TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is known for good customer service, and this user’s recent experience bears it out.
This is not a fairy tale that starts with “Once upon a time.” Despite some negative comments from foreigners on social media, Taiwanese businesses do provide good service.
In this case, scooter rental company GoShare came to the rescue. Any loyal user of scooter rentals in Taipei will attest to the ease and convenience of most companies’ services, but GoShare’s 50cc electric scooters are usually well-placed and nimble for solo errands or just going somewhere.
All scooter rental companies have made the rental system easy with mobile phone apps. Grab your phone, open the app, find the scooter, sometimes take a walk depending on peak usage, and tap to book. Then click “Start”, put on the helmet, start the battery engine, and voila, the ride begins, all in a matter of minutes.
The reverse process applies to the return process, usually within seconds, and the user receives an email receipt. That’s how it works at least 99% of the time.
Then, as with almost any system, problems inevitably arise along the way. In this case, when returning the GoShare scooter, an “error message” that the return could not be completed appeared and politely advised to try again as soon as possible.
Trying again soon is not what rental riders want to hear. The journey is over.
The error messages kept coming, and “try again as soon as possible” didn’t lead to the end of the engagement. Pricing is naturally tied to how long the scooter is used, and in this case, an 8-minute ride quickly adds up to 15 minutes, and it appears to be more than that.
A slight fear set in, then found the “help” button. “Help” was pressed in a timely manner, and while expectations were a bit low given the online nature of the situation and the user’s limited Mandarin ability, a bilingual message was displayed within minutes.
GoShare “helped” the operator pinpoint the problem immediately. After requesting a photo of the scooter, license plate, and street address, confirm that the scooter is located within that geographic area.
A series of recommendations followed. Move the scooter slightly. not good. Shaking the scooter back and forth, not sure what the suggestion is hoping to achieve, again does no good. As instructed, the scooter’s motor mode was re-enabled, but still had no effect.
This exchange of advice and the resulting failure is done very politely. Provided patient and timely bilingual responses.
After about 15 minutes, the helpline finally decided to shut down the scooter remotely. All in all, this means that what should have been an 8-minute drive is now more than 45 minutes, and people are starting to worry that any refund process will become tedious or even impossible.
All worries were allayed, however, as options were immediately offered, confirming the eight minutes of actual ride time and the time spent trying to resolve the return before the remote shut down.
These options include online coupons for the time it took to resolve the issue or refunds via credit card. With a choice made and confirmed, the consumer can continue the evening with complete peace of mind.
The consumer then feels that GoShare understands and values its customers. According to this user, GoShare provides a quality rental service and apparently also provides quality professional training for its online staff.
The usual reliability of GoShare scooters, ease of use, and quality of customer service in difficult times will only increase this user’s brand loyalty.
Yes, good customer service does exist in Taiwan, and GoShare deserves credit.
