NRE is continually looking to improve its services offering and, as part of that process, it has launched a new SMS service, TrainTracker Text™, giving passengers on the move easier access to train timetable information. storm® – the communications integration platform from Content Guru – has been chosen to power it.

TrainTracker Text is an automated service that passengers can access from any location. A request from a mobile device to the number 84950 prompts a swift SMS response. One-line texts such as ‘arr Cambridge’, ‘dep Kings Cross’ or ‘York to Leeds’ trigger up-to-the-minute arrival and departure details – quite literally at passengers’ fingertips.

Tim Martin, National Rail Enquiries’ Online Programme Manager, describes the service:

“It’s crucial we reach passengers through the communication channels they prefer, wherever they are. But universal connectivity isn’t always possible on the go. We need to give passengers every opportunity to reach us if some of those connections are severed.

“It could be a poor network signal, background noise or simply etiquette. Sometimes it’s just not so convenient or appropriate to speak on the phone or access the web.

“TrainTracker Text provides an extra connection. That’s why it’s such a crucial part of our travel toolkit – it’s useful in almost any scenario. All the passenger needs is a mobile phone and a minimal signal. With SMS they can access the same core function they see online, capturing the critical information they need to plan or adjust their journey.”

NRE’s ability to control the service with the storm interface is also fundamental to its success, as Tim Martin explains:

“At National Rail Enquiries, we often need to fine-tune our services within seconds, and we have to get it right. The storm portal gives us the means to adjust and improve the TrainTracker Text service as and when we see fit.

“We can adjust the rules which interpret misspellings in passengers’ texts. We can define in detail how we compact travel information within the single messages they receive in return. We can even change station names if we need to, without a long wait while the system’s reconfigured. Powerful management tools are essential given the complexity of what we have to achieve here, and storm is a key component in that control structure.”

Track record

The pairing of TrainTracker Text and storm is the latest stage of a journey that started in 2009.

National Rail Enquiries was facing rising demand and also needed the flexibility and capacity to deal with the surges of call traffic that accompany unforeseen disruptions on the rail network. 

storm was selected for intelligent, automated contact services in the cloud, which can cope with massive bursts in user demand. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) architecture allows NRE to protect its estate against planned and unplanned peaks in traffic, while sophisticated menu systems ensure a positive experience for the passenger.

When the heavy snowfall of winter 2010 provoked a five-fold increase in call traffic, storm’s burst capability made sure every enquiry was dealt with immediately, as IVR engaged each caller, providing the information they required.

Building on that well-established quality and reliability, TrainTracker Text provides a more convenient solution for those travelling by rail, and sets a strong example for other organisations seeking to adapt their communications to the increasingly mobile, multi-channel demands of their customers.

Winter weather can mete out a range of severe practical challenges. Snow, ice, violent storms and flooding impact almost every organisation and individual. Content Guru’s clients are already making ready for these threats – with communications services to customers being high on the list of priorities.

Here we outline some of these challenges — and solutions — in overviews of three sectors: Utilities, Travel and Health.

A harsh winter

The winter of 2010/2011 was one of the harshest Europe had faced in decades. Germany’s transport network – renowned for its resilience – was left crippled under heavy snow, with hundreds of cancelled flights and a rash of traffic accidents in treacherous conditions. The Eurostar service was reduced to a trickle. In some areas of the UK, pipes froze, thawed and burst, leaving tens of thousands without running water. Across Europe, the weight of snow snapped power lines and left thousands without electricity.

Under intense media scrutiny and amid widespread public anger, ministers and CEOs readily admitted that exacerbating many of these crises was a lack of effective, coherent communication with the public.

Utilities

For most customers, communication with utilities companies is limited to paying the bill. But when an unscheduled outage cuts off water, electricity or gas, how do customer helplines bend to meet the enormous pressure?

These events can amplify call volumes within a matter of minutes. Some contact centre infrastructures are robust enough to tackle the steady uplift that follows a prolonged period of cold weather, but still risk being overwhelmed when a major incident cuts services to thousands of households at the same time. Providers without the means to cope with these sudden surges inevitably risk long-term damage to their reputation.

