Context

People of Pune (a major city of India and cultural capital of the state of Maharashtra) are notorious for their argumentative nature. As a Punekar (Pune local) I completely agree with this notion. The datum of Punekar’s satisfaction level is very high. If someone wants to have an experience of a cunning and meticulous customer, Pune is an ideal place. I will just leave this topic here as Pune and Punekar’s are not the subjects of my article! Now, let’s talk more about what happened to the business of Auto Rickshaw Walla’s in Pune? The business has gone down in the last couple of years. Many people believe it is because of the rise of the cab services. But, I don’t think cab services is the cause. It is the effect. It is the effect of bad business policies and strategies exercised by Auto Rickshaw Walla’s.

As a Pune localite, I can only talk about auto rickshaw walla’s in Pune region. But, I am sure there must be places where they follow the same bad business strategies. In this article, I am going to explain, how not to do business Auto Rickshaw Walla’s way.









No Bad Service Please

It is a common experience of the people who try to hire an auto rickshaw that, the first couple of auto walla’s will refuse to take you wherever they want to go. Travelers don’t seem to get bothered by this but, for the people who travel daily in Pune, it is a big reason for annoyance. Mathematically speaking N number of potential customers get ‘No Service’ at least couple of times per day. That is Nx60 times per month and Nx60x12=Nx720 times per year. So on an average, a customer is let down 720 times per year. By any good business standards and norms, this is a terrible customer support situation. Think of a similar situation in an IT or service company where your client hears “I can’t do it” 720 times a year. You will most certainly lose the business!

Consistent Costing Please

This is another complaint people have against auto rickshaw wallas. Although every auto rickshaw has a meter mounted, it is not guaranteed that the auto rickshaw walla will charge you according to that meter. One of the reasons for this behavior is the lack of administrative control. But, that does not mean one should demand an unjust fare. Rickshaw walla’s must comply with the rules. For the foreign travelers, it doesn’t make much difference between a couple of dollars and 3 dollars. But for an Indian that difference gets counted in 100’s of rupees. Many of the times common people will argue with auto rickshaw walla about the fare. In the business terms, this is unjust variable costing. No customer will buy any service from you if your costing module is unjust, unpredictable and doesn’t comply with the laws.

Some Accountability Please

In the times when smartphones were not a regular commodity, people did not have any idea about google maps and mobile phones rarely had internet service available, not even 2G! In those times and even sometimes today, it is a common malpractice amongst auto rickshaw walla’s to take you to a ride. Especially if you are not from Pune region or if you don’t know the area and roads that well, you are highly prone to get taken for a ride. So the final fare will be 50% more than usual fare for that route. Unfortunately, travelers, elderly people, and plain ignorant people fall in the trap of this.

Think of this in an IT or a service company. Your client has given you a task to do. Instead of honestly estimating the resources and time required for the project to be accomplished, if the company overestimates the goals which in turn overestimates resources required and hence pricing unjust cost to the client. Also, the client is given false directions regarding the work in progress and data is manipulated to pull in more money from the client. An ignorant client will pay for the job but an intelligent client will decline your service and you will lose the business. This is exactly what has happened with auto rickshaw wallas in Pune.

Upgradation Is Necessary

Although most of urban India has moved to 3G and even 4G in some cases, auto rickshaw walla’s are still living in the 90’s. Although a big chunk of customers still transacts in cash, it is not the modern way to do business. Many of the young people do not carry cash these days and rightly so. If there is a safe and hassle-free way of transferring the money why should anyone choose the other way? This is also one of the troubles customers get into dealing with auto rickshaw wallas. As in any business, you must be on top of the game by using the cutting edge technology and monitoring regular upgrades in the tools.

No Empathy No Sympathy

In any business finally, it comes to ‘how well you treat your customers?’ If you ask me, honestly by in large, auto rickshaw walla’s do not treat customers well. A big reason for lack of empathy is also the monopoly auto rickshaw’s had for more than two decades in Pune. Many times you see a long queue of auto rickshaw’s at a place but none of them will take you to your place even in the broad daylight. Another big hustle customers and auto rickshaw walla’s get into is fare and cash change. Very few auto rickshaw walla’s avail online money transfer. They will take advantage of your situation if you are a traveler or with someone elderly/ill person or you are in desperate need. Again I am not saying all are like this but expressing common complaints of people. It just shows auto rickshaw walla’s don’t have empathy for you. This is the reason most of the Punekar’s don’t have sympathy with auto rickshaw wallas.

To give a simple example, even though there are some auto rickshaw walla’s connected through cab service, people do not opt them because they don’t want to do business with auto rickshaw walla’s anymore. For any business if you do not have empathy for your customers, if you are not honest with them, if you are not accountable for anything and the customer is not happy, it is destined to fail!

P.S.

I have been using cab services (both Ola and Uber) in Pune for personal reasons. Some of the cab drivers also don’t have empathy for the customers, especially if you pick-up or drop-off point is in the city downtown (old part of the city). I have experienced several times that cabbies will cancel my ride after asking me about the destination. Cab services apply surcharge which sometimes is completely unreasonable. I am going to write an article on cab services in coming days. But, it continues like this there will emerge a new service which will not apply any surcharge and it will kill the business of current cab services.







