Lyft plans 24-hour telephone support

Among the biggest frustrations of ridehailing drivers is finding a way to get in touch with on-demand transportation companies when they have a question or a problem.

And among the biggest problems for ondemand transportation companies is frustrated drivers.

To help keep its drivers content, Lyft said it will create 24-hour nationwide phone support for drivers in English and Spanish, as well as an online chat option. Uber instituted a similar feature in July.

Prior to phone support, Lyft drivers could contact the San Francisco company only by email. That was a pain for many drivers, who preferred to talk to an associate rather than go back and forth on email.

When the service starts in the next few weeks, the company said, drivers will be able to tap a button in the Lyft app to call a Lyft associate. Lyft will already have the driver’s details on hand.

An in-app chat option — not unlike the customer service chat function offered on Amazon — will also be available.

“This has been on our road map for a while,” said Mary Winfield, Lyft’s vice president of trust and safety. “We do a lot of shadowing with drivers, and we ask what they’re thinking and feeling, and from that we determined that more immediate channels of support were important.”

Lyft’s customer support agents will be located around the world, with the bulk of the team in the U.S., and Spanish-speaking partners in Central America and Florida.

Uber and Lyft are offering passenger deals and discounts, as well as features that improve the experience for drivers, such as in-app tipping, car wash discounts and driver bonuses.