Why wait until the end of your Uber trip to leave feedback when you’re ready to share your impressions during your ride? Well, until now it hasn’t been possible to offer feedback through the app until your trip was over.
However, Uber has announced that you will now be able to take care of driver feedback through the mobile app during your journey, as well as leaving a tip if you care to.
The problem that Uber is looking to circumvent is this: When you’ve disembarked from your car, you probably have better things to do than sit and construct meaningful and detailed feedback. And the more time passes after a ride has finished, the greater the chance you’ll forget what the experience was like.
Above: Uber feedback
Submitting feedback in real time raises a few questions, of course — surely you would be less inclined to leave negative feedback if your driver was able to discover it while you were still in the car? The good news is that the driver won’t see any results until you’re out of there. Then there’s the possibility that leaving feedback too soon might not capture the full story. What if a driver was perfectly nice at the beginning of a ride but then went a little weird at the end? According to Uber, you can edit your feedback up until the ride officially comes to a close.
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Pressure
Uber is, of course, under significant pressure on multiple fronts around the world, with rivals inching into its territory, city regulators taking a firmer stance on its business practices, and drivers reportedly earning a pittance. Indeed, some drivers in New Zealand are taking the day off today to protest low pay.
So this latest move is about more than might be apparent at first glance. The company says it’s looking to launch a new program in June that recognizes “top quality drivers” and encourages “continued outstanding service.”
No details have been provided about what form that program will take or whether it will translate into more money or other perks, but it’s clear that Uber is trying to win back some of the support it has lost over the years. New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been on a huge charm offensive in various markets around the world, focusing on issues such as safety and now, it seems, driver happiness.
By encouraging real-time, in-depth feedback, Uber said it will also be better able to identify problems that are not actually the driver’s fault, such as an issue with the app that leads to problems with pick-ups, for example.
