How we helped a taxi company go from A to B.
The Brief
With competition in the transport industry becoming fierce and big players such as Uber and Lyft causing major disruption, many taxi companies are finding it hard to compete. Regionally based taxi companies however have an advantage. The big players are yet to move to regional areas where towns and their populations are too small to justify setting up.
When Port Macquarie Taxis came to us, they had a brand perception and technology problem. Although consumers could not book an Uber locally, they expected a service that was similar. Consumers expected a mobile taxi booking experience that was seamless, reliable and simple. While Port Macquarie Taxi offered great services, they were finding it hard to communicate their offer, benefits and value to the local community.
Goals and Challenges:
- Port Macquarie Taxis wanted to communicate their services and mobile booking capabilities in an engaging and cost effective way
- Port Macquarie Taxis wanted to upgrade their online presence so that it catered for customer expectations and positioned the company as the #1 taxi company in Port Macquarie. The company wanted to be perceived as reliable, trustworthy, safe, modern and locally owned.
The Solution:
Working with Lindsay Moller Photography, we established a creative approach that would quickly and visually tell the Port Macquarie Taxi brand story.
A 60 sec video was developed that showcased the company’s customer service focus, range of transport options and mobile booking capabilities.
The video worked to consolidate the position of the company locally as a reliable and community focused business that was innovative, modern and responsive to customers’ requirements.
At the same time, we worked with Golden Age Media to re-develop the Port Macquarie Taxi website.
This included the development of the sites architecture and direction of the visual design of the website which incorporated new imagery being sourced. As part of the development, we proposed integrating an online booking feature into the website. We facilitated discussion with the Taxi Customer Management Software provider in order to integrate a real-time 24/7 online booking system into the website.
Dragonfly Marketing Services Provided:
- Online Video and Photography Creative Direction
- Video Script Development
- Website Creative Direction
- Website Scoping and Project Management
- Copywriting
The Results
The outcome was a new website for Port Macquarie Taxis’ that included a refreshed look and feel, was capable of online and mobile taxi booking and was mobile responsive to cater for over 60% of the websites traffic.
The brand story video was distributed locally and had the effect of increasing the company’s brand awareness immediately and resulted in being used to promote safe transport in key audiences in the Hastings Valley through local stakeholder relationships.
Key outcomes:
- Within two days of the video being launched on social media and the company website, the local liquor accord contacted the company to partner and further promote the safe travel and reliable taxi service within its participating member venues which included pubs, clubs and restaurants.
- The company has seen an increase in online and mobile bookings through its website and smart phone app.
- The company has experienced great feedback from the community which speaks to increased brand awareness and positioning for Port Macquarie Taxi’s as the #1 taxi service in the Hastings Valley.
Key outcomes further detail:
- Brand awareness – the reskinning of the website in addition to the photography and video created has without a doubt boosted brand awareness in the community.
- Functionality of the new website has created a more efficient booking system for our despatch staff and customer – booking capability as the primary function are clear and simple.
- All marketing initiatives now link back to a website that we are now confident to promote from an aesthetic and functional perspective.
- Social media performance is reflected in a marked increase of click throughs to bookings and/or app downloads on the website.
- An exciting business alliance was created as a result of producing the promo video. Hastings Liquor Accord proposed a collaboration in producing another video that would leverage the Plan B initiative – this video was made and now serves as an additional source of direct promotion of booking taxis with Port Macquarie Taxis.
- Anecdotal comments from the community have been “I’ve never even thought about taxis as a community based business before. Taxis have just always been there, like a utility service. I now know notice the branding, the diversity of vehicles and the specialised service Port Macquarie Taxis provides to all aspects of the community”
- Shining the spotlight on the drivers was a key objective – to demonstrate the depth of training, skill & care required in transporting the elderly, disabled and vulnerable in our community on a daily basis – the photography captured this compassion and genuine customer service interaction which we could further project through the website and video.
- The high demand for skilled & accredited drivers is a constant recruitment consideration for us. Utilising the website as a recruitment tool for management has reduced applicant screening time dramatically – applicants must provide mandatory documents online first to satisfy the criteria required to progress to an interview stage.
Customer Testimonial:
“A refresh process of reskinning a website, photo shoot and video production is an overwhelming exercise.
Encapsulating a myriad of ideas and desired outcomes from a client into a format that a website designer and photographer can understand really requires the discipline of two ears and one mouth on the part of the consultant initially – analyzing the brain dump and banging it into a concise and accurate brief is a real skill.
This is why I sought Dragonfly Marketing out as a marketing consultancy – I believed they could help us gain clarity, perspective and direction to build our brief and without a doubt Jane and Brent delivered in spades.
Dragonfly’s passion and commitment to hitting the brief, developing an inclusive collaboration between us the client and the service provider plus attention to detail was such a breath of fresh air – constant email and phone updates ensured we never left in the dark regarding process or costs.
Our experience with Jane and Brent really helped us to enjoy a typically stressful process – they totally invest themselves in you and your brand and strive for nothing less than excellent with a contagious energy – was an absolute delight working with you and beyond happy with the results.”
