Building confidence and reassurance: the ‘5 Pillars of Customer Excellence’

With the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on passenger numbers, giving people the confidence to return to the railway and encouraging new passengers was a major challenge. For TransPennine Express, the answer was the ‘5 Pillars of Customer Excellence’:

■ Connecting - listening and learning from customers and colleagues.

■ Consistency - delivering consistency across customer experience delivery.

■ Communication - engaging customers and providing proactive information.

■ Collaboration - working with industry partners to deliver customer excellence.

■ Continuous Improvement - always believing things could be done better.

The idea was to keep key workers, customers and staff safe, reassured and confident in TPE’s services, with a strategy that would build on insight from those stakeholders and measure the operator’s output and performance.

Connecting with customers and colleagues

TPE wanted to proactively gather as much information as possible from customers, to understand how they felt and experienced its services, and to gain insight into areas that could be improved.

The operator updated its Post-Trip Survey to include COVID-related questions around issues such as social distancing and mask wearing, enhanced the Mystery Shopper Programme to focus on cleanliness, and considered the results in these areas from other research bodies such as Transport Focus. TPE also hosted regular ‘Meet the Manager’ sessions for customers and forums specifically for disabled customer groups.

For staff, there were weekly calls for traincrew union representatives following the first lockdown in March 2020. And a new app (Arrakis) was launched to more than 500 staff members in February, to replace the huge volume of messages from the Control room. Instead, the app filters messaging based on location, traincrew diagram, current service, line of route, and other options to provide only those that are relevant to the individual.

Confidence through consistency

TPE wanted to ensure that customer experience services remained available for people, despite rising sickness levels among staff. It meant that all stations, trains and online services were staffed in order to provide visible, helpful and proactive customer-facing services. Twelve Customer Experience Ambassadors were also recruited to provide reassurance and assistance.

Confidence through communication

Industry ‘Travel with Confidence’ messages featured prominently on TPE’s various digital platforms. And the operator developed proactive information for people with different travel needs, such as those with accessibility requirements.

Confidence through collaboration

Working with cleaning supplier MITIE, cleaning was ramped up across stations, offices and depots, providing a 70% increase on pre-COVID cleaning resources, with the creation of 50 new jobs.

Confidence through continuous improvement

A host of improvements were launched, including: STORM machines which expedite the sanitation procedure, providing a much more hygienic way of sanitising than using a cloth; a new interactive timetable page online that allows customers to select travel dates to view engineering works; and QR codes at station Help Points to launch video assistance from the Control team.

The results of all these combined efforts (and many more) have exceeded all expectations. Independent rail industry customer satisfaction measure Wavelength returned an overall satisfaction score of 8.09 (beating the industry average by 0.28); 98% of customers said they felt safe or very safe when travelling with TPE; and the operator scored above average in a host of categories surveyed.

TPE’s own insights from its Post-Trip Survey and Mystery Shopper Programme also revealed high satisfaction levels, giving the operator confidence that its customer service is regarded highly by passengers - a real achievement at a time of significant uncertainty.

Operating inter-city services that link key cities and towns in the north of England and into Scotland, TransPennine Express is a major northern operator. TPE serves 83 stations (of which it manages 19) and carries around 350,000 passengers a week.

The operator employs roughly 1,500 staff members and has 11 traincrew depots, the largest of which are in York and Manchester (where the main headquarters is also situated).

In May 2021, TPE was awarded a National Rail Contract by the Department for Transport, taking the operation to May 2023 with an option to extend to 2025. The NRC was awarded after the expiry of the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement which had been put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TPE’s path to recovery over the past 12 months from that financially devastating time has been a busy one, in which the operator’s performance has soared and revenue is growing…

Performance had been disappointing for TPE over the past few years, owing to a number of significant challenges. The May 2018 timetable change led to late running, poor performance and congestion in Manchester, and December 2019 brought further problems. But May 2020 was the beginning of a turnaround as the rollout of the new Nova trains improved reliability.

Of course, many argued that the more manageable timetable was the cause for many operators recording improved figures. But for TPE, the trend has continued despite the timetable uplift that came with the end of the lockdowns. TPE has emerged as the best-performing operator in the North and among inter-city operators. In December 2019, performance fell as low as 60%, but by 2021 it had risen and remains at over 90%… an enormous uplift.

Passenger numbers for TPE soared during the summer of 2021. Because the network attracts leisure travellers, many passengers used TPE to reach staycation destinations. In September 2021, passenger numbers had reached 73% of pre-COVID levels (at the start of the year, during the nationwide lockdown, numbers were at just 8% of prepandemic levels, ).

Off-peak tickets have been particularly popular, with First Class incredibly reaching 40% higher than pre-COVID!

Collaboration with stakeholders has also been a key focus for TPE over the past year, with a whole host of projects being delivered as a result - including supporting the Big Ideas by The Sea Festival in July 2021, delivering a transformative upgrade to Malton station as part of a £170,000 investment, and installation of a new Changing Places toilet at Manchester Airport station as part of a £200,000 upgrade in August 2021. This toilet helps those with additional mobility needs who cannot use standard accessible toilets.

Another collaboration that has benefited passengers is an innovative project with Everdelta which enabled TPE to be the first UK train operator to introduce new Express Help Points and video calling at stations. These allow passengers to use their phones to instantly connect with a member of TPE staff (even at unstaffed stations), to quickly and easily reach information and assistance.

In December 2021, TPE introduced additional services between Newcastle and Edinburgh and new services in both directions for Edinburgh Waverley, Dunbar, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth, Widdrington, Morpeth, Cramlington and Newcastle. Reston station was also added to the list when it opened in May 2022.

TPE has achieved so much in the past 12 months that it would never fit onto a single page. High performance levels, increasing passenger numbers and continuing focus on collaboration and customer service are all giving the operator a boost as it looks forward to the next 12 months… and maybe even beyond.