I had heard good things about Uber, but I wanted to try it for myself. Hailing a complete stranger from your phone is intimidating at first, but now that I’ve taken the plunge I’m hooked.
My first Uber experience began with my downloading the app at the Nashville airport. I entered my credit card and additional information to build myself a profile. I was heading to Chicago, and needed an easy way to get around. After arriving at Midway, I navigated multiple trains (including the Metra) to meet a friend outside of town for dinner. It was not the easiest way to travel. So, I decided to come back via Uber. I was able to request an estimate on the fare, before I requested pick-up. Once I asked for pick up, it showed me a picture of my driver, his license plate number, and the kind of car that he drove. On top of that, I was able to see where his car was on the Uber map, and how long it would take him to get there. He was 7 minutes away, so I didn’t have to wait long. Once I arrived at my hotel there was no payment to be made, because it was already stored in Uber. I rated him as a driver and he rated me as a passenger. That is one way they try to keep tabs on the crazies.
I asked the driver what the process was to work for Uber. He said they did a 7-year background check and asked for a host of additional information. It’s good to know Uber is doing some level of due diligence on their drivers. Will I use Uber again? Absolutely. It was cheaper than a taxi, and it was nice knowing that my driver spoke English.
Uber and Lyft are reshaping the transportation industry, much like Netflix did to the movie rental business. Right now they are just in larger cities, but they will likely be expanding to other cities in the future. This is a reminder that If you are a small business owner, you must watch the trends in your business. Don’t get left behind as consumer needs change. If we keep delivering service the same way that we always have, we might find ourselves as dinosaurs in our industry. Some things never change, but many things do, often at exponential speeds in the digital age. We must all look for ways to adapt to serve our clients and customers more and more effectively. If we don’t someone else will.
Speaking of that…have you tried our app? It is one of the sharpest on the market. Did you know you can even manage other accounts (like your Chase Credit Card) within the dashboard of our app? Let one of our Deposit Solutions Partners show you how to manage your financial accounts more wisely through our awesome app.