Renewed Focus on Customer Service and Loyalty

Most social media services have nostalgia pages or groups. Facebook is full of them and X (formerly Twitter) has many accounts just focused on sharing historical images. Naturally, when old images are shared the online discussion turns to how things used to be “in the old days.”

British Rail is a popular topic. There is even an account on X that just shares endless videos of old trains.

I don’t mind a bit of nostalgia, but the memories are often rose-tinted. This blog on the National Railway Museum site gives a better indication of some of the realities of rail travel back in the day.

I like this comment on the British Rail food:

“I never once experienced anything that looked like the adverts. There were always those curly and yet at the same time soggy sandwiches, or miniature pork pies that were fashioned from concrete and gristle. You only once ever ordered tea or coffee because the two were indistinguishable. You were much better off with a can of beer or shandy bass.”

It is now thirty years since rail privatisation took place in the UK. Many of the train operating companies (TOCs) are criticised in the media for issues such as reliability and timekeeping, but in general it can be argued that the TOCs do provide a good service that safely transports millions of people every year.

Since privatisation, passenger volumes have dramatically increased - more than twice as many passengers now use rail travel in the UK, compared to the early nineties. Passenger satisfaction has also improved, according to the National Rail Passenger survey. Satisfaction has risen from 76% in 1999 (when the survey started) to 83% in 2013 and the number of passengers not satisfied with their journey dropped from 10% to 6%. This direction of improvement has continued, despite the pandemic.

The public image of the rail companies was suffering recently because of the proposal to close almost all ticket offices. On the surface, it sounded like the government had found an easy way to save cash. Only 12% of tickets are purchased by a customer visiting a ticket office - most tickets are now purchased online or using a self-service terminal.

However, the plan made a critical mistake. Many of those 12% of purchases cannot be easily migrated to apps or self-service. They are often vulnerable customers that need more help when purchasing tickets.

This is a common mistake. The statistics tell one story, but the detail is very different. Every passenger that needs assistance would have been discriminated against by the ticket office closures.

Thinking carefully about the customer experience for all passengers will ensure that we don’t return to the concrete pork pies or lack of accessibility that used to be common in the past.

Let me know what you think about the various train operating companies in the UK and rail travel in general. Please leave a comment here or get in touch via my LinkedIn.