Waymo is Considering Adding a Membership Program for Riders
Waymo sent out a survey to one of our LA based subscribers on Friday asking for feedback on a potential new membership program.
On Friday, one of our TDD readers in Los Angeles received a survey invite from Waymo that asked them to fill out a 20 minute survey in exchange for a $10 e-gift card. The market research was all about a new potential membership program that Waymo is considering offering.
Since Waymo has a limited fleet and a number of ardent supporters, it makes sense that they’re looking to reward their power users and create more brand loyalty. Uber and Lyft have comparable rewards programs for riders, which we’ll dive into below, but here’s one of the pages we were sent from Waymo’s survey:
Here’s what Uber and Lyft offer via their membership programs:
Sources:
https://www.ubereats.com/uber-one
All of the options that Waymo is considering make sense and line up with what Uber and Lyft offer. But since Waymo has a fixed fleet size and one of the biggest complaints from riders is ‘long ETAs’, priority pick up seems like the most valuable offering to me.
Cash back and discounts of course are always nice, but that doesn’t do you much good if you can’t get a ride in the first place. Plus, Waymo is a premium product so they’ll likely be priced above Uber and Lyft for some time.
A membership program also allows Waymo to price segment their riders, and for those willing to pay more, they will be more likely to get a ride in a timely manner (think silver vs gold vs platinum). That could be an innovative way to temper spikes in demand. Lyft and other gig platforms already do something similar with their pick-up times.
I don’t love the idea of ‘Waymo waits longer’ since in the transportation business, operators really only make money when there’s a passenger in the car and the wheels are moving. Uber passengers are notorious for taking forever to get to the car once it’s arrived, but I like that Waymo has a reasonable but strict 5 minute cancellation policy. It’s important to train your passengers and if they aren’t going to respect the rules, they may not be someone you want to do business with.
Free cancellations is a good idea since I’ve personally had issues with Waymos just taking too long to get to me (15 min ETA is a lot longer than it sounds when you’re in a rush). And it doesn’t cost the company much since, they likely have more demand than supply during busy times, so if one rider cancels, they can easily match with another rider at the same ETA or lower.
What Waymo is Missing
The big thing this Waymo membership program is missing though is a delivery partner. Uber One is so valuable because they can bundle ‘no delivery fees’ along with ‘ride savings’ and effectively make Uber the first option when you compare ride prices on Uber vs Lyft, and Uber Eats vs DoorDash.
With high frequency marketplaces, it’s difficult to compete for customers on a ride by ride basis. Membership programs allow for platforms to lock in their customers just a bit more. How many times have you heard someone say ‘I only fly Delta’ because I have status with them.
It’s neat to see Waymo researching various membership options and I expect them to roll it out soon since it will solve a couple big problems for them: long ETAs in the short term, and rider loyalty in the medium to longer term.
What do you think? How much would you pay for a Waymo monthly membership program and what features would you like to see?