With the MobilBonus program, SBB wants to reward particularly eager users of general and half-fare subscriptions. They can now collect award kilometers on their smartphones and exchange them for vouchers. But the apps don't work. Instead of retaining the regular customer segment, it is once again annoyed.
SBB is going through a difficult time: After numerous breakdowns and accidents, safety questions have been raised, passengers accuse the federal railways of lousy service and mocking about rising ticket and subscription prices. At the same time, passenger numbers and cost and investment pressure for the future provision of rail infrastructure and rolling stock are growing.
The best rail customers should now be rewarded for frequent train journeys: With an app, holders of a GA or half-fare subscription can collect award miles, or kilometers of train, on their smartphones. The “MobilBonus” app can be downloaded and installed free of charge from the Apple App Store or in the Google Play Store for Android devices, as SBB proudly announced in the media.
“Beta versions should be properly tested”
So far, so good, you might think. The app was launched in mid-May, but it still doesn't work today. More than 400 users have already submitted their reviews to Apple's App Store, and the result is sobering: The absolute majority of customers rate the app as lousy. Network disruptions, connection errors, and the sheer impossibility of registering or logging in frustrate potential users.
Criticism is also piling up in the forum of SBB's own website mobilbonus.ch: “... The technical implementation is a disaster. The app doesn't work properly at all, just unusable. Beta versions should first be properly tested before you release them on the customer,” writes a user who calls himself a “traveler.”
More than just “bug fixing”
The fact that SBB is adapting to mobile communication habits is very welcome: Who could and should do that better than SBB? But four months after launch, the app should be running flawlessly. And when there are still problems, modern consumers demand answers and solutions above all else.
Successful communication requires more than just technical “bug fixing”: “Communication on equal terms” is the magic word. With the next edition of the MobilBonus app, it should also be introduced. Otherwise, in the eyes of customers, the MobilBonus idea of the Federal Railways is nothing more than just another interlocking malfunction.