Chat apps and ride-sharing: How many apps are enough?
Discover the benefits of integrating a chat app into your ride-sharing service and learn how it can simplify and enhance the entire ride-hailing experience.
Can you imagine your life without ride-sharing or food delivery apps? Probably not! Gone are the days of waving down a taxi on the street corner or waiting in long queues at transportation hubs.
Ride-hailing services have become an important part of our daily routine. From ordering food to booking rides, we rely on such applications to simplify our lives. The same goes for the more environmentally friendly version of carpooling like UberPool. It’s likely you probably have a number of apps downloaded on your phone for these kinds of services.
However, as the number of ride-sharing apps continues to increase, it begs the question: how many apps are enough? Many users are tired of downloading or using multiple apps on their smartphones. Therefore, rather than trying to tempt users away from their favored chat apps, businesses and brands must meet them where they are.
What are ride-sharing apps?
Ride-sharing is an on-demand service app that connects people who need a ride with drivers who are ready to give them one.
Popular ride-sharing apps like Uber, Lyft, Bolt, and others have made it easier for people to get around at an affordable price. Their ease of use offers a level of convenience that traditional taxis cannot match. They also usually offer effective and seamless sign-up processes that maintain the highest levels of security
But this is just the beginning. Experts predict that the growth of ride-sharing apps will continue to skyrocket in the coming years, as more and more people opt for these services over car ownership.
Ride-sharing statistics for 2024
Here’s a quick run down of some trends and statistics to look out for in the ride-sharing industry:
- 40% expected growth in global market between 2023 and 2028.
- 216 billion US dollars in market share by 2028 globally
- 54.38 billion US dollars in market share by 2027 in the USA
- 150 million people use Uber at least once a month
Source: Statista
How chat apps can enhance the ride-sharing experience
Customer needs for seamless and efficient experiences are growing more by the day. In fact, By 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will have abandoned native mobile apps in favor of omnichannel messaging within a single app to deliver a superior customer experience.
Messaging channels such as SMS and chat apps like WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger, Kakao Business and Viber for Business have been widely embraced in the global market, making them ideal for transportation services.
Transitioning to chat apps or messaging platforms, ride-hailing businesses can:
- Reduce dependency on native mobile app support
- Personalize customer engagement and deliver conversational experiences
- Reduce operational costs and increase overall customer support efficiency
- Automate repetitive tasks and seamlessly transfer to agents when required
- Save time for both customers and service reps
- Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
For the ride-hailing industry, this means customers have access to all touchpoints on their favorite chat apps in their ride-sharing journey – from booking a ride, to contacting support, and even receiving special offers or discounts.
Best practices for in-app chat support
Here’s a quick checklist of best practices to help you get the most out of chat apps for your ride sharing services:
- Enabling driver & user registration through ads that click to chat is a brilliant shortcut to start conversations with your customers
- Simplifying booking process by easily finding a ride and confirming pick up location directly from the chat app
- Completing the service and providing payment options
- Tracking delivery and ride or changing delivery location
- Managing 24/7 support and quickly resolving issues
- Offering personalized recommendations and proactive engagement
- Gathering valuable insights through direct feedback collection
Take ride-hailing company, Uber, for an example. Their goal was to reimagine the entire ride-hailing experience by making it seamless and enjoyable across the board. How? They integrated a WhatsApp chatbot to improve driver and rider experiences.
Deploying a WhatsApp chatbot enabled the ride-hailing app to provide ride status updates, driver contact information, and fare details. This integration has improved transparency and communication across the entire journey.
Why conversational AI is the future of ride sharing
So, we covered the importance of adding chat apps to improve user experiences, but how can brands level up their offering to stand out among the competition?
Conversational AI can help you get there.
Conversational AI uses natural language processing (NLP) to enable chatbots to output human-like responses and create a more natural conversational experience. It can automate certain repetitive tasks – like responding to basic inquiries – freeing up valuable agent time for handling more complex queries or improving customer relations. Plus, this type of automation speeds up response times so customers can quickly get the answers they are looking for.
Examples of conversational AI for ride sharing
Driver and user registration
Speed up driver and user registration with an always-on conversational chatbot that can answer common FAQs and quickly transfer to a live agent for more complex issues.
Booking a ride
Make booking rides easier with a conversational AI chatbot that can schedule rides, address issues with bookings on the spot. Plus, you can use AI for translation so that customers can use your ride-sharing service anywhere in the world without having to download additional apps and continue to communicate in their native language.
In-chat payment
If you’re going to use a chat app for booking rides, you should make the entire journey smoother by enabling in-chat payments. Customers don’t need to input credit card details or switch apps to complete their journey, everything can be done within the same conversation for faster service and a seamless experience.
Ride status updates
Update users on the status of their ride within their favorite chat apps. They can get notified on delays, arrivals, pick up points, and any other important information that can help their pickup and drop off go smoother.
Answer FAQs
Allow users to ask questions, and get resolutions in real-time with a conversational AI chatbot that streamlines the support process and ensures quick resolution, offloading call centers and saving a lot of time and resources, thereby improving the overall user experience.
In the case that a AI chatbot is not capable of answering a customer’s question due to its complexity, it can easily switch to an agent who can contact the customer via message, phone call, or video call.
Managing lost items
Through conversational AI support, customers can reach out in the chat app and report a lost item, where they can immediately connect with their previous driver and report a missing item. This way you can free up your agents to handle issues in the next step of customer support or whenever the situation gets more complex and their expertise is needed.
Driver support
Your driver’s experience with your brand is just as important as the end-users. Provide them with instant access to information, personalized assistance, and consistency and accuracy by answering questions with an AI chatbot solution. If the driver wants to know why a ride was refunded, their tax summary, or why a bonus was not added, he can in a matter of few clicks get his answers, all thanks to conversational AI.
Ride sharing brands that have benefited from conversational AI
Infobip has worked with a number of global brands in the ride-hailing and transportation industry who have leveraged our chat apps, expertise, and infrastructure to help secure their services- and elevate their support. Click on each link to view the full customer story:
The future is conversational. Is your ride-sharing app ready?
Talk to an expert about integrating a chat app into your existing ride-sharing service.
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