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Whether you’re looking to streamline business and financial processes, strengthen customer relationships or manage data to improve intelligence and reporting, TSG will identify the most appropriate business applications to help you increase efficiency and improve productivity. We pride ourselves on seamless implementation; the result of working with thousands of SME customers that also allows us to share best practice.

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Information Technology Services Technology Services Group

Newcastle upon Tyne

CrossCountry Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Care and Compensation

Case Study

The Customer

CrossCountry is the operator of Britain’s geographically-largest passenger rail franchise. This franchise was awarded by the Department of Transport to run from November 2007 to April 2016.

Operating express and long distance services covering more of Britain than any other train operator, including Britain’s longest direct train trip from Aberdeen to Penzance, CrossCountry are responsible for 295 services every weekday delivering over 32 million customer journeys per year.

CrossCountry is part of the Arriva group, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn.

The customer relations team are pivotal to the success of CrossCountry and provide many services to the customer and the business, including handling enquiries, complaints, praise and compensation.

The Customer Objectives

In 2008 CrossCountry invited TSG (at the time Concentrix) to tender for a new customer care solution to replace the inflexible and expensive legacy system that they inherited at the start of their franchise.

Although the most important kit for any Train Operating Company (TOC) is undoubtedly the trains, the customer care solution is very important as they have stringent customer care service levels that are monitored (and enforced) by the Department for Transport.

The objectives for the project included:

• Optimisingbusinessprocessfordifferent communication channels: - Telephone inbound enquiries: Tailored screens and automation, optimised for the telephone operators - Letters and paper-based forms: Integration with scanning hardware, enabling a case to be created from the scan. Includes batch scanning - Email: Integration with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook and automated email processing - Web form integration for online • MonitoringandmanagingServiceLevels: Including a “clock” to record how long a case has been with the customer relations team and with the customer

• Integratewithexternalrailwaysystemstocheck and validate delays reported by customers;• Automaticallycalculatecompensationandprinta barcoded compensation voucher• Provideanassistiveemailandletterwriting function: Standard library of content, with specific content suggested depending on the case classification or reason for train delay• QualityManagement:Abilitytoproactivelycheck outbound written communications from customerrelationsstaff• BusinessIntelligence:Providebusiness intelligence and management information for internal purposes and reporting to the Department for Transport.

Great customer service is key to our franchise and TSG help us to deliver on the promises we make to our customers.”

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Speaking about the initial tender stages with TSG, Matt Foster, Customer Relations Manager at CrossCountry comments ‘The team at TSG worked very closely with us to understand our requirements and how we operate.’

The CRM Specialist at TSG continues, ‘Matt Foster and his team at CrossCountry were excellent in collaborating with us on the project, especially during the requirements gathering and design phase. This is crucial to the success of any project and showed in the fantastic results we achieved together.’

The TSG Solution

To meet the needs of CrossCountry and other Train Operating Companies, TSG developed and created TOCrm.

TOCrm is based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM “xRM Platform” and is a highly customised solution that is tailored to meet the specific objectives of a 21st century TOC customer relations team.

TOCrm has been rolled-out to many of the UK’s mainline train operators, forming a strong community of customers who share ideas, best practice and costs with TSG on the continued development of TOCrm.

‘Great customer service is key to our franchise and TSG help us to deliver on the promises we make to our customers’, added Mr Foster.

The Benefits to CrossCountry

CrossCountry were quick to realise the benefits of TOCrm when it went live in 2009.

These benefits included:

• Reductioninstaffoverheadby25%while increasing capacity thanks to efficiency savings - enabling CrossCountry to remove a reliance on temporaryagencystaff

• Providingaplatform(andcapacity)todeliver additional services for the business – including taking responsibility for “Group Bookings”, a revenue generating service• Eliminatingbacklog• MeetingtheDepartmentforTransport’sservice levels plus responding to changes in requirements and new obligations• Increased“customerintelligence”-enabling CrossCountry to deliver a more personalised service as well as identifying fraudulent compensation claims• 75%reductioninoperationalcostofrunning TOCrm compared to the previous system

CrossCountry received recognition for their excellent customer service in 2009 when they were shortlisted in three categories at the prestigious National Customer Service Awards in 2009 – a first and major coup for a TOC customer relations team.

Shortlisted for Manager of the Year, Matt Foster said ‘We’re really happy that the customer service solution developed by TSG, along with the dedicationofourstaffandotherchangeswe’vemade to our business, has helped CrossCountry through to the finals of two categories at the National Customer Service Awards and achieve Highly Commended in another.’