With new on-demand ride applications stocking up the app store every day, only those with unique features and intuitive interfaces make it to user smartphones. You can do wonders with your taxi business if you can find just the right way to venture into this territory. A booking app customized with impactful branding and locally accepted features can give amazing return on investments to entrepreneurs in the long run. Hence, to help startups create their dream taxi booking applications, below are top 13 must-have features one should take care of during development.
Top 13 Things To Remember While Developing A Taxi Booking App
1. Understand Your Platform
2. Native App Over Cross-Platform
3. Simple UI
4. GPS for Real-Time Tracking of Drivers
5. Maps
6. Payment Gateway Integration
7. Billing and Invoice Generation
8. Pay Proper Attention to Localization
9. Minimum Clicks
10. Promotions and Other Offers
11. Rating and Feedback
12. Implementation of Push Notification
13. Outsourcing App Development
1. Understand Your Platform
For success of any application, the first and foremost step is to choose the right platform. You need to understand your customer base, investment etc. and then decide whether you want to develop your application for iOS/Android/web/windows or for all platforms.
2. Native App Over Cross-Platform
The next critically important thing is to choose between native and cross platform. Cross platform can save you big bucks as you can develop a common application for all mobile platforms at the same time. But such apps lack in performance thereby impacting the overall user experience. On the other hand, the core advantage of a native application is quality and performance. Since they are written specifically for a device, they utilize the optimum memory, can hold to platform UI guidelines and offer better user experience. Your decision to choose either native or cross platform should be based on how much you wish to invest in app development. If your budget is adequate enough go for native otherwise cross platform is what you can choose to opt for.
Also Read- B2B Mobile App Development: A Complete Guide
3. Simple UI
The sole aim of UI architecture is that users should be able to understand the flow of the application without any formal training or technical knowledge. The screens should be as interactive and intuitive as possible.
4. GPS for Real-Time Tracking of Drivers
GPS helps in real-time tracking, offers vehicle travel information and finds nearest available drivers within seconds. GPS coordinated information can be used to display the estimated time of arrival of the driver and suggest the optimum route based on traffic jam.
5. Maps
Another important decision is choosing the right map. Google map API is free for certain number of hits, post that you need to subscribe to Google map premier API. Apple maps are free for now, but is not available on mobile platforms outside iOS. Tom Tom is another option available out there. Spend a significant amount of time researching for the perfect map that will fit your business goals before you start investing in development.
6. Payment Gateway Integration
Payment methods like debit card, credit card, or money wallet should be integrated into the app. Cashless transactions can be managed using various secure payment gateways available online such as PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, etc. For certain developing countries where digital payment is not a preferred option, you can provide “pay with cash” feature to end users. This will help increase user base.
Also Read- How to Develop a Payment Gateway? From Concept to Code
7. Billing and Invoice Generation
For a quality booking app, it is very important that end user must receive invoices on email as soon as they complete the ride. Hence, choose a good email server to avoid queuing up of mails. SMS notification about billing is always helpful and integration of a high-quality priority SMS service provider like Twilio is important in this regard. A game changer idea to bring business travelers onboard is by allowing corporate users to login with their company ID for hassle-free billing reimbursements.
8. Pay Proper Attention to Localization
One of the biggest reason for failure of booking apps is that promoters do not conduct detailed research on local market and local requirements. Localization is very important for the success of any app. You should study the local market, closely analyze competitors and understand how they respond to the limitations of the area. For example, when Uber was launched in India, it offered “pay with cash” option to reach out to maximum users. This proved to be a game changer move and helped the company gain bigger market share.
9. Minimum Clicks
Bookings should be confirmed in minimum possible clicks. Your app must offer intelligent suggestions to users about their usual pickup and drop-off locations for quick bookings. Also let passengers pick vehicle in their budget by providing fare estimation before the ride.
10. Promotions and Other Offers
People love freebies. Your app can bring new users on board by offering different promotions, discounts and free-ride invites from time to time. Another proven successful idea is to offer users with secret discount coupons on special holidays.
11. Rating and Feedback
Credibility is important for a business to build the right customer base. Rating the driver and the car helps in improvisation of the quality of service. It provides a sense of security and control to both riders and drivers.
12. Implementation of Push Notification
After a booking has been placed, the rider should receive notification with the name, contact info of the driver and car type with its number. Other notifications may include ride upgrades, existing offers and coupons etc.
13. Outsourcing App Development
Keeping the budget under control is one of the most important thing for success of any startup. One way to keep finance under check is to outsource its development to a company with experience in developing booking apps. This will not only keep your budget under control but also ensure success of development.
Matellio is one of industry’s top app development company that have produced several successful taxi apps for clients across the globe. You can get your apps customized by a dedicated team of developers that will do everything under experienced project manager’s guidance.
