How Mobility Leaders Turn Idle Ride Time into Opportunity
Mobility leaders across the globe are searching for a constant communication channel with their end customers. For transit leaders, there are three main touchpoints with their end consumers: Ticketing (Boarding), In-Transit, and Exit (Disembarkation). Most mobility leaders perfect one of the three, leaving possible revenue channels and ideal rider experiences on the table.
What communication channel can be capitalized across all three consumer journey touchpoints within mobility?
The Problem: Current proximity modalities are limited by one of the following: distance, throughput, hardware limitations, and interoperability.
The Solution: LISNR Radius offers a unique proximity modality that changes the way consumers interact throughout the rider journey. Our Radius SDK relies on ultrasonic communication between standard speakers (already installed in transit vehicles and stations) and microphones found in everyday devices like smartphones. By establishing a communication channel directly between the consumer device and the vehicle or station, transit operators can reduce wait times, improve accessibility, capitalize on idle time in transit, and segment their riders for variable pricing.
Furthermore, LISNR offers Quest, our loyalty and gamification portal, which allows mobility leaders to keep a unified record of key customer interactions. With Quest, mobility leaders can incentivize off-peak rides and partner with nearby shops to offer advertisements directly to a rider in transit.
The Proliferation of LISNR-Enabled Digital Touchpoints in Mobility
LISNR empowers businesses to capitalize on the digital touchpoints found in everyday transit experiences. By enabling the delivery of speedy ticketing and personalized offers directly to consumers’ devices, transit operators can engage their riders during all three stages of transit.
Ticketing
Legacy ticketing infrastructure creates long queues, is easy to bypass, and simply doesn’t work without a stable internet connection. Radius redefines this process with our ultrasonic SDK by working at longer ranges than NFC, with more pinpoint precision than BLE, and without a network connection at the time of transaction. Radius is already gaining major traction as a ticketing alternative in the mobility space. With our recent partnership with S-Cube, LISNR has expanded to provide a mass ticketing solution to the busiest transit stations in India.
S-Cube needed a faster and more secure way to enable ticketing for millions of riders. Moreover, S-Cube needed ticketing technology that could perform without a reliable network connection. Radius was able to achieve all of these and more. In testing, S-Cube saw a dramatic increase in rider throughput by switching from QR codes to Radius for ticketed gate access. They moved from processing 35 riders per minute to 60 riders per minute, representing an over 70% improvement.
S-Cube uses a Zone 66 broadcast at entry allowing consumers to identify themselves and validate their ticket as they approach the turnstile. Once at the turnstile, consumers can broadcast their account-based ticket information to the ticketing machine (Point1000 on Channel 0 from their device’s speaker). Since they have already been identified and validated, their passengers can breeze through the ticketing process.
In-Transit Promotion
In-transit promotions are not a new concept, with buses and trains already filled with billboard-like advertising. More recently, rideshare applications have started showing ad space on the home page and key active pages. Unfortunately, these advertisements often go unnoticed, are rarely relevant to the end customer, and for rideshares, are only presented to the paying device. LISNR solves these problems with Radius and Quest.
Using Radius, transit operators can capitalize on idle time in transit by sending promotional offerings directly to all consumers’ devices that are present in the vehicle. For example, businesses at certain stops can target specific riders based on their commute patterns. Furthermore, food/grocery delivery platforms can focus on a tired passenger coming home from work.
By establishing this additional communication channel to their riders, the transit operator can send promotional messages from their partners directly to the most important audiences. By communicating at the device level, promotional offerings can be sent with the preferences of the end customer. Radius’s ultrasonic SDK operates above audible frequencies, meaning that even in noisy conditions, riders are still able to receive their promotions.
By incorporating Quest, transit operators (or their marketing partners) can keep a unified record of customers and the promotions they interact with. Over time, this leads to more relevant promotions and a better experience for marketers and riders alike. With Quest and Radius, transit operators can capitalize on riders’ idle time in transit while establishing a positive connection with them.
Identify the Exit Point
In some modes of transit it’s easy to identify when the consumer exits the vehicle (planes, rideshares), however, most modes of public transit are left in the dark. This lack of visibility into rider disembarkation makes certain variable pricing nearly impossible. With Radius, transit operators can leverage the rider’s microphone when in-app to detect and confirm the presence of the device. With Radius enabled, mobility operators can begin to charge based on a “Be-In-Be-Out” pricing model. These seamless transit experiences are gaining traction with the global contactless transit market projected to grow to $33.5B by 2030 (CAGR ~15%). This major shift is driven by account-based ticketing and distance/usage-based fares (Source: Allied Market Research, 2023).
LISNR is here to enable transit ecosystem leaders with the technology to support a near-frictionless be-in/be-out user flow for consumers. Our long-range (Zone) ultrasonic tones can broadcast in-vehicle to detect the presence of devices. As riders exit the vehicle, the tones will no longer be detected and the app backend will end the variable pricing model for their trip.
Conclusion
LISNR’s contactless solutions help support the mobility and transit ecosystems across all major digital touchpoints in the consumer journey, from ticketing to exit. With these contactless touchpoints optimized for speed and security, ecosystem leaders can capitalize on variable pricing and answer the growing demand for frictionless experiences; all while establishing new revenue streams with in-transit promotions.
Our customer loyalty and gamification portal, Quest, can support and optimize consumer touchpoints across the journey. Riders can be incentivized to travel in off-peak hours, receive bonuses for promotions that they convert on, and be rewarded for their achievements such as lifetime rides.
We’ve put together a comprehensive PDF that outlines where LISNR outperforms other contactless technologies commonly found in mobility. If you’re interested in learning more or sharing with a colleague, please feel free to download a copy below.
We’ve created an easily digestible overview of this process, highlighting the digital touchpoints for your passengers. Fill out your contact information below to download a digital copy.