Hop It
Discover how Melbourne's innovative food and wine bus service, Hop It, partnered with Stamp Me to create a highly engaging loyalty program that drives repeat bookings and regional exploration.
Background
With its ‘hop on and off’ model, Hop It is revolutionizing the traditional concept of food and wine tours. Their boutique-style mini bus service gives customers a journey of freedom and flexibility to independently explore Victoria’s Heartland.
Hop It includes a diverse range of venues and gourmet producers on their route. You’re not limited to set wineries and vineyards – it can include restaurants, breweries, distilleries, hot springs, and landmark sights. Forget about rigid schedules and strict locations; with Hop It, the choice is all yours.
Hop It’s tours showcase Victoria’s most treasured gourmet regions: Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, and The Bellarine.
The Brief
In early 2021, Hop It was looking to create a loyalty program that would entice customers to book more tours and try new regions they provide services for.
Despite offering unique and flexible tours, Hop It faced a challenge in encouraging customers to see their services as more than just a ‘one-off’ experience, such as for a special occasion. They wanted people to hop on their service much more frequently, or for no occasion at all.
They also sought to foster a strong community with the local businesses and improve direct communication with their customers.
Steered by these goals, Hop It approached Stamp Me to create a simple, exciting, 100% digital loyalty program that would inspire more tours bookings and ultimately more memories created for their customers.
Key Objectives
Hop It, together with Stamp Me, strived to:
- Reward and incentivize customers to use Hop It tours for any event or occasion (or for no occasion at all!)
- Create a more personal relationships with their customers
- Encourage supporting local producers and businesses in Victoria
- Reward customers for their loyalty to their service
- Gain valuable data and insight into customer profiles and purchase patterns
- Deliver targeted communications directly to their members via Push Notifications
How the
Hop It
Loyalty Program Works
Hop It’s loyalty program is an example of how Stamp Me works for businesses in the travel and tourism industry, by issuing stamps on a digital stamp card once they are on their adventure.
Hop It’s loyalty program consists of one stamp card with nine stamps, with various interim rewards to keep interest and involvement in their program high.
To sign up for the program, customers simply download the Stamp Me app in the Apple or Google Play Store. Upon signing up, customers are treated to a sign-up reward: a complimentary breakfast voucher, valued at $12. This appetizing offer is an immediate thank-you for joining the loyalty program and a great start to the customer’s next Hop It tour.
To earn stamps, customers simply scan the QR code through the app, which is printed and attached to the back of the bus seats. A 24 hour time delay is set up, meaning that people can only get a stamp once, even if scanned multiple times in a day.
Earning the second stamp on the next tour rewards customers a free ferry ride when they opt for the Bellarine hop-on, hop-off ticket. This perk, valued at $33, encourages customers to plan their next tour through Bellarine to use their reward.
Every third stamp (3,6,9), rewards the member with a free Hop It ticket worth $89. This frequent, high-value reward keeps customers engaged with the program and encourages customers to continue choosing Hop It for their exploration of Victoria’s culinary scene. After all, a free ticket certainly pushes the incentive to book with them and they will likely bring a friend or family member along to join the experience.
They have also customized their stamp card with their logo to represent a stamp. This is a great and simple way to make a stamp card stand out and reflect the brand identity to their customer base.
Promotion
To earn stamps, customers simply scan the QR code through the app, which is printed and attached to the back of the bus seats. A 24 hour time delay is set up, meaning that people can only get a stamp once, even if scanned multiple times in a day.
Communications:
Hop It utilizes Stamp Me’s communications features. These tools are valuable to any business, facilitating communications either to individual members or to everyone via a Merchant Console. This feature takes a matter of minutes to organize and can be simply a message, or with additional reward vouchers attached.
This proactive outreach to their loyal members allows Hop It to maintain high engagement levels, even during periods where they aren't actively on a tour, to keep them informed about special offers and promotions.
For Hop It, this represents a highly effective method for communicating price adjustments, sending reminders to customers with unclaimed vouchers, extending a warm welcome to new members, or simply touching base to maintain a connection.
How Rewards are Redeemed
Once a customer gains enough stamps for a reward, an in-app notification is automatically triggered explaining the next steps.
The voucher with a discount code is then emailed to the customer with further instructions on how to redeem it on a future booking.
Results
With the help of Stamp Me, Hop It were able to:
- Reward customers for booking Hop It tours and boost retention
- Incentivize customers to explore local regions and support local business in Victoria
- Communicate directly and frequently with their members via Push Notifications from their Merchant Console
- Gain insightful data into customer profiles and purchase patterns to better inform future marketing strategies
“We have been Stamp Me customers for over 2 years now and we can definitely say that it has revolutionized and added another layer of how we build loyalty and engage & interact with our customers. The platform is very user friendly and the team at Stamp Me are always on call to help out and customize any features that we require for our particular business and product…we recommend Stamp Me to any business looking to build a loyalty program that customers actually want to be a part of.”
- Jon and Sara, Team Hop It
