I Want My Two Dollars
AKA the importance on solely focusing on the outcomes and how to achieve them for revenue collection by mobility agencies
Customer: I would like to pay for this. How much does it cost?
Retailer: This item that I worked so hard on? I would love to sell it to you. It costs $2.00.
Customer: Great, here is a $20 bill.
Retailer: OK, well we can take cash, but we can’t give you change.
Customer: Oh. OK then, let me put this on my AmEx.
Retailer: Sorry, we don’t take AmEx.
Customer: All right, how about my Visa card.
Retailer: Sorry we don’t take Visa either.
Customer: Mastercard? Apple Pay? Google Pay? Venmo? Paypal? Cash App?
(Retailer just keeps shaking head no).
Retailer: We do have an app. All you need to do is download it, put in all of your payment and contact information, click through a few screens, and then you will be able to pay for anything in this one store anytime you want with this app. Or you can drive a few miles, purchase a special card, drive back, and you can use that card.
(Customer drops item and walks out of store)
This is an obviously insane scenario that would never play out in any business in this country. Other than the hundreds of transit and parking agencies in this country where this is a daily occurrence.
“WHY?!?!?” Well it boils down to two reasons….
(1) Vendor lock. If a store only took Visa as payment, the folks at Visa would not be super excited at anything that would let Mastercard in. It’s no different in transit or parking….vendors that are already entrenched at agencies would prefer not to compete for how a customer pays for transportation. So vendors try to make it as hard as possible for their clients to keep their competition out through a variety of different methods.
(2) Ego. A lot of people in government think that they, not the people who have spent thousands of hours on product and market fit, have the answer for a killer mobility app. And that their agency is a unicorn with special needs that the rest of the country doesn’t have. Spoiler alert…they don’t and they aren’t.
Confession time….for the first two years that I worked in the Mayor’s Office, I was one of those people who let my ego get in the way of better payment for our customers. I was convinced that we would be the ones to show the rest of the world what a mobility app should be. And I was wrong.
Transit and parking agencies should have one clear goal with digital payment:
Make it as easy as possible for customers to pay you.
Cash? Great, we’ll take it. Card? Great, we’ll take as many as we can. App? Great, we’ll take as many as we can. Easier to pay = more revenue. More revenue = better service. Better service = more revenue. And there are all sort of additional goals that can be achieved (customer discount programs, agency cost reductions, brand marketing, etc) while still making it easier for your customers to pay you.
Fortunately, there are bright lights in the industry that are demonstrating what everyone should be doing.
The California Integrated Travel Project
I first met Gillian Gillett at a Ford Future Mobility event when she was at San Francisco Mayor’s Office and I was in the Detroit Mayor’s Office. During our panel, we both went on lengthy rants about this issue of why transit payment was broken. Fast forward a few years, and I’m just writing about it and she has basically solved the problem by working in state government.
The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP for those in the know) was developed to make it as easy as possible for ALL transit agencies in the nation’s largest state to accept all types of payment (as well as standardizing trip planning, creating interoperability between agencies and make it as easy as possible for customers to access benefit and discount programs). The program is based around contactless EMV payment technology so everything from a contactless payment card to a closed loop payment card to a mobile wallet can be accepted by agencies across California. By creating a standardized marketplace, the program reduces the time and cost for any agency to move towards digital payments. And beyond this, the program also allows for other agencies outside of California to utilize this program, extending the benefits across the country.
Atlanta Mobile + Parking Program
How many parking apps do you have on your phone? Too many is likely the answer. Instead of adding another app to your phone, the folks in Atlanta just said “we’ll take what you’ve got” and accept payment from five vendors (Flowbird, Parkmobile, Passport, Pay by Phone , and Spotangels) so customers can use the app they like.
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Public sector agencies are not good at building product. I learned this the hard way. Hopefully the next generation of leaders in transit and parking can recognize this quicker than I did and focus on the outcomes for their customers and the best way to achieve them just by asking themselves “Is it easy for our customers to pay us”, and regardless of the first answer, “How do we make it easier for our customers to pay us”.