When most people hear the word “grease,” they think John Travolta. Well this story is far from the glamour of any “Summer Lovin’.” My brother Joey Anderson and I were flipping hamburgers at your local burger joint and doing the ever-loved grease dumps when Joey came up with the idea of using waste cooking oil for fuel, but we didn’t know what to do with it. After doing research, we found out it’s recycled to make lipstick, other cosmetics, and biodiesel. That was when we were seniors in high school. I went off to college in Florida to pursue professional wakeboarding and a business management major while Joey stayed in Richmond to study advertising at Virginia Commonwealth University.
While Joey was developing the production of biodiesel, I was interested in its applications. Our initial idea was to start a fuel distribution company but I quickly shut that down because I figured our future competitors, like BP and Exxon, and even smaller companies like bondedoil.com, were a little ahead of us.
The difference, however, was that we both had unique ideas about customer experience. In my travels pursuing wakeboarding, for example, I took a liking to the travel industry. Joey, on the other hand, looks at things from a musical background (he plays in a Richmond band, Night Idea). Having both been raised in the restaurant industry, Joey and I had years of experience in hands-on service operations. We saw a huge opportunity in ground transportation from a service standpoint.
So Joey and I took a ride in a taxi for market research. In our very first experience, the driver demanded a cash down payment immediately. Needless to say, off to the whiteboard we went to draw up our business plan for our company bioRide.
Today bioRide is thriving. We use grease from local restaurants in Greater Richmond to fuel a completely different approach to transportation. Some of our partnerships include large corporations, like MeadWestvaco, which also donate their waste grease for our biodiesel. For instance, when a guest or affiliate comes to MeadWestvaco, eats at the cafeteria, and then needs a ride to the airport later in the day-they are helping to fuel their ride.
For us, this kind of customer experience is everything. Our clients report that the most important part of bioRide are the hosts (drivers). Our fleet consists of Volkswagens and Mercedes, from sedans to 11-passenger luxury vehicles. We have three classes of vehicles: economy, executive, and group executive. Our clientele ranges from someone just looking for a quick, cost-efficient ride to the airport to executives. We’ve had everyone from the cast of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln to Sir Richard Branson, in fact.
The customer experience doesn’t just come in the vehicles though. During the working hours, there is always somebody on the end of the phone or on emails willing to help and answer any questions – and when it’s not working hours, a customer support software is employed to give the best customer experience possible. This comparison between zendesk vs freshdesk (two of the most popular types of software) will be useful for anyone who doesn’t have this sort of software for their business. The benefits of crm (customer relationship management) software are definitely worth having. This type of software is an invaluable tool for any business.
To add to the experience, we concentrate on the details. All vehicles have complimentary use of iPads, Wi-Fi, and we’ve been known to cater food for our guests so that they can regain time in their day. We want to bring the experience and awe factor parallel to that of a world-class service or hotel experience. Part of that experience for a customer is knowing that they are engaging a brand that wants to give back-from decreasing our carbon footprint to impacting local causes. Beginning last year, for example, we started partnering with United Methodist Family Services (UMFS) and mentoring teenagers on work ethic, intuition, responsibility, and innovation. Twice a week students come to bioRide to help manage the warehouse and offer input on how to improve the customer experience. Customer experience is something that businesses can seek assistance on from the likes of Qualtics who are able to implement a management platform to take CX to the next level, as seen here – https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/customer-experience-management-platform/. Our goal is to offer them something that school and other jobs cannot. We teach them things you need to know to run a business, like Excel and QuickBooks.
From the details of the car and the driver to the causes we support, Joey and I feel that our culture and the experience it creates is everything. At the end of the day, we’re all here to make a difference.
By Jeff Anderson, Co-Founder of bioRide.