National Rail Enquiries: the right kind of STORM
10 August 2009
National Rail Enquiries handles more than 450,000 enquiries every day, with more than 14 million calls to its call centres every year. Its service is vastly complex, giving people the ability to plan train journeys that could involve anything from a simple trip between stations, through to a series of different journeys across the country, spread across days or even weeks.
The service is a crucial part of the UK's transport infrastructure and a key new element of its front line services now runs on STORM. Customers calling a non-geographic number - 08457 48 49 50 - can get up-to-the-minute information on any train service in the UK, and details of scheduled services run by all the train operating companies.
Multi-channel service
National Rail Enquiries (NRE) is the official information service for National Rail, the collective of Britain's train operating companies. It operates a range of channels that include call centres in the UK and India, the National Rail Enquiries website and the TrainTracker™ automated voice service for arrivals and departures. TrainTracker™ Text (the SMS version of TrainTracker™) and the TextMe Journey Planner allow users to have a copy of their journey details sent to their mobiles.
One of NRE's most important innovations has been the launch of an iPhone application, which has proved an instant hit with customers. Nevertheless, the main telephone line remains a key element of the service, handling tens of thousands of calls every day. STORM's huge capacity and advanced functionality will help NRE achieve high levels of customer service including low answer times, improving the overall customer experience.
Versatility
STORM's open architecture and sheer scale - it has the ability to offer up to 30,000 channels of simultaneous connection – gives National Rail Enquiries the versatility and power it needs to deliver the quality of service demanded by its millions of customers. The platform offers resilience and backup call routing, as well as network-based IVR (Interactive Voice Response), which provides a simple menu of two options to customers before routing calls to an agent, or the appropriate automated service.
With STORM, National Rail Enquiries now has advanced mass calling capabilities, with the ability to edit routing scripts via a secure web interface from anywhere in the world, and to load and manage announcements in real time via the web, or over the phone. There is also a future option to offer proactive notification of delays or changes affecting a customer's booking.
Mobility
Alastair Page, Operation Manager for National Rail Enquiries, explains that this ability to work remotely was a key factor in the decision to choose STORM.
"We run a lean team, with just three people authorised to configure the call flows across the two centres," he says. "Often, there is a need to make changes when we're working remotely, particularly on one of the regular trips to the site in Mumbai.
"STORM's easy interface, with its drag-and-drop functions, is fast and highly intuitive. We can access it from laptops, wherever we have an Internet connection, which has saved us a vast amount of time and effort. We can be more responsive to changing patterns of calls, helping to refine and improve our service almost hour-by-hour."
Says Irfan Habib, Business Development Manager for Content Guru: "This is an excellent example of the versatility and scalability of STORM. National Rail Enquiries is an organisation with a strong customer focus and it is using sophisticated technology to deliver outstanding service."
For further information call +[44] (0)1344 852 350 or text Guru to 66663.
