Incentives & Rewards for Site Administrators

Incentives: Powerful tools for changing commuter habits.

By completing this incentives and rewards training program for RideAmigos site administrators, you will be able to perform all major functions related to the incentive and point program tools in RideAmigos.

  • Understand what incentives are and why they’re important
  • Learn the different use cases for incentives and point programs
  • Create new incentives and point programs
  • View and edit existing programs
  • Understand the different redemption workflow options
  • Manage claims and view reports

Estimated Time for Completion: 1 Hour

We recommend completing the User Management and Network Management modules prior to beginning this module. 

(Each lesson will open in a new window so you can easily return to this module.)

Lesson 1: Incentives – What? Why? How? (~ 10 minutes)

What are incentives? Why use them? How are they commonly structured and managed?

Assignments:

  • Consider your goals and what type of incentives or rewards you already offer or might want to offer. Emergency Ride Home? Digital Gift Cards? Free or Discounted Transit Passes?
  • Take a moment to make yourself a list of current or proposed incentives that you hope to implement using the RideAmigos platform.

Lesson 2: Incentive or Point Program? Which to Use When (~ 5 minutes)

RideAmigos offers two primary tools for implementing incentive programs. Explore what makes them different and how they can work for your programs.

Assignment: 

  • Using your list of programs from lesson 1, start to evaluate which might work best as incentives and which could be point programs.

Lesson 3: Creating and Editing Incentives (~ 15 minutes)

Now that you understand the difference between Incentive and Point Programs, you’re ready to create your own. Incentives are some of the most popular programs available for you to implement, so let’s teach you how.

Assignments: 

  • Create an incentive program named “[YourName] Test Incentive.” Give it a reward, a description, and add the tag “Test”. Be sure to enter a point of contact and email before moving to the next section.
  • Do not select auto-join. Make your test network (from earlier assignments) the only network eligible to join the program.
  • Complete Trip Log Eligibility and Details sections before selecting “Create Incentive”.
  • Visit the rewards area under the program menu, find your test incentive in the available section, and join the program to see what it would look like to an end user.

Lesson 4: Creating and Editing Point Programs (~ 10 minutes)

Point programs are a very effective way to implement complex programs. Offering tiers of rewards and easily quantifiable success is a great way to engag commuters. You’ll learn how to start a point program in this lesson.

Assignments:

  • Create a point program named “[YourName] Test Point Program,” and finish the basic information section. Remember to give it the tag “Test”.
  • Add your test network as eligible, then finish the dates and details sections. Start your users with 3 or more points to make it easy to redeem test items.
  • Finally, create 2 inventory items to your program. Select self-managed delivery for one item and choose simple URL delivery for the other. Make both cost 1 point.
  • NOTE: For the simple URL delivery, any valid website URL will work for testing purposes.

Lesson 5: Point Program Management (~5 minutes)

It’s important to be able to keep tabs on a program after its up and running. In this lesson you’ll learn how to view a point program’s report, monitor participating users, approve redemptions and manage their points.

Assignments:

  • Start by visiting your test point program in the Programs > Rewards area and use your points to redeem one of each of the items.
  • Next, view the report for your program. Approve one of your test redemptions, then deny and cancel the other claim.
  • Familiarize yourself with the other reporting tools available for your point program.

Lesson 6: Introduction to Digital Inventory (~15 minutes)

Digital Inventory is a complex but powerful tool. The workflows you create here are virtually limitless. Familiarizing yourself with this tool will allow you to incorporate more advanced rewards into your incentives and point programs.

Assignments:

  • Create a new Digital Inventory item using the basic Redemption Workflow type. Add some custom content to the redemption message.
  • After creating your DI item, add it to your point program as a new inventory option.
  • Redeem this item from your point program and review the reports within the Digital Inventory area.

Module Review

After completing all of the assignments for this module you should have created the following in your platform:

  • [YourName]Test Incentive
  • [YourName]Test Point Program
  • Each Program should include your test network as eligible
  • Your Point Program should include 3 reward options, one of each Delivery mode:
    • Self-managed Delivery
    • Simple URL Delivery
    • Your Digital Inventory Item

Double-check that you have successfully created all of the above objects and associations, they will be referenced in future modules.