LOKO – “Connecting customers to service provider’s in a click” — SME Case Study (UAE)

LOKO – “Connecting customers to service provider’s in a click” Chris Jones

The LOKO mobile application service provider is based in the United Arab Emirates and was founded in 2018.

The company has a catchphrase “Say no to waiting in line, causing traffic or honking to get your order.” The LOKO application is used to find cafés, restaurants, services, home business and place orders directly from the mobile application or through the web. The company is an ordering application wherein it places orders of customers to a specific service provider.

The purpose of the LOKO mobile application is to help consumers to achieve their needs at the touch of their thumbs. As a service provider which focuses on food

handling and delivery, LOKO’s goals are

Chris Jones LOKO – “Connecting customers to service provider’s in a click” ¡ To have easier ordering system for consumers and providers ¡ To eliminate long queuing time when ordering ¡ To increase the sales for providers (restaurants, cafés, and home business partners registered in the LOKO application) ¡ To increase the operating capacity of providers ¡ To lower fees and achieve higher customer and provider satisfaction.

¡ To reach all customers in the Emirates Vision The popularity of online and application-based services

are on the rise, LOKO looks forward

¡ In increasing its provider base in order to reach out to more customers ¡ To diversify its services ¡ To be the top web and application based services provider.

¡ To launch the LOKO app in the Middle East.

Organizational Structure

The company’s organizational structure is unique compared to standard organizational structure usually seen in existing companies. LOKO is owned and managed by three of its Emirati founders and its employees directly report to them. As per interview with one of the owners, the employees and its owners are working as one team, there is no distinction in their roles because they are working towards achieving their goal as a company. The reporting scheme in the company is direct communication, wherein any of the employees can directly refer to the owners.

Organizational Structure

Owners/Managers LOKO Employees Figure 50: The Organizational Structure of LOKO The Loko App LOKO is a company which provides ordering services for its registered providers. Much like with other companies offering similar services, in LOKO through their mobile application, customers can view the provider’s menu, place the order, and pay. Customers will receive notification about the status of their orders. Once the order is ready, users can directly pick up their orders from their providers.

Basically, the app will serve as a pre-order system, the user interface of the app is designed to be user friendly in order for a customer to have a maximum user experience without the hassle of a complicated system.

After the customer orders and pays the bill, he/she will get a notification about the time that his/her order will be available. The idea is if a person is in a hurry and wants to grab food on the go, he/she will use the system to preorder and just pick the order after receiving the notification. Thus, limiting or eliminating the queue outside the shop.

By using LOKO, consumers can easily find the registered providers. They can either reach it by using the directions provided in the application or they can request a provider by sharing their location. This is especially helpful when the provider selected by the consumer is a food truck. Another benefit in using LOKO is its customer loyalty system where they provide discount vouchers and priorities if you are a registered user.

LOKO also has a feature where customers can evaluate, comment and share their feedback. This way, the company can measure its effectiveness and efficiency and can be a basis for updating its business strategies.

For now, these features can only be availed if you are a registered user. Guest users can use the application and its services however they can’t avail its added features.

Additional Product Feature ¡ Refined search option where consumers can search by cuisine, radius, services and home business ¡ Exciting promotions and discounts from restaurants, cafés, services and home business ¡ Order customization ¡ Quick ordering mechanism and 24/7 customer service support ¡ Save multiple car plate numbers ¡ Rate and review your order experience Strategies Based on the interview with one of the owners of LOKO, they have a simple strategy in building their business brand. This is to gain the trust of customers by building and maintaining a user-friendly app that would serve their customers as well as provisions of promos and discount vouchers to registered users. Ultimately, these strategies were developed and carefully crafted for the company to increase sales, number of providers and customers.

For the LOKO app to compete with other companies providing services similar to theirs, the management has a clear set of plans for its long term growth. Below are

plans for the company’s business

¡ Promotion of the company’s services in social media and web platforms.

¡ System upgrades to add more features for both providers and customers.

¡ Creating and maintaining a culture of harmony and tolerance in the company.

In order for the company to reach more providers and customers, its marketing strategy is to use the advantages the web and social media platforms offer.

The company advertises to a specific set of customers in a specific geographical location. By building a user- friendly website and developing it constantly, it enables the company to achieve its marketing goals, which is to increase LOKO’s presence and reach to customers. Aside from that, the company also uses an SMS Aggregator technology to push SMS messages to its providers, customers and guest’s base.

The company believes in the “Customer is always right” and “To make life easier” mantra. In order to appeal to the masses, the company is constantly updating its application system on a weekly basis to fix issues and on a monthly basis – enhancing the app based on customer feedback. A prime example is due to the current upgrade, the application can now automatically provide reports to the company’s providers with their profits and total sales.

Challenges App-based food ordering and delivery services are popping up here and there especially in a digital and tech-savvy society. The UAE, for the last two decades, has completely reshaped its digital landscape. Due to this technological advancement, it created an environment conducive for digital technologies and the UAE has grown to be the most digital-friendly country in the Middle East. Spurring growth in digital start-ups in food delivery service, such as Talabat, Deliveroo, Zomato and LOKO. The popularity of these services are on the rise due to the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The food delivery application sector in the UAE is dominated by five companies according to a 2019 article by Pritesh Sudra. These are the most popular among the users, namely, Talabat, Deliveroo, Zomato, Uber Eats, and Careem.

