How Loopit Helped a Major OEM Launch a Car Subscription Pilot Program through HelloCars

As car subscription continues to gain momentum around the world, understanding the potential market opportunity for mainstream car subscription programs becomes all the more crucial. One major automaker OEM in the Australian market realised this and identified the importance of gathering real-world car subscription data and insights for its current model line-up.

Speaking with automotive strategy consultant Chris Cassar who oversaw the car subscription pilot on behalf of his automaker client, the objectives for success were threefold:

1. Align with a trusted retail car subscription provider
2. Build the expertise to understand the requirements of an OEM-led subscription model
3. Understand the market demand , price position and elasticity of its  model line-up

Insights into operational requirements by partnering with an experienced car subscription provider

As one of largest and fastest growing car subscription providers in Australia, HelloCars managed the consumer-facing aspects of car subscription on behalf of the OEM client which included operational and logistics requirements such as:

• vehicle preparation
• marketing and customer acquisition
• vehicle handover and handback

This ultimately provided the OEM client an insight into the operational requirements of managing the administrative and analytical side of car subscription and how Loopit is able to service these requirements effectively and at scale.

“We considered a number of retail car subscription providers in Australia to align with for a pilot program, however it was HelloCars’ reputation for exceptional customer service and their partnership with Loopit that ultimately confirmed our decision.” says Cassar.

Mitigating consumer risk at scale

In addition to the above operational requirements, an essential component of running a successful car subscription program is implementing robust customer assessment and risk management processes to mitigate any untoward customer behaviour.

As part of the Loopit provider network, HelloCars already incorporates robust risk management processes, bolstered by Loopit’s comprehensive customer assessment, fraud detection and payment recovery tools.

• Customer assessment Powered by Loopit, each application to subscribe undergoes an identification and credit check process - seamlessly online and in real-time. Any applicant that failed this criteria was not eligible for subscription.
• Security deposit An advantage of Loopit’s account hierarchy management feature meant that HelloCars where necessary was able to set stricter security deposit requirements without affecting its usual subscription fleet.
• Vehicle handover At the point of handover, HelloCars utilises Loopit’s vehicle inspection report to not only record the condition of the vehicle, but also to capture important driver information.
• Payment recovery On the rare occasion that a subscriber would miss a payment, Loopit’s automated payment recovery process would reattempt payment and send a notification to the subscriber with a prompt to make payment online manually if required.

Of course accidents can and still do happen. In the case of the OEM partner, they opted to retain their existing roadside assistance and fleet insurance, meaning HelloCars needed to run two sets of damage cover providers in parallel. This was easily implemented through Loopit’s account hierarchy management feature with a few basic configurations in the account settings.

Seamless sub-account management for a unified end-customer experience

As an exercise in information and discovery, a crucial outcome of this pilot program was a robust data set to evaluate the market opportunity for car subscription. At the same time, HelloCars needed to present a seamless and consistent end-customer experience whilst maintaining a distinct product offering for the OEM fleet. In addition, the OEM partner needed to understand the customer assessment and risk management processes as part of their roadmap for a successful launch of their own car subscription program.

To solve this problem, HelloCars used the account hierarchy management feature provided by Loopit to manage the subscription program for its OEM partner in a separate sub-account. This had several distinct advantages:

• It allowed the OEM fleet and their customers to be managed in a separate but still linked sub-account
• This sub-account could be set up with its own distinct settings for pricing, plans, terms and more to meet the go-to-market requirements of the OEM partner
• It offered segmented reporting and insights separate from HelloCars’ usual subscription fleet and customers
• The dataset from the sub-account could still be rolled up into the main account to present a unified customer experience on the front end
• A dynamic data feed could still be used that combined both the top-level and sub-account to drive the website

This all meant that new customers visiting the HelloCars website would be presented with a single unified online and booking experience that still met the requirements of both HelloCars and their OEM partner, while from an operational perspective HelloCars staff could still seamlessly manage the functional differences between each offering.

This is an ideal application for Loopit’s account hierarchy management feature which can also be used to manage multiple locations, or several sub-brands within a single account.

In summary, HelloCars’ excellence in customer service and operational tasks; alongside with Loopit’s tailored car subscription solutions provided the OEM partner with insights on the potential market opportunity for mainstream car subscription programs. Actionable and comprehensive, these insights highlighted the requirements and benchmarks across every aspect of a successful car subscription program - providing a strategic roadmap for the OEM partner.