From $30M to $190M: U-Haul's Mobile Transformation Playbook

[00:00:00] David LoPresti: We’ve purposely kind of pushed back on the idea of like we need to put everything into the app, like the web has. Well, we have to put everything into the web because once again, you’re dealing with anonymous users and you have to cast a wider net. We don’t have to cast a wider net.

[00:00:13] David LoPresti: We can cast a very, you know, a very small net if we’re smart enough to take a look at the data that we’ve got and understand what the customer needs, and narrow, narrow down what it is that we know they’re looking for and make it easily accessible.

[00:00:27] Brian Quinn: Welcome to Home Screen Advantage, where we showcase how omnichannel business leaders turn their mobile apps into measurable growth drivers for their business. I’m Brian Quinn, President and General Manager at AppsFlyer. Today I sit down with David LoPresti, the Director of Apps at U-Haul. We’re gonna talk about how U-Haul rethinks mobile for a low frequency, high consideration business.

[00:00:55] Brian Quinn: You think apps only matter for businesses that have a lot of daily active users where you’re leaving money on the table? U-Haul is an 80-year-old business with the average customer renting only once every three years. So why would mobile be so central to their growth strategy? Well, we’re gonna discuss how U-Haul uses mobile for a 24/7 self-service channel, which reduces friction and doesn’t hard sell their customers.

[00:01:25] Brian Quinn: David’s gonna explain how they mine first party data from their app to predict customer life stage, how they prioritize customer lifetime value. Over short-term acquisition and how the mobile app serves as a bridge between digital ease and hands-on service.

[00:01:45] Brian Quinn: David, thank you for being here.

[00:01:47] David LoPresti: Well, thank you for having me. I’m, I’m happy to be here.

[00:01:50] Brian Quinn: Amazing. So you have had a 21 year ride at U-Haul. It’s rare. I’m excited to learn from you and let’s start by, you know, what was U-Haul like when you joined? you know, take us through a, a bit of your journey to where you are today.

[00:02:09] David LoPresti: I’ve always kind of had a, a digital role in the organization when I first joined in 2004. I was brought on as what was called a service manager for our moving help program, which was a, a recently launched endeavor by the organization to build out a, a marketplace, for customers that needed assistance to help load or unload during their move, but wanted to use a U-Haul truck. 

[00:02:32] David LoPresti: One of the things that I found when I first came in that group was there was a, there was hours and hours of paperwork that these area field managers had to do every week documenting their work, their driver verification logs and things like that. And a couple months after I started, apple had announced the first iPad.

[00:02:49] David LoPresti: So literally I came into work one day and one of the, one of the presidents of the organization had left an iPad on my desk and he said, see what you can do with this. And that kind of spurred me to recognize like, mobility and elect, you know, electronic tools and mobility is really defining what allows people to be productive.

[00:03:07] David LoPresti: And I was in that role for, just, just under 10 years, you know, growing it from, I, I think, you know, my first year it was a, a 32, you know, a $30 million program to the last year I ran the program, it was, you know, just shy of 190 million, you know, and it was a, a massive thing. And I remember, you know, towards the end of my tenure in that particular position, our CEO Joe Schoen had started having conversation about, customer experience. And, you know, he referred to it as big data. Like we have this tremendous wealth of information available to us about our customers.

[00:03:41] David LoPresti: But we’re really not doing anything with it to actually improve their experience. And his recognition of that was through, through an app. And you know, we say through an app, because really what we’re talking about is how do we personalize experiences based on we’re dealing with a, we’re dealing one-to-one with assigned end user.

[00:03:58] David LoPresti: I mean, that’s the reality of the difference really in, at least in my perspective of apps versus web, is it’s the difference between dealing with anonymous versus a known user. 

[00:04:07] Brian Quinn: What did you learn from that effort that could parlay into more customer-facing apps and tools?

[00:04:14] David LoPresti: When we were developing the iPad project for our area field managers, you would say like, employees aren’t customers. Well, absolutely they’re customers. I mean, these are people that, you know, you’re asking to participate in this system, so that wouldn’t have worked. Honestly, I don’t think we would’ve had as much success if we had designed it without actively looking at what it was that they specifically needed.

[00:04:37] David LoPresti: We could have definitely met our business needs, but at the end of the day, business needs are irrelevant to the customer. What the customer wants is ultimately what matters.

[00:04:45] Brian Quinn: So it sounds like you were asked to take over the app program, but you didn’t necessarily start it. Was there a mobile app, consumer mobile app in existence and program prior to you, you know, in, in your current role?

[00:04:57] David LoPresti: Yes, so we launched our first iOS application in 2016, and then I believe we launched the Android version in 2018. And much like I think a lot of companies did at, at it’s, it was basically just a, a wrapper of our existing mobile web experience. I mean, that there was some amount of capability that was, but we really didn’t, there wasn’t really a lot of thought or effort put into it.

