1. My Customers Don’t Like Apps

The truth is – some will and some won’t.

Many of your younger customers will love the Uber-like experience that an app like iCabbi can offer. In fact, if you don’t have a great customer app, you’ll lose some customers to firms who do.

For those customers that don’t have a smartphone or who don’t want to use an app, no problem – they can still book via the phone, or through your website.

The important thing is that with a modern cloud and app-based dispatch system, you can offer the best of both worlds. You can offer a great phone-booking service (the more customers who use your app the more phone lines are free) AND a fantastic customer app.

2. My Customers Like to Speak to a Real Person

Yes of course they do, some customers want to speak to a dispatcher every time they call, and we all want to speak to a real person when we need help.

And the good news is, that they still can if they want to.

That means they can speak to an operator EVERY time they phone you if they choose (with iCabbi you can change a system setting, which means calls from that customers number always go to a real person) or they can go to an operator at any time if they don’t want to continue with the automated call.

We’ve tested this with hundreds of small taxi firms all over the UK and the results show that many customers prefer to use the automated phone features that a good cloud-based system offers. Some taxi firms report that up to half of their customers prefer this to speaking to a real person.

3. My Drivers Won’t Like It

Occasionally we come across a driver who resists a new driver app – there is always someone resistant to change. But, having a great driver app can transform your business.

As soon as your drivers understand that a great driver app and dispatch system means more accurate maps and GPS, fewer dead miles, fair distribution of work (dispatchers can’t send work to favoured drivers) and that it makes their life much easier – more drivers will stay, fewer will leave and you may even find more new drivers knocking on your door as the word gets around.

4. We’re Too Small for an App

It’s true that developing a great customer app is way beyond the resources of most taxi firms. But you can have a leading-edge customer app, branded in your company’s logo and colours for less than the cost of a daily coffee.

5. Our Broadband isn’t Fast Enough

The huge advantage of a cloud-based dispatch system is that the heavy computing workload is handled on your system provider’s servers (in the case of iCabbi we use Amazon Web Services). This means that you can run a super-fast, highly efficient dispatch system on a few modern PCs and over any decent broadband service.

You don’t need anything special, you can access a system like iCabbi from home, from your smartphone or tablet while you sit on the beach or from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

6. We’ll Need a New Phone System

It’s highly unlikely that you’ll need to buy a new phone system.

In most cases a good cloud-based dispatch system should work with your existing phone system, or you can use a modern and inexpensive VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system. With iCabbi this is fully integrated.

7. We Can’t Afford New Servers and PCs

With a cloud-based taxi dispatch system, you don’t need a server and most reasonably new PCs will easily handle the requirements.

One thing to be aware of is that some taxi dispatch systems claim to be cloud-based but still require you to download software onto a PC before you can connect to their cloud-based servers. This negates many of the benefits of a fully cloud-based dispatch system as you lose the ability to connect from anywhere of your choosing via a browser and an internet connection.

A modern fully cloud-based taxi dispatch system is fast and easy to implement, requires no expensive computer hardware or telephone upgrades and will put your business on a solid foundation for the future.

If you have questions about cloud-based taxi dispatch for your business or about iCabbi, please contact our friendly team of expert advisers any time by calling 01623 44 22 11 or emailing enquiries@icabbi.etgl.co.uk.

You can also request a copy of our free buyers’ guide – 8 Key Questions to Ask Before Investing in a Taxi Dispatch System – and How to Avoid the Costly Mistakes Other Firms are Making here.