What CRM Does Uber Use?

Uber Logo

Our site is reader-supported – by clicking our links, we can match you with a potential supplier, and we may earn a small commission for this referral.

With the help of industry-leading CRM supplier Salesforce, Uber’s approach to managing its customer relationships has been the very lifeblood of its ascent to the top.

Uber was established in 2009 and has long since become well-known. What began as a ride-hailing app has evolved into a transportation service that’s reshaping US city operations and boosting economies around the globe. However, the corporation has been embroiled in a number of scandals, having been accused of unethical business practices like disobeying local laws and sabotaging a competitor’s app. But the global ride-sharing behemoth has still managed to shake off the shame and carry on, despite its long list of negative news coverage.

So what’s the secret behind Uber’s meteoric rise? The key to its phenomenal success? Let’s take a look at one example, customer relationship management (CRM) software.

So how does Uber use CRM, and how can it benefit your business? Let’s find out.

What is CRM?

CRM software provides a central hub for all the information crucial to running your business. It lets you manage your team, clients, leads, deals, and projects – all from one, handy place.

CRM systems pull in data from social media, meetings, emails, and phone calls to put everything your business needs, right at your fingertips. And quite literally, too – you can access CRM software from your computer, tablet, or smartphone. CRM systems also lets you craft targeted marketing campaigns to get new value out of old customers.

How Uber Uses CRM

Here are some of the ways Uber became a CRM success story.

✔ Listening to its customers

As a global company with thousands of employees and millions of active consumers, Uber requires a reliable platform like Salesforce to function.

Salesforce is a leading CRM software that enables you to integrate with social media platforms. Using it, Uber extracts data from people engaging with it on key social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Engaging with people or followers on their favorite platform can help you easily turn leads into sales, except that your first connection with someone won’t necessarily serve as your go signal to dive in for the sale.

You can customize Salesforce to monitor your customers’ social media activity using its social listening feature, with which you are able to navigate a person’s social media journey and come up with the perfect social media strategy. You can monitor conversations on social media that are already happening, and get alerted when related keywords – which you’ve programmed into the system – come up, such as your brand name, tagline, and product names, so you can learn what people are saying about you, making it easier for you to improve and enhance your service.

Salesforce also lets Uber track all of its interactions with the public to enhance its customer service. So, if there’s a complaint, Uber’s team knows exactly who’s dealing with it, and how far along that team member is towards reaching a solution. One way to track interactions and complaints is through Salesforce’s support ticketing feature, which allows you to keep track of customer service queries. This way, you aren’t only able to provide a quick solution, but you can also use this to prevent a problem from even happening.

Key Salesforce Features

For tracking interactions and complaints with clients, Salesforce’s support ticketing feature is what you’ll need. This is available in Salesforce’s Essentials plan and its basic functions are to help you review metrics, prevent problems, and make sure that customer requests reach a full resolution.

Salesforce’s social media monitoring tool includes features such as social media listening, social media analytics, social media intelligence, and social media management. These features allow you to learn more about your customer and come up with an effective customer service and marketing strategy. However, this is only accessible for Marketing Cloud Premier or Signature Success plan customers.

✔ Targeting the right crowd

By having a handle on key demographic information about its customers, Uber can create more personalized, targeted marketing campaigns. If you like a few drinks on the weekend, you might get a notification at 9pm on a Friday wondering if you need a ride. If you take Uber to work, you might see an email pop up on Sunday evening reminding you to book your ride for the morning. Genius, huh?

Salesforce software enables Uber to tap into the behaviors and riding habits of its customers, Uber gives its marketing a highly healthy chance of succeeding. And from the customer’s side, they get a superior, more tailored service – and will be more likely to use Uber again.

Key Salesforce Features

Salesforce’s list segmentation enables you to separate your list of contacts based on factors like age, location, and more. This will enable you to send targeted communications to particular contacts that will appeal to their demographic. And with Salesforce’s lead reports, you can keep up with each contact’s status and history with you, again enabling you to send targeted communications. The lead reports feature is offered on the Essentials plan.

✔ Cultivating customer loyalty

CRM systems let you create loyalty schemes to reward your most faithful customers. Take Uber Rewards, for example. Uber’s own loyalty scheme lets you earn points every time you travel or eat through the app. These points can later be traded in for benefits and ‘Uber cash’.

Uber incentivizing its most loyal customers not only makes them feel valued, but it keeps them using the service. See how a CRM could help you do the same – try our free quote finding tool to be matched up with the best CRM providers for you. They’ll be in touch directly to provide tailored, no-obligation quotes and answers to your burning CRM questions.

Key Salesforce Features

You can create loyalty strategies through Salesforce’s stand alone Loyalty Management product, which you can integrate with other Salesforce cloud-based programs. This feature allows you to create programs that fit your business needs and those of your customers’.

The Loyalty Management app allows you to configure loyalty programs for your business, and can track and manage members’ activities, measure tier points, and assess members for tier upgrades.

Should I Use Salesforce CRM?

Building a scalable business model involves a lot of other important elements. Sure, you may have the right service or product backed by a team of competent staff, but if you don’t have the right tools, there’s a chance that your business won’t grow after taking off.

Fortunately, Salesforce provides a scalable platform. It might be more expensive than other options, with a starting rate of $25 per user, per month, but it’s powerful at scale because it provides extensive customization options and comes with advanced functions for boosting your sales funnel. Not only that, it also provides a good infrastructure for supporting multiple sales teams, comes with a large amount of customer support, and offers a lot of data visualization options. So, it’s likely to be attractive for growing businesses that need to keep track of specific data points.

If you want to have any chance of emulating Uber’s business model, you’ll need to pick the right CRM supplier. Major companies like Uber, Airbnb, and LinkedIn all have that in common – a reliable, scalable CRM system.

Whether it’s Salesforce, monday, Hubspot, Freshsales, or any other popular platform, the key is to have it successfully implemented and customized for your business.

So – just how do you really choose?

Well, that’s where we can help. Use our free quote-finding tool, and we’ll match you with the right CRM suppliers for your business. They’ll then be in touch with no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to you, so you don’t have to calculate the prices yourself. It takes 30 seconds, and it’s 100% free.

Next Steps

So, what next? Well, you need to make like Uber, and start streamling the way you run your business. And it all starts with CRM.

Think about the benefits of CRM software: it’s scalable, handles all your information from one place, and is the driving force behind those all-important customer interactions. It also lets you focus on building your sales pipeline, improving your client communications, and chasing leads – all with less effort.

And with so many cheap (or free) CRM systems on the market, what have you really got to lose? Uber started somewhere. Where might your business be in ten years?

Click on our free quote-finding tool to hear from the best CRM providers for you, who’ll provide no-obligation, tailored quotes and answers to your questions. Get ready to start applying some of the lessons from our Uber case study – and grow your business.

Written by:
Rob Binns
Rob writes mainly about the payments industry, but also brings to the table industry-specific knowledge of CRM software, business loans, fulfilment, and invoice finance. When not exasperating his editor with bad puns, he can be found relaxing in a sunny (socially-distanced) corner, with a beer and a battered copy of Dostoevsky.