Driving business growth through integrated booking channels
When we first started talking to taxi companies about Sherlock we were frequently told, “I just need an app - I’ve already got a dispatch system.” There was little interest – or perhaps understanding – in the market for a truly integrated solution. Few businesses considered features they might need from the app such as dynamic response times, the ability to track the vehicle or consistently applied travel rules across all booking channels (for example, restricting bookings to certain addresses or times of day).
“We would speak to businesses and often hear the same kinds of problems – companies losing business to the ride-hailing apps like Uber and Bolt because they either didn’t have an app, or the app they did have wasn’t fit for purpose as it wasn’t providing accurate, live response times to passengers, flexible payment options and a user experience that was mirrored across all other booking channels,"
Mike Tobin, Business Unit Director at Sherlock
Full System Integration
That’s why a truly integrated system matters. Sherlock’s passenger apps and all booking channels—phone, IVR, web, kiosks, and account portals—are built into the dispatch system, not bolted on. In contrast, many systems treat these as add-ons, leading to outdated or inaccurate trip information for passengers.
This ensures consistent features across all booking channels, so passengers always receive accurate response times and the best driver—whether they book via app, call centre, kiosk, or elsewhere - increasing trust in your service as a whole and giving customers the confidence to keep booking via automated channels. As a result, you can scale your business without needing to significantly increase overheads through additional staffing costs.
This solves other problems too: it reduces customer reliance on call centre information which can often lead to phoning rather than booking online or through the app – adding to staff workload during peak periods. It prevents situations where customers use an automated booking channel but then call to confirm the booking status and most importantly, it builds customer confidence, encouraging them to return to your service instead of switching to a competitor.
Reliable technology enables scale, supporting marketing efforts without being held back by system limitations. It boosts passenger trust, increases automation, and reduces the need for costly manual processes. One customer in Singapore achieved a 50% increase in bookings through app and web portal after implementing Sherlock as a result of the additional features available.
Other booking channel successes for customers include:
- Client achieving 50% increase in IVR bookings thanks to reliable automation and accurate response times that consider live traffic conditions
- Client increasing number of web portal bookings by x15 within first few weeks of go live – and before marketing the new portal
- Customer app satisfaction on App Store increasing from 2.6 to 4.7
Managing Corporate Account Clients
Unreliable booking channels that don’t integrate with the core dispatch system can cause real barriers to effectively supporting accounts.
Many business customers still prefer call centres for reassurance, but this limits scalability and increases the risk of human error. To encourage adoption of app, web booker and web portal, you need to offer reliable, accurate channels that support account-specific needs like references, payment types, and priority levels.
Sherlock uses ‘Travel Policies’. These are configurable rules which are implemented at individual account and user levels to ensure that service guidelines can be complied with for accounts, even for automated bookings. For example, an account which only allows staff to book trips between the office and home address between certain hours or a corporate client which only allows senior executive staff to book certain premium vehicle grades.
These ‘Travel Policies’ are the most sophisticated on the market and modelled on policies developed by our team for Addison Lee and their vast account client base including many FTSE100 companies with complex needs. They can support controls on service access, times, locations, cost centres, and reference fields—consistently across all channels.
Additionally, Sherlock has an Account Management Portal which was introduced so customers can create, amend and cancel bookings within their own secure portal, as well as review data on trips completed, invoices and frequent bookers/routes, to further reduce the need for expensive and manual processes.
For reliable booking channels with accurate response times that are the same regardless of what booking channel is used, speak to Sherlock today.
