CUSTOMER LOYALTY
• Offer value and exclusivity from the get go, reward for showing brand loyalty. This creates brand ambassadors, advo- cates who will tell friends about your business.
That gotme thinking about how thismight work in the taxi industry, for a taxi compa- ny or a network of companies looking to increase loyalty and use through a loyalty programme.
From a taxi industry perspective we could consider giving points for:
• Refer a friend - X points (and/or credit added to your account when they’ve completed a certain number of trips or value)
• Points for social sharing – invite friends and family, share trips, recommend ser- vice, commend good service etc
• Using branded credit card – a taxi com- pany can make revenues from getting a cut of the card charges every time the card is used while rewarding the card holder for same with points (as com- monly seen in the airline industry, supermarket chains etc)
• Family/company plan - combine points to one account to reap rewards more quickly or on a larger scale
• Booking source – book by app to get more points (Domino’s Pizza do this very successfully)
• Pre-payment – not sure how attractive this would be to customers of the taxi industry but Starbucks allow their cus- tomers to lodge money on to their loyalty card/app and customers can buy coffees in store from the card andapp*.
These might lead to a programme that offers:
• VIP Benefits – dedicated phone line and app/web booking service, higher priori- ty to get a car, guaranteed service levels, executive vehicles and drivers etc
• Tiers - the more points you earn, the more you spend the higher the tier, the higher the multiplier of points per £ spent and so on
• Option to pay an annual premium to increase level (something Lids headwear have had success with)
AUGUST 2018
• Or perhaps even a monthly subscription to get X trips or encourage group usage. For example CinemarkMovie Club charge $8.99 per month where members are given one free movie, a 20 per cent dis- count on food, and $8.99 movie tickets for their entire party. At an average ticket price of $13, Movie Club appears to be a great option for casual moviegoers, as users will see greater savings if they go in groups, and only see one or two movies permonth. Could taxi companies perhaps use this model for small local clubs who take outings several times a year?
As members build up points they could perhaps be rewarded through:
• Experiential rewards such as free atten- dance to lectures/talks/music events given by prominent local sports players, musicians, historians etc
• Give tours to local/regional attractions or areas of interest
• Give rewards in non-related businesses - Discounts and/or free access to popular local events
• Donations to charity on customers’ behalf
• A free trip for every X trips completed (a model that works well for
Hotels.com, get a free hotel night for every ten nights booked and completed, the night is the average value of the ten you’ve done)
• Build a credit of taximiles to use on trips - get X miles of free trips for every Y points collected
• Monetary value – get £X of free trips or a reward for every £Y spent (for example on Verizon’s loyalty scheme customers get a reward for every $300 spent)
• Discount codes – give banded discounts based on number of points redeemed
• Car set up the way they like – radio, drink, temperature, talk/no talk etc
• VIP Tier receives monthly, quarterly or semi-annual gifts
The taxi industry must recognise the value of their customer base, or the value of the overall spend going through the business every single day and how it can be retained as our industry evolves.
I’ve yet to see a comprehensive loyalty pro- gramme rolled out in a taxi company, or even better through a network of taxi com- panies, one that gets the full backing and wholehearted commitment of the business.
We might question the validity of a loyalty programme in the taxi industry, and I can only speculate on the level of effort and difficulty creating one would entail, and acknowledge that without proper market- ing support and spend it will fall flat on its face.
However from where I’m sitting the taxi industry looks mighty similar to many of the industries I’ve name checked above that are using loyalty programmes to great success.
With a time of colossal change coming. the way you engage with and retain those cus- tomers will play a key part in determining your relevance in the transportation model of the future - why not give a loyalty pro- gramme a try?
* Starbucks had $1.2 billion loaded onto Starbucks cards and the Starbucks mobile app as of the first quarter of 2016. This money can be used to purchase items including drinks, food and other merchandise.
As of the second quarter of fiscal 2016, 41 per cent of Starbucks transactions in the U.S. and Canada were conducted using a Starbucks card (24 per cent of transac- tions at company-operated retail stores U.S. used the Starbucks mobile app), according to figures Starbucks provided to MarketWatch. The company had 12 million active loyalty members in the U.S. in the second quarter.
Editorial kindly supplied by: Bob Nixon Co-founder of iCabbi
www.icabbi.com
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