Written by
Benjamin Daniels
5 mins read
5 gamification & loyalty features that make Bird a better business
Lime isn’t the only market leader using gamification to improve its mobility service! Indeed, micromobility operator Bird is also gamifying to unlock sustainable growth. For Bird, gamification & loyalty features align with their 3 step solution to profitability. In practice, this means rewarding loyalty and incentivizing customers to take more rides.
What were the results? Find out!
- Why Bird uses gamification features
- 5 examples of Bird gamification & loyalty features
- How Bird’s gamification features increase engagement & loyalty
- The success of Bird’s gamification & loyalty features
- How you can meet your business goals with StriveCloud
- FAQs
Why Bird uses gamification features
Today, Bird’s e-scooters and bikes can be found in an impressive 450 cities worldwide. But the company is undergoing a transformation. Moving on from years of expansion, Bird is prioritizing profitability by exiting markets like Norway and Sweden. And for Bird, gamification & loyalty features are key to making profitability a reality!
It’s all a part of Bird’s 3 step solution to success:
- Collaboration.
- Communication.
- Operations.
Basically, Bird uses rewards, discounts, and other game-like elements to achieve both their own goals and those of their collaborators, like city authorities for instance. In addition, the Bird gamification & loyalty features will help optimize operations by improving fleet management and making parking in mandatory bays easier. In turn, this increases loyalty and engagement – and makes Bird more profitable!
The strategy seems to be working. In Q2 of 2022, Bird’s YoY revenue increased by 28%!
5 examples of Bird gamification & loyalty features
Put simply, you should use gamification to incentivize the customer behavior that you want to see. This way, you drive customers to achieve your goals! Here’s how Bird’s gamification & loyalty features motivate their customers:
Charging a Bird is more than work, it’s play
Anyone can become a Bird Charger. Once you sign up, Bird sends you a handful of chargers. Following that, you’re free to get paid to collect Bird’s e-scooters! Yet Chargers get more than just a financial reward. In fact, the whole experience is gamified.
- Competition. Chargers are encouraged to reserve a scooter ahead of time. This is because there are other Chargers on the hunt! By emphasizing the scarcity of the scooters, Bird introduces competition and motivates the Chargers. As a result, the scooters are more likely to get picked up and charged!
- Goal-driven. To get paid, you must pick up at least 3 scooters. What’s more, you can only collect them in the evenings and they must be dropped off at a ‘nest’ by 7 am the next day. This clear goal makes the task more meaningful!
- Levels. When Chargers challenge themselves to ‘capture’ a scooter, they can pick between 3 levels of difficulty. Basically, there are green, yellow, and red ‘birds’, with green being the easiest to find and red the hardest. Of course, harder to find scooters pay more!
Frequent Flyers program
Bird’s loyal customers pay just €1 for a 15 minute ride! The centerpiece of Bird’s loyalty features, customers are encouraged to ride more with incentives like bigger discounts and better perks. In other words, the more you ride, the more you get! This fulfills the ‘Lucky Loyalty effect’, where customers feel that their rewards should scale with loyalty.
Free rides to the polls/polluted days
At the end of the day, you need to provide customer value. That’s why Bird offers free rides on election days, and even on days when air pollution is at a hazardous level. On the one hand, this is a clever way to maintain demand on polluted days when people might be tempted to stay in. But you can also consider it one of Bird’s loyalty features. After all, this is Bird helping customers in their time of need, or when they need to travel the most!
Helmet selfies!
Regulators take safety seriously. In fact, in Greece, Denmark, Finland, and Spain, riders must wear helmets by law. Other countries may follow suit. Given this, Bird is ahead of the curve because they reward customers who wear a helmet. It’s simple – send Bird a selfie of you wearing a helmet, and you’ll get free minutes off your next ride!
Parking can be rewarding too
Here’s a great example of how Bird’s gamification features get city authorities on their side. While all cities want to promote safe parking, Helsinki thinks gamification is the best solution. That’s why Bird offers Helsinki’s riders a unique incentive. If you park your e-scooter in a green zone marked with a ‘P’, you get a discount on your ride!
How Bird’s gamification features increase engagement & loyalty
It’s clear that the Bird gamification & loyalty features are showing their worth. Of course, this is important when the competition in micromobility is so tough! Here‘s how Bird boosted engagement & loyalty using gamification:
Bird Chargers. The Charger program creates a buzz! For instance, many Bird Chargers publicly praise the program’s gamification. As a result of this free word-of-mouth advertising, Bird is more likely to gain loyal customers. In fact, customers acquired through word-of-mouth are up to 24% more likely to stay loyal!
Free rides to the polls. On days that Bird offered free rides to vote, some cities saw a 390% increase in ridership!
Frequent Flyers program. In a 2022 study, 16% of American e-scooter riders said they would use Bird again. Of that select group, 81% considered themselves loyal. However, in Germany, where Bird trialed their Frequent Flyers loyalty program, 85% of customers said they were loyal! (Since then, Bird has exited Germany, but the Frequent Flyer program continues elsewhere).
Helmets. First, Bird gifted 75,000 helmets for free to boost adoption. Unfortunately, that strategy didn’t work. It lacked gamification! To incentivize the use of helmets, Bird now rewards helmet-wearers with discounts. For one, this is more affordable. In addition, it keeps cities happy, not to mention the customers are rewarded with free riding minutes!
Finally, Bird’s gamification features simplify the customer experience. Essentially, you perform a task, and you get rewarded for it. It doesn’t get clearer than that! And this simple story makes the app easier to use.
The (digital) medium of mobility is the message – “E-scooter use intent is positively related to the perception of mobile applications. Being fun & easy-to-use is important.”
The success of Bird’s gamification & loyalty features
It’s clear that Bird’s gamification & loyalty features work. In 2022, Bird generated 16% more rides than in 2021! In short, gamification got customers to book more rides. But this is just one part of the success story. In addition to boosting engagement and loyalty for Bird, gamification & loyalty features also helped them overcome their challenges:
- Lower charging costs. In 2020, Bird’s charging made up 40% of operational costs! The Charger program tackles this, plus it builds a base of loyal customers. In 2022, Bird’s operating costs were down 29% year-on-year!
- Optimized operations. Convenience is the main reason people use shared mobility. That’s why the Charger program is so effective – it makes Bird’s e-scooters more available and reliable. In turn, the great service ups loyalty!
- Safer parking. To successfully collaborate with city authorities, Bird’s app highlights parking zones and rewards safe riding & parking with discounts.
How you can meet your business goals with StriveCloud
Bird’s gamification & loyalty features are specifically designed to improve their app. However, what works great for Bird might not work for you! In reality, gamification needs to align with your own audience and goals. When you do this, you can achieve great things! Like our clients, who see an average increase trips from active riders by 300% after implementing gamification.
Getting started is easy. We have 3 simple steps to put you on your way to success:
- First, we kickstart our collaboration with a workshop. During this, we’ll identify the best way forward given your goals and target audience.
- Second, we will set up our software to integrate the new features straight into your mobility app! What’s more, you’ll gain access to a central control panel that lets you make live changes to your app.
- Finally, we onboard and train your team to use our software, so you can work the way you want! Of course, our team will be there to help at every step.