a mass email which will give their customers an
opportunity to give actual feedback on their experiences.
iii. The rating system in place is not going to “cut it” and will need to change
the structure by changing to a NPS scale which will base the experience
on whether they would recommend the service to others.
D. Recommended Solution
 Hunter Hood

a. I would recommend option number one because they do not have to throw away
what has made them successful, but grow on the things that they are not using
correctly. I recommend that because Uber is a unique service that has taken over
the world with its use of the community to create an easy experience for
customers to travel from destination to destination. Also, Twitter is used by many
of the most successful companies now and works create on creating a customer
friendly environment like Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A, and Starbucks. All of these
companies have had great PR from the experience they created on Twitter and has
worked great for them overall. Lastly, to leave the negative feedback they
received before it is easy to advertise and get the word out that Uber has grown
from the previous mistakes . Now with this recommendation of going the social
media route you do face some risks. A major risk is that it might not be enough
for a lot of your customers simply because the grading system will for the most
part remain the same. Also, it is an easier route for the company which for some
could see this tactic as lazy. All in all, although the risk of this social media route
the positives outweigh the negatives. It is an easy way to get the word out
efficiently and fast to change the negative outlook on Uber.