Key takeaways blog 3

The top three takeaways from this course are; the amount of emphasis placed on customer service, the constant change in the sharing economy and the different approaches companies take with regulation. First, the amount of emphasis placed on customer service was surprisingly high. Before taking the course I was aware of the impact customer service had on a company, but the sharing economy takes that service to another level. In the same thought, the difficulty of cultivating a good customer service platform is also more difficult within the sharing economy. In an economy that requires a high level of service, even the largest competitors struggle on a daily basis. This was seen from our meetings with Airbnb, Uber, and Feastly as well as from the UX analysis and secondary research.

Second, the constant change that occurs within the sharing economy, which ties into the service insights, shows that the newness of the sharing economy is so unique that companies cannot be proactive, but rather reactive to demand. From the company analysis we performed we noticed that in a matter of only 2 months the company website changed at least twice for Airbnb and HomeAway. Hostel world, which is a more established company, did not change at all. However, the two newer companies both had changes to their platforms through our research. I thought could be problematic as new users may have trouble to the constantly changing sites and apps. Other companies, that were not in our industry, but we downloaded their apps and visited their sites changed as well, Uber the most, but they did not change to the level of the companies in the lodging industry.

Finally, I expected companies in the economy to be against regulation and changes to their business model, but from some of the company visits, particularly Airbnb and Feastly, it seems that companies are willing to work with regulators. Airbnb mentioned that they share some of the same concerns as law makers with their platform and would be willing to work closely with them to ensure safety and proper zoning regulations. Feastly has a different approach, but they did not intend to find regulations. Instead they planned to stay as far away, with the reasoning that they are not an industry that needs regulation and if they did it would be too difficult to follow through with enforcement. This seems like mentality Airbnb may have had at inception, but as it has grown, the company now sees the bigger picture. I think it was also insightful to see the progression of priorities as a new company vs an established company in an emerging new industry type.