According to the latest reports, the revenue of the ride-hailing industry worldwide has grown by 59% even despite the pandemic. Experts expect this industry to grow further in the next decade.
Perfectly logical, when you think about it. The possibility to order services and things via an app is extremely attractive to the middle class, especially to Millennials and Generation Z born with a smartphone in hand.
Successful on-demand businesses are now functioning in transportation, food and goods delivery, retail, housing and more. Here’s how customer spendings are distributed among the particular categories of on-demand businesses.
The latest research also shows that only a few on-demand startups can survive in the highly-saturated market. Those that do become real unicorns have one thing in common—they manage to compete against or partner with large corporations, and expand their customer base gradually. They also strive to attract investors and collaborate with local policymakers and regulating institutions.
LifeOne Assist is a company from El Salvador that managed to become such a successful on-demand business, with a functional app in the centre of it all. Right now, LifeOne Assist is active in five countries: El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, USA, and has plans to expand their services further. 99% of LifeOne Assist clients say to be happy with the services. Let’s have a look at what is so special about the startup business idea of LifeOne Assist.
24-hour roadside assistance on demand
The main feature of an on-demand business is that it makes high-quality services accessible in just a couple of clicks, against a competitive price. Fascinating enough, most of the app-based on-demand startups only work with one industry: for example, mobility solutions only, or food delivery.
LifeOne has a different approach that turns out to be a very profitable business idea. From the very beginning, they wanted to make a solution for multiple client’s needs, contributing that way to the safety and the happiness of the clients.
Alejandro, the CEO of LifeOne Assist, has noticed that the local market of roadside help is unsaturated: the opportunities were up for grabs. He thought of a business that would coordinate the suppliers of various services needed on the road and their customers. He thought of bringing to life an application that will connect those people in one tap. The idea of LifeOne Assist was born. 🙌 LifeOne app for roadside help and car assistance came to life.
To make such an app possible, two things were needed: a reliable branded app solution, and a partnership with an insurance company to cover the expenses of the customers.
Looking for the right on-demand platform
From day one, LifeOne Assist intended to integrate their supply chain with a “no-nonsense” dispatch solution. Another absolute must is a functional on-demand app to satisfy the needs of the customers. The system had to be flexible, efficient, and of great usability.
Before LifeOne Assist was launched, the emergency roadside assistance services used to have several issues:
- Often, there was no possibility to request assistance online.
- Customers were receiving incorrect information about the services from call centers.
- The roadside help was delivered slowly.
- It was impossible to predict when exactly the emergency roadside assistance would arrive.
“Thanks to our application, roadside help arrives much faster. Now people use an on-demand app to request car assistance, they get all the information needed straight away. Thanks to the real-life GPS tracking, they can see exactly where the roadside mechanic is. In fact, since we work with Onde, the arrival time of emergency roadside assistance has improved by 60%.”
Growing stronger through powerful partnerships
INISER insurance company was very into the concept of roadside assistance on-demand by LifeOne. INISER clients get access to the whole package of on-demand services via the LifeOne Assist app right after making an insurance contract. They can order the services of an insurance inspector, mechanical or medical assistance, tire change, fuel delivery, tow truck, and more.
INISER became the first business partner for LifeOne, and in several years, the circle of the company’s partners expanded. Now LifeOne’s clients can order roadside help, cleaning services, deliveries, and plumbing services. To make sure a business partnership will be a flawless experience for the clients, LifeOne conducts thorough checks. Here are some of the criteria they use:
- A company is experienced. At least three years of reliable services in the market are a must.
- Existing clients are happy with the services. To find this out, LifeOne Assist checks reviews on social media and other popular business feedback platforms.
- The company has a large enough team of dedicated specialists available for providing services via the app.
- Overall performance: the potential business partner is ambitious, reliable, and eager to reach great results in collaboration with LifeOne.
For an on-demand startup, these are a lot of high standards. Alejandro shares that sticking to them is an absolute must for the business model of LifeOne to succeed.
Marketing on-demand startup without marketing
Customer satisfaction is the main factor inspiring LifeOne Assist to move further. About 99% of the customers tell Alejandro they love the idea and its realization through an on-demand app.
However, marketing campaigns as such are something LifeOne’s business partners care of. Because LifeOne provides its partners with a booking platform to use for an existing business, all the marketing efforts stay the responsibility of each particular business. This allows Alejandro to “market” his company to other businesses only—when looking for new partnerships.
The same applies to business analytics LifeOne uses to keep track of performance. The company works with Order reports that give an overview of how many orders are completed by each company’s contractor. Alejandro emphasizes that choosing the right tools for business analytics is a question of thinking well through your business goals and financial model.
Summing up
LifeOne Assist is an innovative on-demand business, shaped around a highly-functional app. The key ideas of the company make it a truly unique app-based startup in the local market.
The founder of LifeOne Assist managed to address all the issues of the industry of emergency road assistance. Being client-oriented has helped the company to come up with an extremely appealing value proposition.
LifeOne Assist is a win-win solution for the market:
- The company itself benefits from a constant flow of clients who get access to the app via their insurance provider.
- Service suppliers enjoy a constant flow of clients as well.
- The clients feel safe and happy on the roads since the LifeOne Assist platform is transparent, reliable, quick and easy to use.
- Marketing stays the responsibility of each business partner. This allows LifeOne Assist to cut costs on marketing campaigns without losing clients.
The on-demand economy is playing a vital role in making our lives simpler. Customers are getting used to the convenience of being just one tap away from the services they need, be it parcel delivery or emergency roadside assistance. For the ground transportation industry, this means that on-demand apps are not an extra but a must. We expect to see many innovative on-demand solutions for ground transportation emerge in the next five years. Will your company be one of them?