Improving Rapido — Case Study

The problem:

Rapido is an auto and bike ride-hailing platform founded in 2015, currently running operations in more than 100 cities in India. Even though Rapido only provides bike and auto services, it has to compete every day with giants such as Ola for auto services and Uber for both bike and auto services. Thorough customer research has provided insights that users constantly switch between Uber, Ola, and Rapido while booking an auto, and finalizing the booking which provides the perfect combination of price and expected time of arrival at their doorstep.

Competitors:

The competitors that we are going to consider for this case study are Ola and Uber.

The Goal:

Launch 2–3 new features in the current app, which can reduce the switching of users, and make sure they stick to Rapido app.

Ratings and Downloads:

We have analyzed both the Ratings on two platforms i.e, iOS and Android

User Personas:

Dharun, 26, Software Professional, Chennai

Bio:

Dharun uses Rapido frequently to go to his office (during busy hours) on weekdays and to restaurants or public places to chill out with his friends on weekends.

Pain Points:

1. He needs a corporate profile when booking work-related rides and to send those invoices to his corporate email ID for reimbursement.
2. He feels that there is no major benefit from the Rapido Power Pass apart from a small discount for each ride.

Akshaya, 25, Home Maker, Coimbatore

Bio:

Akshaya is a mother of two children who lives in Chennai. She uses Rapido to pick up her kids from school and to buy groceries from the local market

Pain Points:

1. She wants to pick up her kids from school and return home. But in Rapido, there is no option for adding stops to a ride.
2. She frequently finds that the ETA will be less than 5 minutes in the app, but in real-time, the captain arrives after 15–20 minute

Neha, 22, College Student, Chennai

Bio:

Neha frequently uses Rapido to go to college or restaurants during weekdays and to the bus stand or railway station to catch his bus or train during weekends or long holidays.

Pain Points:

1. He often finds himself in a situation that few minutes after booking a ride, the captain cancels the ride without any announcement or proper reason. So, she needs to book the raid again, but she will be late for his classes/ misses his bus or train.
2. Despite being a frequent user, there are no special offers or coupons.

Feature #1 : Rapido Quick

When a user uses this feature, they will be given top priority while booking a ride (automatically they will be at the top of the queue list when the app searches for a nearby available captain).

While using this feature, the ETA will be very low, and the cost will be 10% higher than the normal estimated price. First, it must be tested in tier 1 cities with a higher number of captains.

How it would improve users to stick with the Rapido app:

Customer point of view: Many users (according to my initial user research, 6/10 users) who are in a hurry to catch their bus/train or late for their meeting with a client, or attending college, or going to the hospital are willing to pay a little bit more than the normal price, but they need to reach their destination on time.

Captain’s point of view: They will be notified that the user booked the ride as Rapido Quick (where they will get higher pay, so the cancellation from their end will be minimized).

Feature #2 : Rapido Pass — Existing Subscription Program

The existing functionality of the Power pass will continue (Discounts on all the rides), but on top of that, the user will get 2 Rapido Instant (Feature #1) or Rapido Plus (Captain with a 5-star rating) rides per month at the normal price. (No further 10% price increase).

How it would improve users to stick with the Rapido app:

1. It will increase the chance of buying the Power Pass subscription.
2. If the customer buys the Power pass, then more than 90% of the customers will stick to using Rapido as they are getting more benefits from this.
3. From Rapido’s end, they will have more subscription based users, which will increase their revenue and the number of successful rides.

Feature #3: Rapido — Corporate Profile

Provide an option to add the user’s corporate email ID, so that all the business-related rides (while booking a ride, an option will be provided to make it a business ride) will be mapped to this email ID.

A separate dashboard will be provided to track all their rides and total spending.

How it would improve users to stick with the Rapido app:

1. Now, this feature is only available in Ola. According to my research, many companies are using this service.
2. If we (Rapido) implement this feature, it will bring lots of new users (both individuals and corporate — mainly startups) will make users stick to using Rapido for their business rides.

Prioritization:

Key Metrics:

1. North Star Metric: Rides per week.
2. Vanity Metrics: Total number of users, Number of searches for the Rapido auto and bike done by the users.

Go To Market Strategy:

Market Research: This process includes extensive research to examine all potential risk and hurdles that need to be overcome to get the product to market.

Feature Development: Design and technical development of new features. Features will be based on user stories.

Pre Launch for Rapido Captains: Providing awareness for Rapido quick and pass to make them aware of the monetary benefits.

Beta Launch: Launching and Testing of these new features in some cities

Feedback: Ask users for Feedback after completion of ride and check the Exit Criteria to improve the new features

Final Release: After polishing all existing bugs and making changes per user feedback, we can enroll to all users.