How I Learned the Value of Good Copywriting While Booking a Ride on Uber
While booking a bike taxi today, I understood the impact that good copywriting can have.
I first opened Uber and started looking for a bike taxi. While waiting for a driver to accept the ride, this is what the message on the screen read -
Connecting you to a driver.
Nothing wrong with that, right? It looks professional and simple.
But here’s the thing. After not being able to find a ride for a while, I decided to look for it on some other app. So, I opened Rapido to continue my search.
The same thing happened here as well. I kept waiting for a driver to accept my ride. However, this time around, the messages on the screen read something like this -
Finding all captains near you.
This message was soon followed by the following -
Selecting the best-rated captain for you.
And then it read -
Ensuring that you will have a safe and comfortable ride.
And so on -
Ensuring that the captain’s bike is sanitized.
Ensuring that the captain’s body temperature is normal.
Ensuring that the captain is wearing a helmet.
Captain finalized. Waiting for him to accept.
Hold on! You are about to get a ride soon.
Sorry, it is taking this long. You will get to your destination soon.
And then
Ride booked.
So, what happened here?
In both situations, I had to wait a lot for getting a ride. However, my experience with Rapido was much better than with Uber. And that’s simply because of the messages that Rapido displayed on my screen.
These simple pieces of text along with relevant emojis built a small connection with me. As my waiting time increased, the messaging also changed so as to alleviate my concerns and assure me that they are working to find me a ride.
Compare this to Uber where the message remained constant -
Connecting you to a driver.
Now that’s not to say that Uber is a bad service. On the contrary, I’ve had better ride-finding experiences with Uber than with Rapido.
However, Rapido leveraged the power of good copywriting to get ahead of Uber. And I think that’s brilliant on their part.
As advertising icon Leo Burnett put it -
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
What do you guys think? Do you think copywriting is important? Have you seen any such real-life instances of good copywriting? Let me know in the comments box.
Thanks for reading. I’m Shikhil Vyas, a technical content writer and self-help blogger. To check out my work, simply visit VyasSpeaks.com