In December 2010, a cold snap burst pipes and meant that water supply was disrupted to 40,000 Northern Ireland Water customers. Its contact centres were unable to cope with the demand in enquiries and it is estimated that over 1 million call attempts to its helplines were made in under a week. That is the equivalent of more than 1 in every 2 members of the population making a call.

The handling of the event led to the resignation of its CEO Laurence MacKenzie, who wrote in his resignation letter: “I readily accept and recognise that there were aspects of the way in which we handled the situation that could have been better. In particular our ability to communicate with our customers and let them know the reasons for and the times at which they were going to be taken off supply. This failing added to the considerable inconvenience experienced by our customers.”

To cope with such scenarios, many utilities companies are absorbing call surges by combining the burst capability of the cloud with IVR.  UK Power Networks (formerly EDF Energy) uses Content Guru’s storm® platform for just this purpose. In a power cut, customers calling from an affected area are played information explaining the nature of the problem and how it is being rectified. SMS alerts are sent to affected customers as soon as an outage occurs. This drastically reduces the volume of incoming calls, which again frees advisors to focus on the more urgent, high-priority enquiries.

Travel

Travel services face the same extreme fluctuations in demand. After the heavy snowfall last year, National Rail Enquiries (NRE, see page 1) saw inbound call volumes rocket to five times the normal level. Leveraging the cloud capacity of storm, NRE maintained an unbroken information service and also ran a dedicated snow line, which took tens of thousands of calls in the first 24 hours.

Health

Seasonal diseases such as swine flu pose serious problems, but they are not the only winter threats faced by healthcare authorities. For hospitals and clinics, general sickness and travel difficulties experienced by staff and patients can upset finely-balanced schedules, with complex knock-on effects.

Cloud systems are now warning patients of cancelled appointments by their preferred channel – email, SMS or recorded phone message. Using storm, administrators can easily contact patients to confirm they can still attend, reducing unpredictable ‘no shows’ and better focusing resources. If specific health threats such as H1N1 do dictate swift changes in policy as regards admissions and hygiene, line managers can update patients immediately.

Requirements extend beyond wards and waiting rooms. Absenteeism can prove troublesome for businesses in any sector, and hosted ‘sickness management’ is growing in popularity. Content Guru’s cloud solutions can monitor day-to-day absence and support absent employees with IVR and SMS, providing helpful health advice. This proactive strategy can discourage unwarranted absenteeism and assist those who are genuinely unwell – promoting individual well-being and boosting the health of the organisation as a whole.

Beyond the winter

The advantages of preparing for the winter months are clear to see.  These types of services are also delivering benefits that transform the way organisations communicate all year round, as Irfan Habib, Content Guru Business Development Manager, explains:

“It’s clear that for any organisation working with a large body of stakeholders – whether customers, passengers or patients – incisive communication in a crisis is fundamental. It determines whether chaos reigns or order returns.

“But we shouldn’t forget that the priorities faced in those extreme scenarios are important considerations at any time of year. Many organisations need to nurture stakeholder relationships on a daily basis, and cloud services let them do that across multiple channels with a high level of flexibility.

“Surges in call volumes can actually be a sign of success, as people respond to marketing campaigns or the launch of a new service. Hosted solutions can ensure organisations take full advantage of these opportunities and develop their influence without hindrance from inadequate infrastructure.”

 The directive comes from the country’s regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which enforced its first set of ‘taping rules’ on 6 March 2009. Mobile was exempt from the original ruling, the watchdog says, “primarily [because] the technology to capture these communications was insufficiently developed”. After three years of investment, the removal of the exemption is based on the presence of more advanced, affordable products in 2011.

 Content Guru is playing its part in this progress with a converged recording solution that combines mobile voice, SMS logging and the blocking of unauthorised phones. Aimed squarely at financial compliance, the product has been designed so it can also link with fixed line and screen recording.

