Staying ahead of the competition and adhering to changing customer expectations in the transportation industry requires a constant commitment to innovation and evolution. Today’s customers expect their interactions with travel companies to be secure, convenient, and streamlined, just like the journeys themselves.
As the landscape continues to evolve, and the way businesses interact with customers continues to transform, transportation brands need to consistently look for ways to remove friction from the buyer journey. This means implementing the latest tools for customer service, and payment processing.
When National Express discovered a new demand for simple contactless payments and enhanced digital services among its customer base, it knew it was time to upgrade its CX strategy. Working with 8x8 to create a new CX platform, and implement integrations with Salesforce and PCI Pal allowed National Express to stay on top of the UK market.
An Evolving Transportation Landscape
National Express stands out as one of the largest coach operators in the UK. The company serves hundreds of cities and towns, and millions of passengers across the country every day. It’s also on-hand to help with transportation to events, airports, sporting events, and tourist destinations.
Maintaining a position as the top choice for customers travelling throughout the UK, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America requires an excellent CX strategy from the National Express Group. To deliver experiences which adhere to customer expectations, the company needs the best technology and the most efficient, optimized team members.
Before switching to 8x8’s solution for CX and workplace management, National Express had already begun a transition into the new age of cloud communications. However, the cloud contact centre solution implemented by the team had some limitations. It didn’t support the data privacy requirements of the organisation, and lacked adherence to crucial PCI DSS regulations.
To secure the business and protect customers, National Express needed a new solution. The business began looking for a contact centre offering capable of supporting agents in accepting payments over the phone, without putting private data at risk. The need for this contactless and frictionless environment increased during the pandemic, when employees needed to continue serving customers from home, rather than working in a secure workspace.
Finding a Compliant CX Solution
According to Lawrie Neal, the Salesforce System Administrator for the National Express Team, the company had already begun re-evaluating its CX strategy a couple of years prior to interacting with 8x8. However, a transformational strategy hadn’t been implemented before the pandemic arrived. When the challenges facing the company evolved, Neal decided it was time to connect with 8x8.
Lawrie had heard of 8x8 in the past, and considered its flexible cloud environment to be a powerful tool for the business. He met with an 8x8 sales rep at a trade show, who gave a fantastic demonstration of what the platform could do. Neal was particularly impressed by the integration 8x8 offered with Secure Pay (from PCI Pal).
At the beginning of 2021, National Express began its transition into the 8x8 Contact Centre ecosystem, bringing more than 100 customer service professionals on board. The company also accessed 8x8 Work for its administrative team members, to boost collaboration and efficiency. Plus, the team leveraged 8x8’s University training capabilities to onboard new team members.
During the transition to 8x8, National Express added the “Secure Pay” service from 8x8 to the contact centre implementation, offering customers a safe and reliable way to provide credit card and bank information to agents over the phone. The “Secure Pay” service makes it quick and easy to manage transactions through 8x8, while keeping customer data secure.