Company description
The STM is Quebec’s fourteenth-largest company, handling some 1.2 million trips a day. It employs over 9,000 people, more than half of whom work directly with customers. A key player in the passenger ground transportation sector, the STM provides more than 80% of public transit trips in the Montreal region, and more than 70% of all trips in Quebec. To support public transit ridership, the company owns, manages and develops bus and metro service on the island of Montreal. It also provides adapted transportation for people with functional limitations, using minibuses and cab services. It also offers a public cab service in certain sparsely populated areas, in order to develop demand for future bus service.
Issues
The STM‘s 2020 strategic plan makes improving the public transit customer experience one of its six top priorities. To achieve this, the STM needed to gain in-depth knowledge of its current and potential customers, in order to better meet their needs. With the first segmentation exercise dating back to 2006, the STM wanted our firm to carry out a complete segmentation in 2012, to take into account the changes that had occurred over this period: repositioning of the brand, deployment of a new sales and fare collection system (OPUS card), heightened environmental awareness, service additions and improvements, rising gas prices, acute road congestion problems, etc.
Results
The analyses made it possible to identify six current customer segments and two potential customer segments, as well as to target specific marketing actions for each, taking into account the size and development potential of each segment. This segmentation model is intended to be a working tool disclosed and used by the STM‘s multiple business units since 2012. A “reduced model” with a few questions has also been developed to identify the segment to which participants in future studies belong.
Testimonial
Since 2008, Extract recherche marketing (now Fino) has been entrusted with a number of unusual mandates by the STM. The firm has never hesitated to think outside the box, and has shown great creativity in the methodologies it proposes. With them, the STM knows it can count on tailor-made solutions that are truly adapted to its reality. The dynamics of this team stand out in particular for their ability to listen, their analytical spirit, their strategic vision and their great flexibility. A real relationship of trust has developed with them, and we certainly look forward to continuing this wonderful collaboration.
Isabelle St-Louis, Division Manager, Marketing Strategies and Analysis
Société de transport de Montréal
