Customer-centricity: the answer to the individual mobility needs of tomorrow

In recent years, the requirements for mobility have changed fundamentally. While the mode of transportation itself is now secondary, flexibility and individual customer needs are taking center stage and rapidly becoming the top priority. This makes customer centricity crucial for the future of the mobility industry. At the same time, it requires understanding the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s customers and travelers, and designing business models and services to meet those needs.

What are mobility needs?

Mobility needs depend on the purpose of mobility and individual circumstances. People want to go from point A to B, but depending on their circumstances, they also want to do so in a particularly cost-effective, sustainable, safe, or convenient way. What they focus on and to what extent is highly individual and situational. As if that were not already sufficiently complex, environmental factors such as the weather or their current state of mind or health also play an important role in choosing their mode of transport.

At a glance: customers and their mobility needs

Seamless Mobility

Simplicity is the key decision-making criteria when it comes to choosing a mode of transport. For a long time, the epitome of this was one’s own car: get in, drive off. Today, however, requirements go much further. In intermodal travel chains, customers are increasingly demanding simplicity in information, booking, and payment, but also in the execution of the travel chain itself. Seamless mobility is the answer to this need. For example, a platform or an app that covers the entire journey and links both private and public mobility services can be helpful. Having such a platform enables integrated information, booking, and payment, while also supporting customers during their journey by passing on information in the event of disruptions or giving them rebooking options.

Multimodal mobility & more flexibility

The desire for flexible mobility offerings that can be booked quickly and digitally is growing – and not just for a single mode of transport, but for multimodal and intermodal travel across public and private mobility offerings. The growing trend toward using instead of owning also plays a role here. Shared mobility is increasingly taking center stage. Multimodal mobility therefore works when the mobility offerings are not just connected digitally (via an app or platform), but also physically. After all, what good is a mobility platform if the local offering is not integrated?

Price simplicity and transparency

Multimodal mobility today is riddled with different prices and rates that can be hard to navigate. Every sharing provider charges differently and there are countless tariff areas and tariff zones in public transport. The “Deutschland-Ticket” shows that there is another way and that this simplicity in pricing makes public transport and multimodal mobility more attractive. Of course, the urgent desire for affordable mobility also applies. However, with transparency, flexible pricing models, and simplification in the pricing system, mobility and platform providers can address the need for transparency and simplicity in pricing. What is completely normal in other industries, such as price comparison platforms, and is already common in air travel, has yet to be implemented in multimodal mobility. This is because it’s not possible to compare options directly, as the current pricing system doesn’t allow for such comparisons.

Reliability and timing

Digital transformation and integrated mobility are important aspects. However, mobility must be reliably available. This places high demands on punctuality, transfer times, and the frequency and availability of mobility – even in rural areas. Digital transformation can help here by suggesting suitable routes and means of transport or alternatives in the event of disruptions, based on real-time data. The flexibility of scheduled transport, e.g. with on-demand shuttles, also addresses this need.

How can mobility players meet needs?

This makes centricity the key factor in the mobility of the future. Mobility providers must place users at the center of their offerings and planning. A good approach, for example, is to continuously survey the mobility needs of both users and non-users in alternative means of transportation to the car. In this way, mobility offers can be designed in a customer-centric way and in a way that suits the region in question. Mobility players should consider the entire customer journey, starting from the point at which users plan their trips. The simplicity of using one’s own car is a key benchmark. To achieve this, it is important to think in terms of service offerings instead of transportation services and to act as a networked mobility ecosystem instead of each mobility provider acting on its own.

For a successful mobility turnaround, it is important to win over non-users. New business models such as on-demand mobility, mobility platforms such as Mobility inside or the DB Navigator, are the first important levers. But requirements can change as the pandemic has clearly shown these past few years. From one day to the next, demand for mobility can cease, and other requirements come to the forefront, such as hygiene and personal space. The mobility industry, and therefore become highly adaptable and able to act quickly – both in terms of IT and transportation services.

Understanding mobility needs and acting in a customer-centric way

When transport transaction become customers, mobility providers must also understand and focus on their individual mobility needs in the sense of rigorous customer-centricity. For customers, mobility means not only getting from A to B, but also traveling cost-effectively, sustainably, safely, or conveniently, depending on purpose and individual circumstances. Seamless mobility, multimodal mobility and flexibility, price simplicity and transparency, and reliability and frequency are currently the four forward-thinking mobility needs of customers.

Understanding these requirements and designing plans or offers accordingly will be critical to the success of mobility providers in the future. In the long term, this is the only way to inspire even passionate motorists to embrace new mobility. However, mobility needs are also constantly changing and must be continuously scrutinized – which is why it is also important for mobility providers to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability with regard to their offers and services.