Journeycall

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Journeycall's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Journeycall is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.the-espgroup.com

29JOURNEYCALL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2019

Managing Director Theresa

Slevin

We are Scotland’s

largest transport-

centric contact centre

Journeycall is one of the three leading organisations which

comprise the ESP Group. The conglomerate is dedicated

to making life simple – whether it’s getting a travelcard

to customers, having someone on the end of the phone or

responding to online chat enquiries. The team is driven by

supporting passengers and travellers during every stage of their

journey. Journeycall itself is an award-winning, specialist contact

centre based in Arbroath, Scotland, founded in 2003 and led by

Managing Director Theresa Slevin. Its team provides customer

support services to a variety of market sectors, including issuing

and supporting Oyster and other transport smartcard schemes on

behalf of Transport for London, London Councils Freedom Pass and

Rail Delivery Group, among many other bus and trainoperators.

We are Scotland’s largest transport-centric contact centre, and we offer services

including customer support channels such as voice, email, white mail, web chat,

social media activity, video calling and SMS to meet passengers’ needs. We work

from a state-of-the-art, 350-seat, 22,500-square foot contact centre and operate 24

hours a day, 365 days a year, to support passengers on every step of their journey.

Our support services

One of our largest and most successful avenues of work after voice contacts has

been compensation services. In 2016, we developed our own fully automated delay

FACTS ABOUT

JOURNEYCALL

»Managing Director: Theresa

Slevin

»Established in 2003

»Based in Arbroath, Scotland

»Services: Contact centre

customer service expertise

»No. of employees: 371

»UK-leading transport-centric

contact centre

»www.the-espgroup.com

Journeycall

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

30 | JOURNEYCALL

compensation system, DelayCheck, to

meet new consumer rights regulations.

This system streamlines and fully

manages delay verification, repayments

and correspondence to ease the

difficulties faced by operators when

processingclaims.

We offer an enquiry and telesales

service for a variety of operators and

retailers, where our expertise is made

evident through our advisers’ ability

to adapt and confidently operate

numerous complex systems while

delivering high-quality service. We also

provide dedicated customer service,

smartcard and mobile ticketing support

alongside aftersales services for bus

and train operators, rail retailers, TfL,

RDG and other London councils.

Throughout these processes, we

encourage customers to make use of

our online systems; in May 2014, we

introduced online retail for Disabled

Persons Railcards. This soon saw 65 per

cent of the cards purchased through

this online platform, from an original

base of zero, making it easier and

more convenient for users.

These are just some examples of the

services we provide for a vast range of

clients, with others including assisted

travel, refund issuance and dedicated

customer relations.

No compromise on quality

and security

As so much of our work is

customer-facing, we place quality

and the customer experience at

the heart of our operations. Our

quality management system is ISO

9001-accredited, and we employ

a dedicated team consisting of 16

learning and development agents

working alongside five fully certified

internal auditors across the business.

All team members undertake

a rigorous training programme

during induction to ensure they

achieve excellence in every aspect of

theirwork.

We also recognise the importance of

data security. Considering we handle

massive amounts of customer data,

we make it an absolute priority to

remain compliant with the appropriate

legislation, which came into force

last year. We are registered with the

Data Protection Act, work to the EU’s

GDPR regulations and are PCI DSS level

1-accredited – the highest level.

In keeping with our dedication to both

quality and security, we have invested

heavily in technology over the past

few years. This has included a new

cloud-based telephone system, which

provides state-of-the-art multimedia

customer interactions and allows

us to record 100 per cent of calls

utilising PCI-compliant software. This

ensures that we can respond quickly to

customers and process their needs in

a streamlined and efficient way, all the

while demonstrating a commitment

to operational excellence, which will

continue to underpin future training.

Global industry: ever-

unpredictable

In continually changing economic,

political and technological landscapes,

the transport industry is faced with

numerous challenges which impact the

We work from a state-

of-the-art 350-seat

22,500-square foot

contact centre

Our expertise is

made evident

through our

advisers’ ability

to adapt and

confidently

operate

numerous

complex

systems while

delivering high-

quality service

“

31JOURNEYCALL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2019

delivery of service. Brexit, for instance,

will certainly alter travel options for

passengers over the coming years, with

travelcard prices set to increase as a

result of trade restrictions.

The Oyster card recently celebrated its

15th anniversary, but with technology

and contactless travel payments

coming to the forefront, we are seeing

more pressure than ever on transport

and mobility organisations to adapt

to these services while still delivering

the support that passengers require

throughout theirjourneys.

Authorities and operators across

the UK are working tirelessly to

make travel easier. Not everyone is

benefiting, however – in large part

thanks to a lack of awareness and

concerns about ease of use.

In our latest Easy Travel Index survey,

we found that 30 per cent of people

who required assistance to travel by

rail did not request help from the train

operating company because they felt

uncomfortable doing so, and 22 per

cent did not even know that passenger

assistance existed.

Realising positive changes

There are so many initiatives to support

passengers when it comes to public

transport and other forms of travel –

even when things go wrong. These

include new forms of payment and

smartphone apps, as well as other

services to assist those who need

further help.

The impact of these services,

however,is being constrained thanks

to a lack of understanding among

the general public: regular users

may understand and use services,

but occasional or new users are still

somewhat uncertain. Technology

can help, but it’s noteverything;

people still want and need support,

and especially voice support. Our

co-designing sessions for recent

project delivery have made this a key

deliverable for the transport of the

future. Passengers are clear – voice is

still king.

Going forward, we see a need for

human support to be blended with

new technology, and initiatives such as

DelayCheck and NaviGoGo – a travel

planning, booking and payment app

co-designed by young people – will

help to both combat these issues and

provide solutions for travel anxiety.

There are endless opportunities for the

future of travel, and we’re committed

as an organisation to making these

changes a reality for people across

theUK.

As so much of

our work is

customer-

facing, we place

quality and the

customer

experience at

the heart of our

operations

“

Our latest Easy Travel

Index survey found

that 22 per cent of

passengers did not know

that travel assistance

existed – we aim to

change that

www.the-espgroup.com

This article was sponsored by Journeycall. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy