Thanks to the STM Merci app, commuters traveling by bus and metro can enjoy privileges at restaurants, events, and stores in their neighborhood.
The Sociéte de Transport de Montréal (STM) serves an average of 1.2 million passengers every day and has an annual ridership of 413 million trips. The company accounts for 85 percent of all public transit trips in the Canadian province of Québec and, as such, is North America’s fourth-largest public transportation organization.
STM’s declared business target is to increase passenger volume 40 percent by 2020. To achieve this ambitious goal, it needs to enhance its brand image in order to attract new customers, provide added value for existing customers in the long term, increase the frequency of public transit use, and transform the user experience. A new loyalty program in the form of the STM Merci app is helping it do just this.
By registering with the STM Merci app, holders of an STM OPUS card receive exclusive offers for cultural, sporting, and entertainment events – along with personalized information about their journey – straight to their mobile devices while they are on the go.
STM: From Public Transit Agency to All-Rounder
STM introduced the OPUS card, a smartcard that commuters use to load their individual and season-ticket fares, back in 2008. But the company wanted a loyalty program that would offer customers better and more relevant rewards. As a long-time SAP customer, experienced with SAP ERP and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, STM had no hesitation in teaming up with SAP and opting for SAP Precision Marketing powered by SAP HANA to form the core of a new loyalty program.
Today’s Internet users are subjected to a veritable barrage of marketing “attacks” on a daily basis and they have become adept at filtering out irrelevant and annoying campaigns. This makes it even more vital for companies to ensure that the advertising they send their customers is targeted and personalized. Thanks to SAP Precision Marketing, a cloud-based solution, STM is succeeding here and transforming both its relationship with customers and with service providers in the local area. In fact, it is rapidly evolving from a public transportation company into a point of contact for shopping, dining out, entertainment, and sporting events.
Canada’s No. 1 Lifestyle App in just 48 Hours
Having spent nine months readying STM Merci for the market, STM and SAP saw their co-innovated loyalty program top the list of Canada’s favorite lifestyle apps in just 48 hours. And new partners and events are being added to the app’s portfolio every day.
Built on the SAP HANA platform, STM Merci can analyze gargantuan volumes of customer data in real time, allowing each user to receive personalized, geo-localized information about current offerings in his or her neighborhood. Moreover, as a cloud solution, STM Merci protects customers’ privacy and data and it also reduces IT support requirements and marketing costs because advertising takes place largely by word of mouth. Since launching the new app, STM reports both stronger customer loyalty and burgeoning sales of monthly and annual travel passes to commuters eager to benefit from the rewards that are on offer for OPUS cardholders.
Discover how the STM Merci app is combining the benefits of Big Data, analytics, cloud, and mobility to redefine the customer experience through interactive marketing:
Image source: © STM
