To: Logan Green, CEO of Citi Bike
From: Fernando Rodriguez, student
Subject: Updating the software within the Citi Bike app

The purpose of this memo is to bring awareness to the lack of information the Citi Bike app withholds from its users. By sharing this information you will improve the satisfaction and overall experience of your customers who use this as a daily way of transportation.

 Summary

The app allows the user to log in and check the nearest bike location. It also shows how many bikes are in the station and if they are regular or electric bikes. To take out the bike you must put the code from the bike or scan it. As this way of transportation is increasing with an average of around 50 thousand people a day, I would love to set up a meeting and propose a new update with enhanced features.

Discussion

An update to the app will need work done from the programming team, but these features wouldn’t be a tedious task for them to tackle. To start off, there is a very common issue of being unable to take out a bike because of vandalism which makes it impossible to put in the code of the bike into the app. A simple fix is to put the codes of the bikes in the app. The app already has on the system which bikes are there; they just don’t make the codes visible. This will in turn make it possible for every bike on the station to be used even if the code was scratched off.

Another add on would be to have the battery percentage of the electric bikes on the app. When you reach a bike station there might be an electric bike that’s temporarily charging and so it doesn’t let the user take it out. In many cases electric bikes are usable but the user has no idea how much battery is within that electric bike. This leads to the 65 pound bike dying halfway across the user’s trip. A fix would be to add the battery percentage of that bike on the app. This would give the users a precise idea of when the bike battery will die, which gives them time to plan their trip.

The new update with new features would also be a great opportunity to retouch the app’s layout making it more exciting for current users and possibly bringing in new users. Although this would be work for the programming team, the expenses should pay for themselves in the future through the increase in users renting out the bikes.

The new update rollout with these enhanced features would lead to an increase of Citi Bike users and their satisfaction. People would also see the company as eco-friendly since the increase of bike users results in less car pollution.

Recommendation

Thank you for your time. You can email me at [email protected] for any questions, I would be more than happy to work with you and the programming team in order to elaborate on these solutions.