[00:05:16] David LoPresti: It was, it was launched primarily to coincide with the introduction of our Truck Share 24/7 program, which was allowing customers to be able to rent a truck and dispatch directly from their phone. And this was, I think one of the most dramatic changes we made, and I think it’s our biggest opportunity moving forward was, you know, the traditional truck rental experience was visiting the location during business hours, going up to the counter, waiting in line, getting approved, and leaving with the keys.

[00:05:42] David LoPresti: Well, now with, at, with mobile phone, you know, with, with, you know, mobile phones and all of the data we have available to us, like what really can we do to help improve the experience? And what we realized was how do we allow customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week to show up at a location and rent a truck? And what they wanted was the ability to do this on their schedule and also they wanted to be able to do it self-service. 

[00:06:07] Brian Quinn: When I talk to enterprise leaders who are in charge of creating a, a, a great mobile app experience from a web experience. Oftentimes, there’s a lot of debate inside around how do we cram all of the web functionality and capabilities into a very, very tiny bit of real estate.

[00:06:28] Brian Quinn: And, and are consumers, you know, does consumers sort of want that same experience? Did you ex, you know, was this your experience at U-Haul? Were there debates or, or conversations around sort of the functionality of the app and what, how it’s different than web?

[00:06:43] David LoPresti: I would argue like I understand a lot of, you know, people in my position in other organizations have, do, have, have a much harder time. Like how do we balance functionality with revenue generation and things like that.

[00:06:53] David LoPresti: I haven’t, you know, I’m lucky in that that has not been the directive from senior leadership. The reality is, is, you know, as the market leader, as you know, an organization that gets, you know, tens of millions of, you know, customers every year, if all we do is help those customers make their moving experience a little easier, we will win in the long term.

[00:07:11] David LoPresti: So we’ve been, I think prioritizing, you know, customer lifetime value, you know, before it became an avant-garde term, if I’m being honest.

[00:07:20] Brian Quinn: Is that a bigger priority with your mobile program than say, acquiring new customers?

[00:07:25] David LoPresti: Yeah, I mean that’s really, I mean, of course, you know, there, you know, we have to recognize also that the app is gonna be a conduit for customers as their first point of entry. I mean, we’re, we’re living in a day and age now, I think, where, you know, a customer’s experience with an organization or a b or a brand is gonna be primarily and only through an app.

[00:07:41] David LoPresti: So it’d be foolish to to pretend that that doesn’t exist. So of course, you know, we have to ensure that our processes that we’re, that we’re putting in the app are mobile friendly and, you know, you know, as a hybrid app. Because we rely so heavily on, you know, reservation process and things like that, that don’t make, necessarily, don’t necessarily make sense to build full natively.

[00:08:01] David LoPresti: The customer still needs to believe and it needs to look and feel and operate as if it’s inside an app. So I think that’s been our biggest challenge, is understanding that, you know, even not even outside the app, mobile web needs to be the priority and these experiences need to be designed specifically for that platform.

[00:08:18] David LoPresti: So, yeah, I mean we’ve, we’ve purposely kind of pushed back on the idea of like we need to put everything into the app, like the web has. Well, we have to put everything into the web because once again, you’re dealing with anonymous users and you have to cast a wider net. We don’t have to cast a wider net.

[00:08:32] David LoPresti: We can cast a very, you know, a very small net if we’re smart enough to take a look at the data that we’ve got and understand what the customer needs, and narrow, narrow down what it is that we know they’re looking for and make it easily accessible.

[00:08:46] Brian Quinn: You mentioned you were sort of looking at lifetime customer value very early on before that was kind of a, a, a, a thing. What, actions in the app, what ways to measure, what metrics along the route did you sort of align with a strong LTV? Help me understand that piece.

[00:09:05] David LoPresti: You have truck rental, you have self storage, you have labor, you have boxes. So you have all these individual business units that of course are laser focused on their individual piece of that pile. But the the reality is, is that customer is moving across multiple product lines. 

[00:09:19] David LoPresti: There’s a flow and there’s a, a balance of when these things need to be presented. Those recommendations and those things were presented need to be rooted in a, an actual data-driven source.

[00:09:29] David LoPresti: I am offering this, I’m offering up, or am I presenting this piece of information or this product or service at this point in tim because the data reflects that. 

[00:09:38] David LoPresti: So, our college boxes program is designed specifically to, to serve, you know, students that are 18, 19, 20, that are moving to college for the first time. Well, that product then transitions into a, a small truck moving into their first apartment and then five years later, a bigger truck, their first house, all the way through retirement. 

