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Data Insight: Permission breeds loyalty for Scotrail
Permission data for Scotrail success
Permission-based marketing approaches have boosted response rates for rail operator First Scotrail from 2.8 per cent to 47 per cent, according to figures released by MarketDeveloper. A study of First Scotrail's new loyalty programme, Advance, which enables members to select when they'd like to be contacted, the content they'd like to receive and the media channel they'd prefer, has significantly increased participation in the new scheme and response rates to special offers.
Simon Davis, managing director of MarketDeveloper, the hosted application provider which First Scotrail uses to run its loyalty programme, says: "Though a loyalty club is a franchise commitment for the company, it is also a vital marketing tool. Commuters account for 35 per cent of current business and are a core element of the Advance database. Putting them in control of their own data, enabling them to update their own records and decide how they want to be communicated with, has brought significant benefits. Not only has total membership exceeded the target set in April last year - with 22,500 Advance users - but the scheme has also enabled First Scotrail to make value added offers to customers, boosting revenue for the company, while also reducing the running costs of the scheme."
Says Alan Pratt, marketing manager for First Scotrail's Advance programme, "With response rates of upwards of 40 per cent to the offers we are making, we seem to be getting it right in terms of communicating with our core regular users. Not only are our communications more effective - and thanks to the increasing acceptance of email much more cost efficient - but we can now generate even more revenue through targeted cross selling and other opportunities which the scheme is opening up to us. We also intend to use MarketDeveloper to help us gain a better profile of our regular users, and use this insight to further refine the Advance programme."
13 September 2006