¡ LOKO is a fairly new player in the market and the challenge it is facing is how to penetrate the current market and how to increase its social media and online presence. The five companies dominating the scene are diversified in their services and their providers also diversified. Their service and presence covers the entire seven Emirates of the UAE. In order to compete with these companies, LOKO is faced by the challenge on how to maximize their operations.

¡ LOKO is an app-based ordering system and unlike other applications, it doesn’t have a delivery option. This is a difference between them and the existing companies today. The idea is the app will be used to pre-order and pick up the item once the customer receives the notification.

In order to resolve these challenges, LOKO is continuing to develop and amend its strategies.

¡ To increase the company’s following in social media and increase its online presence, the company set up an account on Instagram for users to follow and develop rewards and benefits based on membership to the application.

¡ To increase diversification with its providers, LOKO has added benefits to attract more providers to become partners. Continuing development of business and marketing strategies, the company hopes to penetrate the market dominated by the five top companies with similar services (Talabat, Deliveroo, Zomato, Uber Eats and Careem).

LOKO is a mobile application service provider, not only does it provide the highest standard in customer service, but the service depends on the Internet.

¡ LOKO administers the highest level of security in order to protect the personal data of its customers.

With its security policy, customers are assured that their personal data (name, mobile number, address, car plate number and bank card details) are safe.

Online security is highly relevant today since the increase in the number of people using online services has seen an exponential increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

¡ Another best practices by LOKO are the privileges a provider and a consumer get. To ensure that providers remain with LOKO, the company markets their brands online. By having their presence online, a provider partnered with LOKO will have a reach to a lot of different people, thereby increasing its sales, achieve loyal customer following. Also, if a provider is a food truck or a small restaurant, by being at LOKO, this will reduce the issues in delayed orders and long queuing at their physical stores.

¡ An important issue since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, LOKO provides a user friendly application and web services for its providers and easier order acceptance and tracking.

For its registered customers, the user interface is easy to use and once registered, there is no need to log in with password in the application. The cyber security used by LOKO provides the highest security measures.

While using the application, customers can easily locate providers in their area, they can pre-order and they can track their orders. They can also send reviews and feedback to a provider and check trending items in the UAE. Another benefit of being a member is vouchers and discounts that attract followings.

Since the founding of the company, there has been only one mishap or failure according to one of the owners of

the company. That is

¡ Practice before that proved to be a liability for LOKO is distributing free tablets for registered providers.

The Company: From Beginning To Present Day The company was founded in 2018 with less than 10 employees working to develop and market the LOKO app. During this time, all the employees worked hard to gain providers and consumers. The company started with 42 registered providers, mainly food trucks and cafés. The company today employs 15 people to manage and maintain its apps services. LOKO has more than 60 providers currently registered which varies from coffee shops to sushi restaurants. Due to the rise of the popularity of app-based services, LOKO has seen its customer base on the rise too. With the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the online and app-based services have seen a boom in their markets as the number of people shifting to online increases, thus, helping LOKO with its reach and following.

The focus of the study is the introduction and analysis of the company based on how its strategies affected their operations and growth. The researcher highly recommends that the business, operations, and marketing strategies will be analyzed thoroughly in order to determine or measure the impact of LOKO’s presence in the UAE food delivery apps market.

It is also recommended that additional study must be conducted to test the social media and online presence of LOKO as compared to other online competitors. This will be supplemented through conducting online surveys to selected respondents. This is to measure the LOKO service’s visibility and popularity.

Another recommendation is to conduct a study or test the speed of using LOKO services as compared to the existing food delivery apps in the market today. Although they have slightly different systems, LOKO is for ordering and the consumer picks it up and the existing app has a delivery option.

Conducting this case study enlightened me as a researcher in terms of general knowledge of the business and the effects of global issues to the local or national economy. Below are the things learned from this case

study

¡ Global issues, especially the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, have affected the everyday operations of the business. LOKO is an app-based service for ordering and its partners are food trucks, cafés, restaurants, and home services, which were temporarily affected by government restrictions and closure to mitigate the spread of the virus.

¡ The adaptability by which the business underwent in order to continue to serve its users and its providers. As the restrictions were gradually lifted, providers were able to once again continue with their operations.

¡ Planning and executing is an important and integral part in managing and running a business. Especially when competition is tough and everything is going online, a clear understanding of what is needed and how it should be executed is significant.

LOKO is an app-based service which provides online ordering for food. The company’s goal is to eliminate long queueing time in food truck business and restaurants through the pre-ordering feature of their mobile application. The popularity of online ordering and delivery in the UAE has been gradually increasing and due to COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of the companies has been significant. The top five companies operating in this niche are dominating the market, and based on LOKO’s features, currently it only services for online pre-orders from their application and consumers will pick up their pre-ordered items. However, the five companies mentioned above have order and delivery features.

Despite this, LOKO has seen a rise in its customer base proving that there are customers who want to just order and pick it up after receiving notifications from the app.