[00:09:57] Brian Quinn: Many enterprises look at their app as a, as a one of the most strategic instruments for acquiring first-party data for the business, not just the app program, but for the business, you know, holistically. Tell us a little bit about the first party data strategy that you, that you work on.

[00:10:14] David LoPresti: I mean, just knowing what size truck the customer is renting, you know, provides a tremendous amount of insight. If somebody’s renting a 26 foot truck, they’re likely in a home. They likely have, you know, it’s a much lar, you know, their needs are gonna be very different. They’re likely gonna need storage because they’ve accumulated a number of things. If they’re renting a pickup truck for two hours, they’re likely pick buying something off Facebook Marketplace, and they’re going to pick it up and they’re bringing it home.

[00:10:36] David LoPresti: So like, just even looking at that and, and understanding what it is that we can do with that. Now the app, of course, has made it even better for us because now of course, you know, we have the opportunity to recognize like, what time did they open up the app? You know, what, you know, how did they interact? Did they respond to this particular message? 

[00:10:53] David LoPresti: The fact is, is we have so much available to us that, you know, the, the topic of like, you know, acquiring third party data, like we haven’t even honestly scratched the surface on what’s available with our first party data before we even have to worry about acquiring third party data.

[00:11:06] Brian Quinn: Yeah. So you have almost too good of a, you know, too much first party data to even know. Is, is it a prioritization, is there an internal kind of dialogue of, of, of, you know, different strategies in which to take this? Like, what, what, what, what is the challenge that you’re sort of faced with when you have all this first party data?

[00:11:23] David LoPresti: I think the biggest challenge, like I said, kind of going back to the topic of, you know, you know, how do you get decentralized business units to centralize their strategy? I mean, that’s really, I think, the biggest, that’s the biggest challenge because of course, you know, if I am, you know, if I’m in charge of our boxes and moving supplies program, and that’s what I’m accountable for, like, that’s what I’m primarily thinking about.

[00:11:43] David LoPresti: Well now through the app, now I know that if the user opens up the app and they don’t have a truck reserved, and I know that this particular customer moved 10 months ago, so they’re likely in an apartment and they’re moving two months later, now is my opportunity to make sure that this customer’s in the frame of mind, that this is the thing that they’re likely to need.

[00:12:00] David LoPresti: So how do I make it accessible to them without them having to search for it? And I think that’s, ultimately, what we’re trying to do is anticipate what the customer’s trying to find and just put it front and center in front of them so they don’t have to search for it.

[00:12:11] Brian Quinn: Yeah. Makes a ton of sense. Great. Now, you recently overhauled the user experience of the app, correct?

[00:12:16] David LoPresti: Yep. What we’ve kind, what we’ve done is we’ve basically built a framework that is both, you know, using a combination of third party tools like AppsFlyer or AppsFlyer and some of our other partners, as well as our native data is how do we present this information in a very specific hierarchy so that the customer understands the importance of each task.

[00:12:34] David LoPresti: The entire homepage experience on the app now is built using front end tools so we can modify and update and change everything on the app using API services dynamically. And every time that user, you know, goes, returns back to the homepage, we’re using real time data streaming to basically present, you know, the order, you know, this information in the, in the context at that particular point in time. 

[00:12:57] David LoPresti: We can be faster and we can be nimbler if we move towards using a more services based infrastructure. So that’s the, I think the biggest opportunity now for us is we have this tool that gives the, the, the front, the, the business units more direct control and we can implement changes sometimes in minutes, not days or weeks.

[00:13:14] Brian Quinn: Tell us how you internally prioritize which features to invest in, or which experiences sort of get prioritization.

[00:13:22] David LoPresti: When you look at our, our prior to the app, when you look at our web experience, it, I think anyone in the organization will be honest that the prioritization kind of has been primarily based on the size of the particular business unit.

[00:13:33] David LoPresti: So, of course our truck rental program being overwhelmingly our largest program, always got the lion’s share of resources. So the way, the way I’ve, I’ve, I’ve approached the app and I’ve, I believe I’ve convinced the organization to go down the path is. We’ve kind of created a, an environment now in the app where all the tools and all of the ability is democratized.

[00:13:50] David LoPresti: I mean, everybody has the same tool set. Everybody has the same ability. There is no pecking order based on revenue generation. It’s simply a matter of the group that’s the most, understanding of their customer and understanding of the data and is the most driven, ultimately is the one I think that will, will benefit more, in terms of this particular endeavor.

[00:14:08] David LoPresti: So being responsible, I would argue, for the overall customer journey has, I think, been the biggest challenge, but also kind of is what creates the opportunity is now we’re looking at the entirety of the customer’s experience with U-Haul, not just their experience with each individual product in an ad hoc fashion.

