Earn rewards for making sustainable travel choices though Sojo app
The pandemic has changed riders’ behavior as working from home is becoming the norm. This has a big impact on ridership. Further, the riders have multiple travel options and prefer to use more convenient modes. Thus, the churn rate (i.e. leaving) for public transportation companies is rising. Customer loyalty programs can be good options to reward existing customers and attract new customers to transit.
Raileasy, a train ticketing site, has launched “Sojo” app that rewards users with money-saving vouchers for using public transport, walking or cycling. It is a free app and can turn riders’ journeys into rewards. The app tracks the rider’s movement on different modes anonymously and offers vouchers for free coffee, a pastry, or clothing and leisure deals for their sustainable behaviors. The company commits to respecting users’ privacy and will not sell data to third-party. The app is built by Axon Vibe.
Customer Experience is an important topic in public transport and plays an important role to bring back riders to public transport. In June 2022, JR East Railway introduced Tokyo Nudge app to improve customer experience by offering coffee vouchers for any delay. Also, Move2Earn app is emerging as a new platform to reward users for sustainable behaviors.