Founded in Dubai in 2014, with its Africa headquarters based in Nairobi, Kenya, Mondo Ride today officially launched to the public after several months of trying its service in Nairobi.
Unlike other taxi hailing apps, Mondo Ride is banking on a 24 x 7 call centre to cater to customers across the board. According to the firm, the 24 x 7 call centre will help its customers pre-book a car, take care of those who do not use a smart phone or where internet connectivity is low or down.
According to Troels Andersen, Global CEO, Mondo Ride, “Mondo is based on the belief that in-city transportation is a basic right that should be exercised by all citizens through its premium, mass, and low-budget solutions. The ride reservation / schedule function reinforces our commitment to this belief of ours. The function ensures that every citizen, even if he/she does not operate/own a smartphone should have access to our services. This also takes care of any eventuality where access to the internet becomes a problem for customers. The service has worked well for us so far and has added value to our overall business.”
Though the firm didn’t mention if the call centre will be used to address security and customer issues, it will act as the first point of contact to Mondo Ride in case anything goes wrong during a ride. Uber in infamous for its driver-partners who mistreat its customers or molest women and had a near ban in India after a female passenger was allegedly raped by an Uber driver-partner. Mondo Ride’s call centre is expected to help passengers have someone to talk to on phone and in person. Though Uber has physical offices in its major markets, the teams are have been known to be insensitive to customer concerns.
The company also announced its corporate tie-up program which allows employees of companies to hail cars through either of the options with the rides being billed directly to their employers. The firm announced it soon be launching the Mondo Safari and other value added services.
This new features don’t give Mondo Ride outright market leadership as it has to battle it out with Uber which has signed up a considerable number of driver-partners and has served over 1,000,000 million rides. Recently, Safaricom and Craft Silicon launched Little which seems to attract a wider market due to its incentives to drivers and passengers and the fact that it has M-Pesa payments integration.
