Image Credit : Kabbee
|
|
Project Overview
Kabbee is London’s leading minicab comparison and booking app that enables its users to receive instant quotes from more than 70 fleets with over 10,000 minicabs, at the tap of a button. The app has been developed to make the lives of Londoners easier, allowing them to book a car in advance or instantly, without the hassle of calling around for quotes.
Kabbee was founded in June 2011 by a London-born entrepreneur who had the vision of taking what was a fragmented minicab industry, and bringing it in to the 21st century using state of the art technology.
Organisation
Team
Cristina Astorri (Marketing Director); Laura Przybek (Head of Marketing); Dave Walker (Chief Technical Officer); Philip Makinson (Co-founder & Chief Development Officer); Alex Kershaw (Head of Product); Gavin Lachman (Chief Financial Officer); Dan Baird (Head of Design)
Project Brief
Out of the eight million people that live in Greater London, only 34% own a car. That means that unless they walk, the rest use London’s public transport system, or take one of the 55,000 licensed minicabs that take to London’s streets every day. Kabbee’s London-born CEO and founder, Justin Peters’ identified that the minicab marketplace was historic, and with very few technological advancements over the last 50 years, it was time for radical change. His mission was to create a platform that could make booking and accessing London’s minicabs at the touch of a button, leaving the rest to digital technology.
Justin’s first step was to work for, and then buy a minicab fleet, to get under the skin of how it a good fleet works, and the type of despatch system they use. Taking this knowledge, Justin built a team of developers who created the Kabbee app, and the Kabbee quoting, booking and reporting software for fleets to integrate into their well-oiled machines that they have been using for decades.
After securing investment, Justin and his team grew to 20, inviting some of the industry’s leading developers on-board. By this point more minicab apps had entered the market, so the team soon realised they had to innovate as much as they could to stay ahead of the competition.
Project Need
Kabbee’s innovative technology is at the core of its success today. The app is available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and is due to launch on Windows in June.
Innovative features
‘Track My Kabbee', is a GPS based feature that gives app users a real-time account of where the minicab is on a map. The vehicle is represented by a buzzing bee, which sounds a horn when the minicab arrives.
Keeping the wheels turning
Kabbee has recently launch its ‘Out of Area’ availability service, which uses each drivers’ GPS data, tagged with the driver’s current status. This new API enables Kabbee to match passengers with minicabs on their way back from a job – reducing ‘dead mileage’ - the mileage a driver clocks up without a passenger in the vehicle.
Fixed price, no big surprises
One of Kabbee’s major points of differentiation from other minicab apps, is the fact that it provides users with a range of quotes including the closest, cheapest and top-rated options that, once selected, will not change, avoiding any surprises.
Making Minicabs Mighty!
A major part of Kabbee’s role in bringing the minicab industry into the 21st century, is to Make Minicabs Mighty. Kabbee introduced a user rating system that runs via a push notification to passengers when they alight the vehicle. The feature prompts users to rate their journey on the state of the car they travelled in, punctuality and the driver – they can also leave comments.
User Experience
Happy passengers are the most important aspect of the Kabbee service to both fleets and drivers. With almost 400,000 people having already downloaded the Kabbee app since its launch in 2011, it is important to know what they think about the app, and what could be improved.
An internal survey revealed that 55 percent of the current users would actively recommend Kabbee to a friend, and those users’ favourite aspects of the app is the easy booking process, the prices available and the option to choose booking times. Kabbee has a net promoter score (NPS) of 42(taking into account that Apple’s is 68, this is pretty good).
User feedback is vital for the growth of Kabbee, and it feeds the creativity and innovations that the Kabbee team concentrates on every day. When the Kabbee developers have an idea, they ask their users what they think about it first, and based on the feedback, they redirect their energies to ensure the user is having the best experience.
Kabbee, as a minicab app, has created an easy way for consumers to change the way they book a minicab forever. For example, five years ago, the only way to book a minicab would be to call the minicab office. To encourage this consumer behaviour change, and instil user confidence, Kabbee has a 24/7 customer service team available online, on the phone and via its active social media channels to ensure users are always happy, and getting the service they need.
Project Marketing
The Kabbee brand is plucky, putting a tongue in cheek, typically British twist on the licensed minicab industry, to reappraise the important service minicab drivers provide to so many busy Londoners.
Kabbee’s latest campaign is designed to encourage Londoners to venture out and explore the city, without worrying about how they are going to get home, or how much it’s going to cost.
Kabbee has recently invested in a hyperlocal billboard takeover on Shoreditch High Street, which says: ‘Get Out Of Shoreditch’, as a thought-provoking call to action to locals who don’t venture outside the area much.
Kabbee’s CEO was recently interviewed by China Business News TV, China’s leading business news programme that airs on terrestrial TV, attracting around 20 million viewers. Since then, Kabbee has seen an exponential rise in Chinese expats and tourists downloading the app to book minicabs.
Half of all Kabbee’s marketing budget is invested in mobile advertising (banner ads / social media targeted ads) – the homeland of all prospective Kabbee users.
Once acquired, Kabbee’s main objective is to retain users. This is done via regular user incentives, competitions, and creative communications.
Kabbee’s Refer-a-Friend initiative is designed to encourage existing users to spread the word amongst their contacts, in exchange for £10 credit for each new member that they introduce. The new user is also credited £10 against their first journey to say ‘Welcome to Kabbee’ too.
Project Privacy
Kabbee is committed to ensuring that its users’ information is secure and used only for its intended purposes. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, Kabbee has put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information that it collects online.
Kabbee has recently employed the services of Rackspace the managed cloud provider. Kabbee now has fully supported cloud hosting with 100 percent guaranteed network uptime, which is vital for busy Londoners in need of faster, cheaper and safer minicab services.
During the recent cyber security attack known as ‘Heartbleed’, Kabbee was completely unaffected and was awarded a Level A overall rating for its strength of security. A few UK-based minicabs apps scored a Level F, after revealing a number of security risks.
Please find our privacy policy here - https://www.kabbee.com/?page_id=148
Best Mobile or App Startup
This category relates to Startups working on a Mobile project or an App. The project could be for smartphones, tablet, web, game console or api apps. Startup projects need to be newly emerging, less than 5 million users and less than 3 years old.
More Details