With trains serving London commuters, leisure travellers visiting the Norfolk Broads, and holidaymakers on their way to Stansted Airport, Greater Anglia has a varied mix of customers. But one thing all customers have in common is the need to plan their journeys – and to know what their options are if those plans have to change.
The challenge: make it easier for customers to access travel information
Greater Anglia already provided up-to-date information about planned engineering works and unexpected disruption, but these updates didn’t always reach customers as quickly as they could, as Evie Zelinger, Customer Experience Business Partner, explains.
“Due to the nature of our network, many of our stations are quite rural, and some of them are unstaffed, so people travelling to and from those stations didn’t have anyone to ask when the next rail replacement bus was coming, or where they could catch a local bus if their train was cancelled.
“Although we put posters up in stations with QR codes linked to information about engineering work and rail replacement buses, it was difficult to keep the posters updated due to how often the bus timetables change. Customers were contacting us to say the information they had was wrong and they had missed their train.
“We needed a way for customers to be able to look up all the latest travel information instantly, on their phones.”
The solution: Dynamic Route Maps provide a visual guide to the network
The team at Greater Anglia investigated ways to present real-time travel updates for customers, and saw that Southeastern Railway was successfully using RailSmart Dynamic Route Maps (DRM), as Evie describes.
“We took inspiration from Southeastern and worked with Velociti to create a bespoke product for our customers using RailSmart DRM. The live maps provide a visual representation of a customer’s journey so they can see exactly which part of their journey is running on schedule, and which part is likely to be disrupted.
“If a customer is travelling between Colchester and Norwich, they can open the live map on their phone and find out that one leg of their journey – the section from Manningtree to Ipswich – is affected by planned engineering works and served by a rail replacement bus.”
Access to all the options
Customers can also access real time information in the event of unplanned disruption.
“The live maps provide customers with all their travel options when there are unexpected changes to the service,” explains Evie. “The maps link to live departures, showing what time their next train will run, how busy that train is likely to be, and which other connections they could make if their train is cancelled.
“If they can’t find an alternative train service, customers can access information on local bus routes, and directions to the nearest bus stop.”
The live maps from RailSmart DRM help to improve the customer experience, even when their journeys are disrupted.
“Occasionally people have to get off the train at a station they are not familiar with. Customers can get information from the live maps about the facilities at the station, whether there is a member of station staff on duty, or if there are café or lavatory facilities. If a customer has additional needs, there is also a phone number that they can use to book assistance.”
Smooth implementation
To develop a product which worked well for its wide range of customers, Greater Anglia collaborated closely with Velociti, as Evie explains.
“The team at Velociti listened to all our input and understood what we needed from RailSmart DRM. Whenever we suggested something new, Velociti was able to work out the best way to include it and ran significant testing to make sure the product worked in different scenarios before we released it to customers.”
The benefits: all the travel options in the palm of their hand
The live maps allow Greater Anglia to put customers in control of their journey, wherever they are, without having to search online or find someone to ask.
The maps were put to the ultimate test during the winter storms, as Evie describes.
“On a usual day, we get around a thousand people using the live maps, but on a storm day that shot up to between five and six thousand users. Although the bad weather caused disruptions, our customers were able to plan alternative ways to travel or put off their journeys until the disruption had eased.”
Better informed staff
RailSmart DRM is also providing Greater Anglia staff with a much better overview of what is happening on the network, so they can advise customers who ask for help.
“Previously, colleagues had to search lots of different systems to find information for customers, particularly when it came to local knowledge such as alternative bus routes and station facilities. Now they can access all this on the live maps which makes it much easier for a London based colleague to find information for a customer heading to Great Yarmouth.
“Colleagues really like the fact they can provide better advice, and also direct customers to the live maps, giving them ongoing support throughout their journey.
Benefits realised
- Customers have an easy to interpret, visual representation of their rail service, so they can see in advance which leg of their route is affected by planned engineering works.
- Customers can easily assess all the alternative options if they need to re-plan their onward journey due to disruption.
- Staff have information from multiple systems in one place, so they can advise customers right across the network.
The future: an indispensable tool for customers and colleagues
With such positive take-up of the RailSmart DRM solution, Greater Anglia aims to develop the maps further for both customers and staff, as Evie explains.
“The plan is to make information accessible to more customers, by putting electronic help points in stations with touch screens that link to the maps. This would mean customers could access the maps at stations as well as on their devices.
“We’re also raising customer awareness of the maps by integrating them into our Greater Anglia app. When customers use the app to buy tickets, they will receive disruption alerts and a link to the maps.
“Our colleagues gave us incredible feedback about how easy it is to have all the information in one place. With this in mind, we want to create a separate colleague facing map, which includes access to internal messaging, as well as all the other travel information. This will create a one stop shop colleagues can use to help customers on the network.
“RailSmart DRM is a real win for us, it gives people a view of the up-to-date travel options open to them, and even better, it helps us build our customers’ trust and confidence.”
