Journey to a Customer-Centric Ticketing Platform

Standalone Ticketing Platform Innovation

Our client came to us with the challenge of developing their existing train ticketing platform into an experience that was enhanced with differentiated features for travellers.

The existing platform provided train ticketing services for a wide range of segments, from commuters, leisure travellers and people on business trips. However, the competition in the market required the need to discover unmet customer needs, and explore ways to bring innovative new services to travellers.

‍

Comprehensive Research and Strategic Development

To tackle this challenge, Spotless adopted a classic double diamond Service Design approach. The first diamond saw the team in Discovery mode -  initiating comprehensive research, including 1:1 interviews with samples across their segments and a diary study investigating when tickets were bought, and the context of purchase. This allowed us to create a current experience map - showing how travellers choose and purchase their ticket, and their subsequent journey and train experience.  Pain-points were captured, and different behaviours noted to generate behavioural archetypes. This culminated in prioritised ‘how might we’ questions to focus for the subsequent design phase. A customer experience vision and four experience principles were created.

The second diamond took the outputs of the Discovery and Definition phase, and moved into Ideation.   Using stimulus from industry best practice, and the opportunities provided by mapping capabilities, calendars and notifications - Spotless created a number of innovative new features to help rail customers relieve the stress of travelling, and to help them make journeys more enjoyable. These proposition opportunities were then taken into testing via a Quantitative study to provide evidence on the attractiveness of the ideas.

Customer-Centric Transformation and Market Leadership

The outcome of the initiative was multifaceted:

‍

CX Vision and Validated Proposition definition:

• A clear CX vision, strategy, principles, and maps were developed.
• The outputs were validated from a quantitative study feedback from 300 travellers.

‍

Customer Insights:

• Insights from the studies provided a deeper understanding of customer attitudes, allowing the creation of 3 different behavioural archetypes 

‍

Strategic direction:

• A CX strategy deck was provided, setting out how to generate market differentiation defined by brand experiences and new features.
• Supported by the target customer journey map for customers, aligning with business goals, user goals, and desired emotions.

‍

Product development:

• A baseline of experience and functionality needed for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) was identified, allowing for initial development while CX and proposition work continued.
• An outline of the phased approach towards a marketable launch (Phase 2) was established, ensuring a continuous evolution of the product.