August 7, 2018

Zipcar

How Referral Is Driving Success For Zipcar

Set up over a decade ago, Zipcar has grown from a small car sharing company into the world’s leading car club network.

The Challenge

Why own a car in a city when you use it infrequently? Not only would it contribute to congestion, you’ll also see its value fall before your eyes as it sits unused in the street. Once you’ve actually found a parking space, that is. Zipcar recognised this dilemma, as well as the transport headaches typical of most major cities. The combination of great technology and a team committed to solving these issues has led to Zipcar becoming the market leader for cars on demand.

They have built up a huge membership base who love the freedom the car club offers and who have become loyal ambassadors. Wanting to capture and reward this advocacy, Zipcar decided to launch a referral programme in 2016.

Zipcar were Impressed by Mention Me’s innovative technology, reporting tools and client support, so quickly appointed them to power the scheme.

Strategy

Mention Me’s unique name share technology captures advocacy when it matters, which means that referrals can be captured in normal conversation. This maximises the opportunity to turn a recommendation into a new paying customer, and is just one of the reasons Zipcar love the Mention Me referral solution.

AB testing is key to optimising referral and this has led to significant improvements in results since the start of the programme in mid 2016. The ability to segment the customer base means that Zipcar can easily develop different referral programmes for their consumer and business segments, and in different languages too.

Results

Zipcar operate their referral programme in both the UK and Belgium and through a programme of testing are achieving great results:

  • Referrals are at an all time high: The last six months have delivered 170 per cent more referral customers when compared to the previous six months
  • Referred friends have a high likelihood to convert: In peak months, 29 per cent of UK referred friends go on to become a customer. For the Belgium programme this is even higher at over 40 per cent
  • Wide choice of sharing methods maximises results: Name sharing drives almost a third of referral orders. WhatsApp drives almost 15 per cent of referral orders which is significantly above the norm.