Blacklane Boosts Loyalty With a Personalized Rewards Program

Blacklane, based in Berlin, Germany, is the premiere global chauffeur service known for the luxury experiences it offers. Serving travelers in more than 50 countries, Blacklane is dedicated to creating peace-of-mind through its range of services including airport transfers, City-to-City rides connecting metropolitan areas, and in-city mobility options with pre-scheduled and hourly bookings.

With a focus on ease of booking, and 24/7 customer support, Blacklane not only meets the high standards of its clientele but consistently exceeds them. The company’s mission—create true peace of mind by delivering perfect experiences around the world to inspire for a better future—drives every aspect of Blacklane's operations.

Elevating Chauffeur Engagement Through Personalization

Focusing on creating lasting connections with both guests and chauffeurs, Blacklane turned to Braze to support their retention efforts with the goal to enable chauffeurs to deliver premium services. Braze enabled Blacklane to drive chauffeur engagement through experimentation, personalization, and reactivation at scale.

In order to engage chauffeurs, Blacklane created a loyalty rewards program. Specifically, the company was looking to incentivize chauffeurs to accept more rides while maintaining their high quality standards. Blacklane’s team believed if they rewarded chauffeurs for accepting an increasing number of rides and providing great service, chauffeurs and guests would have a better experience. This would lead to more engaged chauffeurs and increase retention.

Once the decision was made, Blacklane used Braze to launch the rewards program without assistance from internal Product and Development teams—saving valuable time and tech resources.

The rewards program consists of two key pillars: ‘Extra Mile’ and ‘Badges’. ‘Extra Mile’ is a monetary loyalty program aimed at improving quality while increasing the acceptance rate of rides. Chauffeurs' participation consists of completing specific activities and earning ‘Black Gems’. They are progressing through levels and redeeming points for rewards. The second pillar, ‘Badges’, offers non-monetary rewards to enhance chauffeur loyalty, celebrate milestones, and reinforce positive behavior.

The campaign's cornerstone was its personalized marketing strategy, which aimed to recognize and incentivize chauffeurs, resulting in an increased ride acceptance and maintaining high service quality. Here’s how Blacklane did it:

• Using Canvas, a no-code journey orchestration tool, Blacklane designed a flow with more than 36 touch points around the rewards program.
• Messages were delivered across both email and Content Cards, which are a flexible messaging channel that allows Blacklane to embed personalized, persistent content within the chauffeur-facing app. The company chose to use Content Cards over a more disruptive channel such as push notifications in order to keep from disrupting chauffeurs while driving.
• Blacklane identified and categorized different user segments based on chauffeur engagement levels and past performance.
• Using Liquid, Blacklane dynamically personalized messages which resonated with chauffeurs, displaying relevant incentives, achievements, and progress within the rewards program. This included displaying information such as the points needed to reach the next level, earnings from the previous week and month, and other stats based on Liquid calculations.
• The company collaborated with the Engineering team to set up an automated data flow with Braze Alloys’ technology partner Rudderstack, which pushes data to Braze in near real time. This allows the rewards and achievements to be delivered just after completing an activity, fostering a sense of immediate recognition and gratification.

The loyalty program took about five months from ideation to launch. It was immediately successful, helping Blacklane address a critical problem: Increasing chauffeur engagement while maintaining consistent high-quality service. Not only is it a pivotal tool to incentivize and motivate chauffeurs, but it ensures Blacklane meets the needs of guests navigating a fast-paced world.

Blacklane’s Results: Maximizing Retention While Reducing Complexity

Implementing the rewards program through Braze increased chauffeur engagement and participation. Campaigns achieved a 91% open rate and an 18% click-to-open rate, significantly higher than their average engagement rates.

Program participants showed a significant 43% higher than the typical ride acceptance rate.

Most importantly, the campaign drove a 10% increase in frequency of rides from participating chauffeurs, Blacklane’s key metric. This is especially telling as those excluded from the program have seen a 16% decrease in ride frequency, underscoring the effectiveness of personalized, timely communication in enhancing service quality and loyalty.

Key Takeaways

1. Personalized engagement matters. Tailoring marketing activations to individual preferences and achievements can dramatically improve engagement rates and operational outcomes.
2. Strategic incentivization drives performance. Well-structured rewards and recognition programs, underpinned by streaming data and personalization, are big motivators for engagement.
3. Your tech stack matters. In order to deliver relevant, rich experiences, you need tools that work with you—and each other.

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