Virgin Trains East Coast (formerly East Coast Main Line) wanted to update their website, designed and built by Amaze on the EPiServer 7.5 platform. The idea was to improve customer experience and provide operational efficiencies for greater financial benefits. Amaze discuss the work
Brief
As Virgin Trains East Coast’s lead digital agency, Amaze were tasked in 2014 with completely redesigning their website and online user journeys. The site needed to access a complex network of data from varying sources including the booking platform, best train fare deals, timetable updates, disruption information, customer rewards, hotel booking deals and two-for-one London offers.
With a third of revenue generated through the website, and with this figure set to increase, it was critical that the website was technically robust and easy for customers to use.
The objectives for the new website were to:
– Produce a fully responsive solution that operates fluidly across all devices and platforms
– Improve the ease of management and reduce costs for the content management of this complex site
– Grow sales through the improved online booking function
– Improve the user experience across all platforms
Strategy
Before we started on the redesign, we conducted a complete analysis of the existing site and went through a full solution definition process, using best practice in usability design. This included a full range of user testing techniques from card sorting to the live on-board user testing of hi-fidelity prototypes, to demonstrate the proposed functionality.
A core objective was to fully promote the mobile user as a first class user of the service, giving fast on-the-go access to complex information.
Virgin Trains East Coast worked with us to design a responsive site that would provide an optimal user experience on any device, while reducing operational effort with only one set of content.
Execution
The new site was built using the EPiServer platform—creating a user-focused experience with personalised fare offers, live travel updates and timetable changes fed directly to the homepage.
To support this, we also designed a new eCRM programme, comprising of a segmented monthly newsletter, as well as tactical and planned campaigns. Working closely with the data bureau, we have set the content calendar and write, design and produce up to 10 variants per month. We execute a rolling test and optimisation programme, delivering results directly to our business intelligence and accounts team for review. All of our designs are responsive, ensuring the best experience for every user, regardless of their device.
Results
The new website has already delivered a number of key benefits to Virgin Trains East Coast and its customers. Simplified maintenance has significantly reduced the administration costs, scheduled updates can be easily automated and a responsive framework can be easily adapted to functional requirements as required.
Visits to the site from search engines have tripled within the first year, and rankings for commercial keyword terms have shown considerable movement. The average position six months after the migration is inching towards the top 10; the number of keywords on the first page has increased by over 10 per cent and organic visibility increased by almost 20 per cent.
Now that the franchise has passed to Virgin/Stagecoach, Amaze are working with the newly-launched brand Virgin Trains East Coast to deliver this fresh new brand on a responsive platform that will scale to all future needs.
“We wanted to quickly overhaul our website to provide visitors with the best customer experience possible. This meant we had to organise a lot of data and complex information from many sources feeding directly into our website. Amaze brought stability and performance to the site and also helped us meet our customers’ demands for mobile.” – Emma Passey, Digital Manager at East Coast.