More than 90% of trips are automatically allocated through Sherlock’s auto-allocation
growth in web and
app bookings
The background & challenges
Singapore Mobility Corporation Pte Ltd (SMCP) is a franchisee of Sixt Rent a Car in Singapore. Prior to implementing Sherlock Taxi, SMCP used one of the largest dispatch providers on the market. The business began researching alternative dispatch solutions for two main reasons: to support its growing corporate business and to enable diversification to offer on-demand work.
SMCP’s corporate account work comprises mostly air travel and MICE business such as airlines, luxury hotels, banks and MNC. Prior to implementing Sherlock, the business manually allocated all trips as they were all pre-bookings.
Solution & Outcomes
The business needed a solution which could automate allocation to maximise fleet efficiency, freeing up capacity for on-demand work.
The system needed to provide an excellent customer experience from booking through to delivery to ensure that premium customer service levels would be maintained for important clients.
To do this, the business required more sophisticated booking channels with intuitive, user-friendly interfaces and with as little human interference as possible.
SMCP contacted Sixt’s headquarters in Munich, Germany for advice and was advised to approach Haulmont’s Sherlock Taxi team. Following a system demo and some in-depth business scoping exercises, the business decided that it wanted to move from manual to automated allocation for all jobs except very high-end chauffeur work. The team felt that Sherlock’s booking and dispatch features were advanced enough to satisfy the needs of its existing clients; they were particularly impressed with the detailed and varied travel policies available at account and user level as these would make managing different service level agreements much easier from an administration perspective. The concierge team also requested a system that would offer a more streamlined customer experience for clients who receive bookings as part of their wealth management services and the Sherlock app and web-booker fulfilled this criterion.
It became apparent very quickly that other providers on the market could not offer the tailored service, bespoke development, and industry expertise that Sherlock Taxi’s team would offer. This was evident to see by the quality of customers that were already using the Sherlock platform – industry leading businesses such as LeCab and AlloTaxi. As a result, SMCP implemented Sherlock Taxi as their new operating and dispatch system in July 2019.
The team at SMCP were guided through Sherlock’s detailed scoping and implementation plan to ensure a smooth transition to the new system with minimal business disruption. Haulmont even flew two members of the Sherlock team to Singapore for the go live itself! Additionally, Sherlock’s development and support team delivered hundreds of hours of bespoke and business-specific development including the translation of the web portal into Mandarin for use in the local market and customised journey types to support their different product offerings.
“Sherlock features and their support will give us opportunities to expand without fear of scalability. While we have only been using Sherlock for a relatively short period of time, we believe we can grow much faster given their excellent support team and knowledge in dispatch technology.“
Results
Since using Sherlock, SMCP has reduced operational costs through more efficient planning of trips; previously all trips were manually allocated and now at least 90% of trips are automatically allocated, giving the back office staff more time to focus on delivering an excellent level of customer service for both clients and drivers.
The majority of bookings were made via the call centre whilst using the incumbent supplier but within six months of going live with Sherlock, SMCP had grown web and app bookings to represent over 50% of their total bookings.
Update
Since Covid-19, SMCP has suffered like most companies in the industry due to lockdowns and dramatic shifts in the market including reduced air travel. Fortunately, as SMCP has partnered with a flexible and responsive provider, the business is able to react quickly and adapt to ensure the business can continue to thrive.
SMCP has accelerated its plans to grow an on-demand arm of the business and Sherlock’s support team has been on hand to facilitate the necessary system configurations to drive this business. Customisations have included modifying driver wages to support a different payment model; supporting large-scale recruitment of new drivers and their app set-up and driver grade settings; and amending delay settings and automatic locks to ensure that on-demand bookings can’t be made via the app if there are no drivers available.
The business is now working with Sherlock’s support team to configure a new parcel delivery service to penetrate the online delivery market which has continued to go from strength to strength in light of Covid-19.
“The flexibility of the Sherlock solution and in-depth knowledge of the support team means that our business can react quickly to unprecedented market changes to ensure future sustainability and longevity. Our technology is now an enabler rather than holding us back.“