SoCal Explorer Loyalty Program 

About

Metrolink is the regional passenger railroad for Southern California connecting six counties (Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside and Ventura), and whose ridership grew to nearly 12 million annual boardings pre-COVID. As with other public transportation agencies, Metrolink’s ridership fell significantly in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Metrolink was traditionally a commuter rail service supporting riders of all incomes, but in 2020 Metrolink decided to pivot from a weekday commute business to a passenger railroad that customers use for all their transportation needs, from work to weekend recreation.

The Challenge

Metrolink wanted to create a loyalty program to help drive a closer relationship with their riders. Their goal was to design and develop a loyalty program that provides economic benefits to members for increased ridership, as well as social and green benefits associated with mass transit.  The objective for the SoCal Explorer loyalty program was to encourage people to integrate Metrolink into their everyday lives rather than just as a commute to work. With the program launching during COVID-19 pandemic, Metrolink wanted to provide riders with safe, reliable, sustainable, and affordable ways to travel all while earning loyalty points for each ride. Brandmovers and Metrolink partnered together to design and develop a user-friendly loyalty program that:

• Drives an increase in ridership, improves rider retention, and attracts new riders
• Enables Metrolink to better understand the purchasing patterns of both mobile and physical ticket customers, and utilize this data for new fare and pricing initiatives
• Promotes the environmental sustainability benefits of taking transit
• Connects and grows relationships with local communities, customers, and businesses

The Solution

In partnership with Metrolink, Brandmovers created a program design that focuses on increasing ridership through beneficial incentives, valuable rewards, and customer engagement. Brandmovers created a robust branded loyalty experience, integrated with a number of BI, Email Service Provider, and Ticketing tools, and configured the system to feature actionable analytics. Members are able to earn points for miles ridden by connecting their loyalty account to the client's mobile app or by submitting their paper tickets through the loyalty platform. 

Ticket Scanning and ValidSpend Redemption

Using Brandmovers image scanning technology ValidSpend, the SoCal Explorer program allows paper ticket customers (which make up over 50% of Metrolink customers) to submit their physical tickets via photo, code-entry, or barcode scan, and earn points for miles ridden. This enables Metrolink to connect with these previously unaccessible riders and provides opportunities to further grow rider relationships. Effectively all loyalty member ticket purchases, regardless of whether they were physical (90%+ automated validation) or digital, are rewarded.