Identifying systemic challenges to help staff and customer adapt to disruption

• Gathered qualitative data to provide a holistic view of systemic challenges faced in key roles and identified opportunities to improve the quality and flow of information to end-users.
• Combined lean mixed methods to understand the customer experience in context and give clear direction for further research and problem solving

Duration: 6 weeks

Information was not always actionable and could be inconsistent across channels

Context

• c2c is one of the smaller Train Operating Companies in the UK, with a licence to run local and commuter services on routes in the South Essex and London region.
• When their timetable of scheduled services is disrupted, by planned events such as Network Rail engineering works or union strikes, or unplanned events such as breakdowns and accidents they have a responsibility to keep customers and network stakeholders informed, so they understand what’s happening and are able to adapt

Problem

• Feedback from customers and staff indicated they had a problem communicating live service status and disruption effectively to customers, however, they lacked internal capacity to investigate.
• c2c were using 3 different areas of their website to serve information relating to planned and unplanned disruption, as well as their social channels. This was complex for staff to manage, and they suspected that customers didn’t understand which area to find the information they needed.
• The client had no map of their current process and a low level of understanding internally for each of the roles played by internal stakeholders.

Objective

• Help internal stakeholders gain a holistic view of the flow of information and clearly define the problems they could take action on to improve the situation.

Audience & users

• Internal stakeholders - focused on planning and delivery of the service, and those managing digital touch points and communications.