Didi Chuxing has announced new plans to grow the size of its in-house customer service team, adding 3000 new positions into the existing team of 5000. On top of the expansion, the company also proposed to give a thousand of those new vacancies to Chinese Communist Party members.
“Under the guidance of the higher Party organization, Didi plans to recruit a thousand Party member customer service representatives, who will be given the priority to be in the Safety and Emergency Customer Service Team to bring their exemplary role into full play,” the ride-hailing firm said in the WeChat post.
Didi Chuxing has been rolling out and trialing a number of new features aiming to enhance passenger safety after two murders in three months. After widespread public outrage, Didi temporarily suspended several night services as it rushed to implement a host of new safety features, including audio recording on Express and Premier trips, a mandatory daily safety test for drivers, and an improved panic button to contact police.
As part of the safety revamp efforts, the company said it has increased the number of representatives in the safety and emergency team by threefold.
Currently, the company has a team of 15,000 customer service representatives—including 5000 in-house and 10,000 outsourced representatives.
According to the company, from January to September, the customer service department had assisted over 1.1 million passengers to retrieve lost items and handled on average over 2 million calls per day. However, there is still the need for expansion.
“Didi will continue to invest the best resources into customer service and increase its internal customer service team to 8000.”
Didi Chuxing is facing increasing pressure from not only the public but also authorities to improve its safety measures. The Party has been making moves to strengthen its role within the ride-hailing firm and other Chinese tech companies.
Reports suggest that Didi Chuxing’s party branch was established in 2013, which later formed into a party committee in 2016. The number of Party members under Didi grew significantly from 3 to 3750 in five years. Currently, there are 24 branches under the firm’s party committee which are located all over in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, the Huanan region and the Southwest of China.