 The mobile phone exemption is the latest in a series of regulatory shake-ups instigated by the FSA. From Christmas Day 2010, UK firms dealing with mortgage arrears were required to record all relevant calls and store them for three years. The Progressive – the UK’s 11^th largest building society – implemented hosted Content Guru recording to comply with the ruling – running the solution on the storm® platform. The affordability of the product was significant, as Progressive’s Head of IT, Tommy O’Neill, confirms:

 “Initial capital costs were significantly less than any other solution. Not only was the system rolled out rapidly in time to meet the regulatory deadline, it has continued to deliver increasing benefits, with operational costs considerably lower than we forecast.”

By converging records in the cloud and offering firms secure control over their data, Content Guru continues to play a leading role in the delivery of compliance-based recording solutions.

With the proliferation of new technology, such as cloud services, medium-sized businesses have far greater access to the quality of systems and applications they require. The ‘enterprisation’ of technology, where enterprise-level technologies are becoming available at mid-market price economics for the first time, is transforming how businesses use technology – and importantly the benefits they can gain.

With large businesses such as Rightmove plc, EDF Energy & National Rail Enquiries already using the storm cloud solution, today’s announcement means that the mid-market will now be able to take advantage of the kind of sophisticated, multi-channel communications technology that has traditionally been the preserve of large enterprises or public sector organisations.

“Advanced, integrated communication technologies can deliver real value to SMEs by transforming the customer experience” says Deane McIntyre, Director of Marketing and Product Innovation at THUS.

“Conventional phones and email are now only small parts of a rich mix of communication technologies that businesses should use if they want to be relevant to their customers.”

storm has the capacity to handle a vast number of interactive communications and unites all inbound and outbound contact channels into a single, fully integrated system that links directly into customer databases. Additionally a simple web interface provides comprehensive reporting and easy control.

The rich service list includes:
• Inbound calls
• SMS (including appointment confirmation)
• MMS (such as video to mobile)
• Outbound voice and predictive dialers
• Email
• Fax
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
• Hosted IP Voice (IP Centrex)
• SIP trunking
• Call recording
• Intelligent call routing
• Web & Social Media channel support

“We have extensively piloted storm in our own customer services function and across our web channels. In a matter of weeks we received very positive customer feedback that our communications had improved, especially around proactive updates.”

Power and flexibility via the cloud

THUS services running on storm are offered as solutions hosted in the cloud, allowing customers to introduce smart new communications solutions without having to make large capital investments. In addition, there is no management overhead wasted on maintaining the applications and solutions, and keeping them secure and up-to-date.

Sean Taylor, Managing Director of Content Guru, which co-owns the storm platform with Cable&Wireless Worldwide, explains that these technologies enable the kind of interaction with customers that is usually the preserve of dedicated contact centres.

“Even a relatively small organisation, with 50 or 100 users, actually needs a sophisticated communication infrastructure these days,” he says. “Business customers and consumers are used to getting fast access to services and information, and any organisation that cannot respond quickly when a customer makes contact – whether by phone, email, SMS or online – will lose competitive advantage to a company that has the technology in place.”

“storm can transform an SME’s communications infrastructure without consuming precious capital, delivering efficiencies and innovations that enhance competitiveness and boost profit margins.”

A variety of sector specific solutions are available preconfigured by THUS on the storm platform. They include technologies for retail, financial services, charities, Education, public and private organisations and businesses with smaller contact centres. With a track record of numerous successful implementations the service is essentially “off-the-shelf”, and is rapidly adaptable to address specific business challenges and opportunities. An implementation can be completed in a matter of weeks, so business benefits can be quickly realised.

“THUS is all about bringing businesses together with communications and collaboration solutions,” concludes Deane McIntyre. “storm’s unique capacity and versatility creates virtually limitless possibilities for our customers.”

Customer case study: Aurora

Ensuring a better overall customer experience was the driving force for commercial lighting company Aurora to use THUS systems. The company chose a new enterprise grade solution delivered through storm to support a rapidly expanding customer base and mobile workforce.

Andrew Johnson, CEO at Aurora commented:

“As a creative company that constantly strives to use new technologies and better ways of working, Aurora recognised that a new approach was required to improve both customer engagement and internal staff collaboration for a much better overall customer experience. storm means Aurora can interact with its customers using a variety of communications technologies. With the storm platform, THUS has tackled our need for improved infrastructure and a fully scalable communications system.”