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Make or Break: How Service Providers Dictate the Fate of an Enterprise?

By Team Tookan 17th January 2017

What drives the fate of any On-Demand enterprise? Is it all about the service being offered? Can one narrow down the aspects to the branding budget and the uniqueness of the service? In the equation of any ‘Gig’ Economy, the variables are plenty, and often, we witness enterprises crashing out of the competition because they can’t figure out the value of each. While the backend ensures the ideal virtual infrastructure, an orderly frontend comprising of the service providers is essential in transforming the virtual vision into a thriving reality. 

Before the inception of On-Demand Economy, not many consumers were concerned with both, the front and backend of a business. However, with the emergence of enterprises like Uber, everything changed. When it comes to enterprises working in the domain of on-demand economy, the difference between the frontend and backend is all about the conflict between automation and manual labor. You can fix the errors on the backend with ease, given its heavy dependence on technology, but for the frontend, one has to count upon people working as the service providers. If technology imparts the vision to your on-demand business, it’s the service providers that bring value to it.

Creating the First Impression;

Creating the First Impression

You order a cab from Uber, you interact with a driver registered with the enterprise as a service provider. You order a cab the next day, you interact with a different face performing the same function, to help you with the service Uber offers. Turns out, each day, with every atomic transaction you make, you are interacting with a new face that represents the enterprise, making the former a medium for you to connect with the brand. Therefore, your entire experience of the brand comes down to that one interaction you have with the service provider. They could be a stranger who you have hired to walk your pet, or locate your lost TV Remote (yes, they made an app for that too), or deliver your groceries, or drive you to your workplace. The interaction could be as short as a confirmation call or as long as the drive between two cities, and yet, the same interaction is going to dictate your perception about the brand.

You have an average consumer experience, you forget about it soon. However, if your experience is either great or grave, you want the world to know. Your Uber driver might be going through a bad day, and in their angst, may have ended up being rude, and yet, their ‘spur of the moment’ rudeness is going to cost Uber a valued customer. No matter how well your stay history with Airbnb has been, it takes only one poor experience for you to seek other options for the same service. Service providers, in retrospect, are not a medium alone to connect consumers and the brand, but also to connect the brand to a potential billion dollar valuation. 

That 'One' Experience;

That ‘One’ Experience

For every Uber driver that is involved in a case of molestation, or for every delivery personnel faltering on their deadlines, or for every unhygienic premise registered for stay with Airbnb; it’s not the service provider that faces the flack from the consumer and the media, but the brand. When Uber’s drivers were held guilty for molesting their riders, it was the brand name that made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Even a million dollar PR budget cannot help an enterprise escape the tsunami of bad publicity that follows an embarrassing or shameful incident of physical violence at the hands of a service provider. 

For any enterprise, the importance of service providers is not only constrained by their performance, media coverage, or customer reviews, but also has an economic aspect to it. From Microsoft to the Hotdog stand down the block from where you live, all these businesses work on a single economic aspect; the Supply-Demand chain. The objective of any On-Demand enterprise is to supply the utilities in an effective and efficient manner. However, given the unpredictability of this chain, enterprises have a mountain to climb when it comes to the management of their service providers. To put things in perspective, the supply-demand chain for any on-demand enterprise are two sides of a chemical equation that require balancing. 

Being on the wrong side of media

Being on the wrong side of media

This is where the management of your service providers becomes imperative. Even with the best virtual infrastructure, an enterprise must focus on the effective management of its service providers in order to help its consumers avail the service without any delay or hassle. Often, when not just independent consumers, but organizations with a large number of employees would depend upon an on-demand enterprise for services, and this is why your service providers cannot and must not falter. From B2B to B2C, if your service providers can’t get their act together, your enterprise CEO might as well prepare a nice farewell message for the little customers it is left with. 

While on-demand giants like Uber and GrubHub are investing heavily to decipher the factors that drive consumption, user behavior and trends, and are already seeking assistance of Big Data for the same, there are enterprises which are struggling to get their frontend in order.

Social Media: The ideal 'word of mouth'

Social Media: The ideal ‘word of mouth’

To help enterprises attain maximum profitability with their service providers, Tookan has inculcated multiple features integral to the on-demand business. While automation in task assignment forms the backbone of its functioning, Tookan also has a mechanism for Route Optimization which is essential for delivery services catering to an unprecedented audience number. There is more to Tookan than merely managing your service providers. Helping you attain precision with your representatives, Tookan, indirectly, ensures that your logistic nightmares cease to exist with intelligent API integration. 

If we were to turn to cliches for reference, we would learn that ‘first impression is the last impression’, and given the thriving competition in the market, many enterprises do not see the light of the day, forget garnering any impression. 

Investing in effective service structure is not a luxury for the leading few nor an option for the emerging ones, but a critical point on the path of your enterprise as it strives for a place in the Fortune 500 magazine. 

The Buck Stops Here!

The Buck Stops Here!

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