Nissan: UX Research for New Services

My Role

I worked with a project manager and the Nissan Research Department to create a survey to determine the consumer sentiment toward a car subscription service of Nissan vehicles.

The Approach

We created a research brief with the user needs that the research would address and the business problems that we were attempting to solve.

First, we asked ourselves what user needs or requirements are we trying to relate to:

  • Users do not want to visit the dealer to purchase a car
  • The traditional car purchase journey is troublesome, because there’s lots of paperwork
  • Users don’t want to commit to car ownership
  • 50% of female customers feel stressful about dealerships to purchase the car

What problem as a business are we trying to solve?

  • Users feel encouraged to purchase a vehicle if the process is easy and simple
  • Users feel encouraged to purchase a vehicle if he can obtain, extend, or cancel the car ownership according to their car usage need
  • Users feel more encouraged to buy a car if they only need to pay fixed monthly payments that includes tax, insurance, minimum maintenance fee
  • Inclusion of Services such as swapping, adding a 2nd car, Nissan official dealer AS support etc.. will increase customer’s confidence of on-line purchasing

Hypothesis

Then we developed a hypothesis, a specific testable prediction, that our research would answer.

If Customers:

  • Are provided with opportunity to purchase the latest line up of Nissan’s equipped with recommended accessory package for a fixed monthly payment scheme; and/or
  • Are given the flexibility of visiting a dealer or not; and/or
  • Are provided with the flexibility to swap the car or terminate the subscription contract any time

Then:

  • We will attract Non-Nissan considerers

Because:

  • The customer will feel more in control of purchasing a car and they can save time and energy compared to the traditional car purchasing process.

Research Objectives

  • To validate customer needs/interests in car subscriptions
  • To identify the service scope that customers expect from car subscriptions
  • To identify the right segment of customers that we should target for subscriptions
  • To understand which of the two propositions has the highest appeal

Target Markets: USA, Japan, UK, and France
Number of users surveyed: 2,891

Notable Challenges

We excluded pricing for the car subscription from this survey, because it would contaminate the results. We were interested in discovering what would motivate a customer to sign up for a vehicle subscription service, not how a customer financially values a vehicle subscription service.

If there is sufficient interest in vehicle subscriptions, then our pricing teams would work on the monetary valuation of the service and its affordability.

Research Stimuli

We also created a sample subscription model for our survey candidates so that they can understand what a vehicle subscription is and what it contains. This helped us determine which aspects of a vehicle subscription plan appealed to them.

Survey Questions

For brevity, here are some of the sample questions that we asked users:

Why would you consider a car subscription model? Please indicate all that apply.

  • No need to visit a dealer
  • No need to negotiate prices with a dealer
  • No bulk payments – there is no down payment
  • Cost savings – e.g. no interest rate
  • All-inclusive price – no additional cost “surprises” apart from fuel and parking
  • No commitment of owning and financing a car
  • No contractual long-term commitment but flexibility to subscribe / terminate anytime
  • Flexibility to change car model / make
  • Convenience – everything is taken care off for me
  • No responsibility with regards to regular maintenance
  • Quick and easy set-up process online
  • Other, please indicate ____________

Why would you not consider a car subscription model? Please indicate all that apply.

  • No possibility to negotiate price
  • I want to be free of monthly payments
  • Higher costs
  • I feel the monthly fee might exceed actual costs, e.g. with regards to repairs and assistance actually needed
  • Ownership is important to me
  • Prefer a traditional / foresighted commitment
  • Switching cars holds no appeal to me
  • I want a local contact person
  • Restrictions on car use
  • Other, please indicate ____________

The Results