[00:14:27] Brian Quinn: What do you, would you say are the of the biggest friction points, sort of in this process of, of, you know, updating the app and the user experience?

[00:14:35] David LoPresti: You know, what we’re talking about is fundamentally kind of changing how we do some of our backend processes. I think that’s just, that’s been our biggest obstacle and I, I call it an obstacle ’cause it’s self-imposed, if for us to be successful, we have to do what the customer wants.

[00:14:50] David LoPresti: This is an opportunity for us to create a bigger moat between us and our competitors by recognizing that, you know, we don’t have to just continue to, to propagate the same basic experience we can do. We can do more than what the customer expects us to do, and that’s, that I would argue, has been our biggest challenge.

[00:15:07] Brian Quinn: And that’s a great opportunity. I, I, I see sometimes when I’m dealing with, customers, brands and in, in various categories like yours, which have a strong and a notable brand, and have, you know, a tenured successful business. The app experience, you’re really competing with other apps, not necessarily your traditional competitors in your category, right?

[00:15:25] Brian Quinn: I mean, your, your users are, are also, you know, multitasking between streaming apps and social media apps and the functionality and that experience. And so I think some, so sometimes hard for our enterprises to get their head around is the voice of the customer. The customer experience is actually competing against businesses outside of your category and, you know, various state-of-the-art, you know, mobile, other mobile apps.

[00:15:47] David LoPresti: Yeah, we realized pretty early on, like our be, you know, we need to be benchmarking ourself against competitors that are known for customer experience, not for being in our business lines.

[00:15:56] David LoPresti: If you look to what they’re doing well and you replicate that, I think ultimately you, you can be successful. So, yeah, I think you have to, you have to be willing to, to, to get outside your comfort zone because it would be, like I said, it would be very easy for us, like, well, if you look at our, if you look at, you know, our primary competitors, of course we’re excelling compared to what they’re particular doing, but that’s the customer’s not measuring.

[00:16:18] David LoPresti: You know, they’re not measuring their experience against a company that they didn’t do business with. Like you said, they’re measuring against how easy it is to use the app compared to Netflix.

[00:16:27] Brian Quinn: Let’s talk a little bit about the, the sort of the future. We’re, we’re, we’re now in the AI era. How are you working with AI relative to your mobile app and first party data strategy? And give us a sense of, you know, the near future at, at U-Haul, relative to, to AI enablement and, and technology.

[00:16:44] David LoPresti: I think our opportunity with AI is gonna be around how do we, how do we build these segments and these cohorts of customers more quickly and more dynamically? And I think that’s really where the opportunity that comes into play is how do I, how do I, how do I accelerate the business unit’s understanding of customer need?

[00:17:01] David LoPresti: You know, renting a truck is always going to involve a human being handing you the keys. You know, there’s always gonna be this, I say like, we are always going to be attempting to curate digital to analog experiences. 

[00:17:14] Brian Quinn: I wanna transition to some takeaways here for the audience. I, I’m, I’m gonna ask you to, to answer these questions in, in, in 30 seconds or so. If you had to convince another enterprise executive, a peer of yours and another business to rethink their mobile strategy, what would you say?

[00:17:30] David LoPresti: I would say start by reading your customer reviews. I mean, that’s really what you know if, if you’re not paying attention to what the customer’s telling you, either through your own internal channel, through Google reviews or you know, how, go listen to what the customer’s saying and they’ll tell you if you just, if you just read them, they’ll tell you exactly what you need to do.

[00:17:49] Brian Quinn: What’s one small move that you’ve made that had the biggest impact?

[00:17:54] David LoPresti: Making our, getting our data science and our data engineers involved in the, in the process earlier. If, if we would’ve actually got the people that are responsible for managing our data and understanding our data involved sooner, we would be farther along than we are now. So trust the brains.

[00:18:09] Brian Quinn: That’s great. I really appreciate that. This has been fascinating. I love asking you questions, learning about you and your business and your very successful run at U-Haul. I have no doubt you’re gonna drive a lot of impact in the future here. So I just wanted to thank you for sitting down with me. This has been a lot of fun. 

[00:18:26] David LoPresti: Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.[00:18:29] Producer: Home Screen Advantage is brought to you by AppsFlyer, the modern marketing cloud for mobile led omnichannel growth. AppsFlyer unifies performance across paid media, owned channels, and in-store experiences, helping you understand and optimize which campaign investments drive real revenue. See beyond attribution to understand customer lifetime value. Optimize journeys from discovery to loyalty, and prove mobile’s growing impact on your entire business. When every touchpoint connects through your app, you transform fragmented data into confident decisions. AppsFlyer gives you the clarity to accelerate growth. Learn more appsflyer.com.