East Midlands Railway Enrich Their Customer Journey
The combination of Liberty Converse and Connect is allowing EMR agents to seamlessly deal with web chat and voice calls.
Project highlights
- System deployed in two months
- Improved employee experience and customer experience
- Call backs ensure the fastest possible resolution to customer issues
- Easy to make changes
The end of the line for contact centre tech
East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company with a vision to drive the East Midlands towards a brighter future. They work in partnership to connect cities, support communities and create easier journeys for everyone.
The EMR contact centre is a team of 23 FTEs operating a 24-hour service to handle a range of customer interactions, from enquiries and purchases through to complaints and passenger assistance calls. They were using a contact centre system which was becoming outdated and close to the end of its licence.
Nara Burne, a Business Change Manager within the EMR IT Team, wanted to access functionality which would help the contact centre team to combat high call volumes and abandon rates. Nara knew that they must improve the service that they provide and smooth out customer journeys.
At EMR we are striving to put customers’ needs first. We are prioritising customer requirements and finding how we can provide the options to suit customers in the way they want to contact us.
Nara Burne, Business Change Manager – CX, East Midlands Railway
One solution to meet all aspirations
EMR chose Netcall’s omnichannel contact centre, Liberty Converse, to overcome these challenges.
- Financial flexibility was vital – the announcement made by the Department for Transport (DFT) about the changes in the rail industry and the emergence of GBR meant that EMR required a partner that not only met their technical requirements but also offered agile contracting and financial terms and support.
- The licence date was also critical, as without renewing or having a new system in place, EMR would not have a functioning contact centre, leaving them in breach of contract of their franchise. It was not an option to leave customers without any access, especially in the run up to the busy Christmas period.
- At Netcall, we had experience of delivering in this sector.
- Netcall’s speed of delivery and deployment would be an essential element to ensure success.
Deploying at high speed
Netcall understood the urgency, and when an agreement to go ahead was signed in September, we worked hard to ensure the system was live in December. All staff were trained and ready to use the new Liberty Converse system.
Netcall really pulled out all the stops to help us meet our deadlines. The whole project team were completely committed and we have built a great supplier relationship. It was a real achievement to deploy everything in 5 weeks.
Nara Burne, Business Change Manager – CX, East Midlands Railway
Tech to empower employees to bring their best self to work
Employee experience is also very important to EMR. The new system allows the team to manage calls much more efficiently.
Converse’s QueueBuster call back functionality is proving to be very beneficial to agents. Ideally, EMR will always handle the contact when it arrives, but in peak periods call-backs reduces wasted time for the caller. It shows respect to them and their busy day. Call-backs play a role in delivering great CX for EMR by ensuring the fastest possible resolution to their customers’ issues.
Heading towards a bright future
After just a few weeks of rolling out Liberty Converse, EMR is considering adding more agents from their Internal Resource Department into the system, based on the successful reaction and results from within the contact centre.
As the next phase of the project, EMR is now looking to combine Converse with Liberty Connect, our conversational messaging solution. This will allow agents to seamlessly deal with web chat as well as voice calls.
Liberty Connect’s Web Assistant allows many customers to self-serve and resolve many simple questions, quickly. This frees agents to concentrate on complex enquiries or sensitive calls. Customers will get to the answers they need faster and agents won’t have long queues to deal with.
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