Right-Time Experiences by Maribel Lopez

Author:Maribel Lopez [Lopez, Maribel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-24T12:46:28+00:00

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Right-Time Experiences

switch insurance carriers, she can sign up online or from a mobile

device for a 30-day test drive. For the test, Progressive collects the

driver’s name, contact information, birthdate, and details about the

household’s vehicles. Once a driver plugs in the Snapshot device,

Progressive collects the vehicle identification number and notes

whether the device stays plugged in so the firm can alert the driver

if Snapshot is disconnected. “The Snapshot device doesn’t track your

location or whether you’re speeding, and it doesn’t contain GPS

technology,” the company assures prospects.8

The Progressive website also provides suggestions on how to alter

driving habits to save even more on insurance premiums and other

expenses. It’s a win-win for both parties. Drivers get lower premiums,

and Progressive can better match pricing to actual versus perceived risk.

The company can communicate valuable information to its customers

when they want it. To build this right-time experience, Progressive

Insurance had to change its business processes to take in new data

inputs from the connected sensors. It had to translate data from

Snapshots into metrics that would correlate a person’s driving patterns

to the risk of an accident. The company had to take these algorithms

and change its pricing to reflect the new assessment of risk. It then had

to market this new creative approach to prospects and customers.

Snapshot was revolutionary for the insurance industry. Risk is a

major issue, and risk assessment has normally been based on dem-

ographics. The notion of creating pricing based on actual behavioral

characteristics changes commerce. It gave Progressive Insurance

something to market. It arguably changes the economics of risk

for them. The firm can potentially attract more profitable customers

because typically the people who are willing to go through the

Snapshot test drive exercise tend to be the safer drivers.

Use Partnerships and Mobile to Drive Sales

Pricing is only one of many strategies that a business can take to create

a commerce-related right-time experience. Many types of business

can benefit from real-time data access and capture, such as retrieving

and updating customer records, checking inventory and prices, and

processing sales transactions. But businesses can also combine mobile

context and partnerships to increase transactions and sales.

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the main metro-

politan bus and rail transportation for Montreal, Quebec, provides an

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Commerce in a Right-Time Experience

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example of using partnerships to create a right-time experience. It

faced a unique challenge. The transportation system receives govern-

ment subsidies based on ridership, but ridership growth had stag-

nated. Without new growth, funding for capital improvements and

other expenses would be difficult to obtain. The STM aims to deliver

540 million trips in 2020, and improving customer experience is

central to its strategy for achieving that goal. To stimulate increased

ridership, the company launched an innovative loyalty program in the

form of an iPhone application called STM Merci in May 2013.9

Developed jointly by the STM and its technology partner, SAP, the

application was designed to provide STM riders with exclusive,

personalized offers based on their profiles and the preferences

that they to choose to indicate. STM has partnered with companies

in other areas of transportation, events, and local businesses to create

these offers. It divided an extensive network of more than a hundred

partners into 12 preference areas.

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