London (TAN): United Kingdom-based train operating company Virgin Trains has innovated two technologies to improve customer service during rail disruptions.
Called ‘Back on Track’ and ‘Track ‘n’ Travel’, the innovations are ‘set of change history’, the company said.
The ‘Back on Track’ is an application that links teams on the frontline with the control centre when services are disrupted, so that customers receive accurate information on substitute routes and ticket acceptance. Virgin Trains claimed the app to be a ‘global first for a transport company’.
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Chief Information Officer at Virgin Trains, John Sullivan, said the chief issue during disruption is that Virgin Trains employees continuously seek the latest information to convey to customers.
“Our Control Centre can get a thousand calls a day from staff across the network during disruption. If the information they need is instantly available on their mobile, there’s no need to make that call, freeing up control to deal with the root cause,” he continued.
Estimates say the app could almost halve the number of calls to inbound teams, thereby saving 20 minutes to resolve incidents.
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“By getting the most up-to-date information to all our colleagues we ensure that they know what the latest plan is. Less time on the phone means they can spend more time helping customers face to face, and they can feed information about the situation on the ground back to Control via the app,” Sullivan added.
The app, that is already in use across Virgin Train’s United Kingdom network, was developed along with United States-based digital workflow company ServiceNow.
“Rail disruption can have a dramatic impact on customer and employee satisfaction. Through digital transformation, Virgin Trains is accelerating the industry towards a personalised rail experience that puts the customer experience front and centre,” said Vice President Innovation at ServiceNow Chris Pope.
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He added: “Using our platform, Virgin Trains has replaced manual processes with digital workflows that ensure the right information reaches employees and customers when they need it—fast, simple, easy – and importantly, putting the focus back on creating great experiences for all.”
The other one, ‘Track ‘n’ Travel’, uses the same data as Back on Track to enable passengers to review in real time their trip before and after departure.
Sullivan said: “Track ‘n’ Travel gives customers real time information on exactly what is happening and lets them work out the best route. Disruption inevitably does happen – we want to give our customers the best information to get them where they’re going in the quickest and safest way possible.”
