Close-up of logo for ride sharing and crowdsourced taxi service Lyft on a Lyft vehicle in the San ... [+]
Lyft recently announced they are rolling out a program called Women+ Connect. The program will allow women and non-binary riders and drivers the option to mark a preference of getting women and non-binary drivers and passengers, respectively.
The new program, which needs a more inclusive name, was created in response to needs that are specific to people who are part of these communities.
Safety is a major priority, and for women and non-binary riders, even more so. Lyft heard from their customers that they needed to do more to keep them safe. The data supported this need as well.
In their 2021 Community Safety Report, Lyft acknowledged they'd received more than 4000 reports of sexual assaults during trips from 2017 to 2019. According to Lyft CEO David Risher, this new program aims to give more peace of mind to women and non-binary passengers and drivers.
The Women+ Connect program will roll out for early access in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. The program will expand to more cities soon after.
This is just another example of brands recognizing that different customers have different needs in particular based upon the identities they hold.
Some hotels have taken into account women’s elevated need for safety, and have provided women-only floors, designed with solo women travelers in mind. The floors are only accessible via keycard.
The LGBTQ+ community also has an elevated need for safety. Many brands still struggle to meet this need. Results from GLAAD’s third annual Social Media Safety Index showed all five major social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) received low and failing scores on their index for the second consecutive year.
I recently attended a large marketing conference that had meetups and an exhibit hall activation designed specifically for the Black attendees. The conference organizers recognized the challenges that can come with being part of a marginalized group in such a big setting with so many attendees. In response, they created a safe space where attendees from the community could come and reset. They created a environment specifically designed to make Black attendees feel like they belong during the conference.
Brands Need To Understand Identity-Based Needs
Smart brands proactively work to understand how the needs of the people they serve could be different based upon their identities. When you develop a deep degree of intimacy with the different types of customers of you serve, you’ll gain more insight into how their needs and experiences could be different from the masses.
To focus your efforts on ensuring all the customers you serve achieve success at the same rates, spend time understanding the customer journey of the people who have the problem your brand solves. Uncover what their dreams, desires, fears, and frustrations are — and how they impact your ideal customers’ decision making, the way they show up and engage, and the actions they both take and don’t take.
Understanding the lenses with which the people you serve see and view the world will help you better realize that one-size fits all approaches rarely work for a diverse customer base.
Then audit the existing customer experience you deliver to uncover where you may not be hitting the mark for certain communities.
Once you take action on those challenges, barriers, and varied experiences, you’ll better position your brand to be the one customers from underrepresented and underserved communities choose and feel like they belong with.
Getting to this point may require implementing a data collection plan that enables you to understand more about the needs, success rates, and even how different consumers progress through your existing customer journey.
Don’t leave getting answers to these questions up to chance, or be reactive about getting feedback to understand how you’re currently performing. Sure, the stakes are higher in some industries than others — as in the case of Lyft with the reports of sexual assault.
But even if the stakes aren’t quite so dire with your brand and industry, ensuring that a person’s identity doesn’t negatively impact the success they achieve with you is worth exploring. The changes you implement could be transformational for the people on the receiving end of your efforts.
The customers you serve have different needs based upon the identities they hold. Make sure you deliver an experience that is intentionally designed for the different identities you serve, everyone can thrive with your brand.
