About the company
The owner of Kaiian, Bader, has been a taxi driver for a long time. This is how the idea of a modern platform for ordering a cab came to him.
The Challenge
The initial plan was to hire an outsourcing company to develop an Uber-inspired application. Several months passed, but the outsourcers were still unable to meet Kaiian’s expectations.
In Saudi Arabia, Uber was already on the market, as well as a local taxi company Careem. Kaiian needed to be even more affordable, more reliable, and have more technical features than the competitors. Settling for a white-label app turned out to be the cure.
The apps needed to be fully customized: with the logo, the colors, and the branding of Kaiian.
Choosing Onde white-label apps
“White-label saved us so much time and energy! We were able to streamline the launch and focus on how we market our taxi company.”
Bader, the founder of Kaiian.
Starting in a small city
Kaiian started their taxi business in the small cities of Saudi Arabia. They first launched in the city of Al-Kharj with 18 cars. This helped to get enough turnover to invest in further promotion. Later, they launched their taxi service in Hail and Yanbu. At first, Kaiian had to drop the prices to attract new clients. But very soon the quality of the service became the main factor that attracted passengers.
Customer development and social media marketing
Kaiian did not want to rely on just anyone with a mass following. After doing thorough research, the company founders figured out who is really trusted on social media, why, and by whom.
Snapchat and Instagram became the biggest channels for attracting new passengers. Snapchat was targeted at young people while Instagram — at middle-class folks in their 30s—50s.
Twitter (still functioning as a no-nonsense social network) helped to engage possible investors.
Attracting new drivers
Kaiina offered better tariffs than Uber or Careem. If Careem asked drivers to pay 50% of what they gain, Kaiian asked significantly less, and word of mouth in a small city ensured everybody knew that.
Another clever move was giving new drivers a free trial. It brought no income to the company, but it brought clients, and the possibility to analyze which driver plan fits a driver best.
The Onde platform allows playing with the fares to adapt them to the market requirements. One can create, test and adjust driver plans, and choose the most suitable for a certain audience. Kaiian analyzed the current situation in the taxi market of Saudi Arabia and came up with their own unique model of driver plans.
Yet another important thing is maintaining a high level of drivers’ performance: their attitude, outfits, and the level of customer service. Kaiian experience shows that training drivers pays back enormously in loyalty: if passengers love your company and the service they are getting, they won’t hesitate to recommend it. Providing drivers with uniforms and ensuring that drivers are motivated added to customer satisfaction.
The results
Kaiian operates in many cities in Saudi Arabia. That's what the founder says on the topic:
“In big cities, you need something creative enough to make the company look different from its competitors. With a right social move everything will work. Because the platform is good, and we are so special, no super-huge investments needed here!”
Key success factors
- Working with Onde - a white-label software solution
- Starting from the small cities
- Doing thorough customer research
- Constantly motivating and rewarding drivers
- Working with a marketing agency to ensure promotion
