DigiTickets, a leading provider of ticketing and EPOS solutions for attractions, tours and events, has shared details of a recent project that has enhanced the guest experience for West Somerset Railway, a popular heritage railway in the UK.
Due to its previous complex ticket offering and older guest demographic, West Somerset Railway did not see many online bookings. Most guests preferred to use the website for research and then buy their tickets at the station or on the train. Recently, as buyer behaviour has changed, online and advance bookings have skyrocketed, meaning that the website and online ticket purchase process needed to evolve in order to meet customer expectations.
Sam White, sales and marketing manager at West Somerset Railway points out that the rise in online reservations also opened up the possibility of greater operational efficiency, including better capacity planning:
“Because we’re a heritage railway, a lot of our audience are traditional and operations reflect that. A lot of people do like to come to the railway and buy their ticket at the booking office, or travel on the train without buying it in advance.
“But we have seen a rise in people booking in advance for events and it actually is quite useful for us to gauge the loading for that day. For instance; how many passengers are likely to get on? Where are they starting from? Are we going to have enough seats? We can be quite reactive to the demand where we can.”
New website & booking process requirements
With online bookings and guest expectations rising, there was a lot at stake. The customer path had to be simplified to avoid losing bookings and improve the brand experience for both new and recurring clients:
“All the money that we make goes back into the railway, so it’s really important to achieve what we set out to achieve for the year,” says White. “Being able to be adaptable and having a company that will help in making things easier for the customer experience when they’re buying tickets is really, really important.
“Nowadays, the minute that somebody gets an issue, they don’t necessarily phone and ask anymore; they’d rather be able to do it online, so if they get a problem, they might just go away and not book again.”
West Somerset Railway needed a new website geared for online bookings from the start to improve passenger experience, reduce basket abandonment, and boost conversions.
As the existing website and ticketing providers, and industry specialists, Website Vision and DigiTickets were ideal choices for the new project:
“When it comes to something as big as your tickets, you don’t want to get it wrong, and you definitely don’t want to get it wrong for your customers. DigiTickets were really supportive of that, they gave us a lot of training and are also really responsive. I’ve always enjoyed a great relationship with them, I can phone them anytime and they’re always really knowledgeable and helpful.”
A streamlined process for guests and staff
The new website was created for an integrated booking journey. With seamless integration between the Website Vision CMS and DigiTickets booking system, the new booking flow presents real-time ticket options, pricing, and availability, both in the website’s unique timetable view and by ticket type on the events and experiences page.
Keeping the guest’s date and time and contact/payment information from previous purchases simplifies adding tickets to the basket and checking out.
The website also needed to be quick and simple for the West Somerset Railway team to update:
“To have the support and also the ability to easily change things ourselves was really vital for us because things change all the time, for many reasons,” says White. “For instance, we could get an opportunity to do an event, or something that we hadn’t initially planned to do in the year and you need to get that message out there quickly. Now, with the new CMS, I can have it on the website in seconds.”
The new CMS, booking flow, and Google Analytics 4 increase reporting, allowing West Somerset Railway to better measure, analyse, and optimise the user experience and booking process.
Launched in October, West Somerset Railway’s Christmas events bookings were the appropriate test case to evaluate the new advancements and collaborate to make any necessary adjustments before opening for the peak season in March 2024.
A more positive experience
White and the team are now confident about the potential the new website brings for the 2024 season and beyond:
“Since we’ve integrated the booking experience, that link between DigiTickets on the website is so tight, you can’t just slip through and end up on a page that you’re not sure of. It’s further streamlined the customer journey from that decision to buy a ticket, to getting right through to where they need to go. We already get fewer questions as a result. Feedback from the staff on the new journey has been really positive.
Continuous upgrades have been a major benefit for West Somerset Railway in their extended collaboration with DigiTickets and Website Vision. Working with an industry specialist supplier allows attractions like WSR to benefit from DigiTicket’s best practices knowledge, gained from serving thousands of UK visitor attraction sites each year.
“Historically, DigiTickets have been very good at making small improvements that actually have a big impact,” adds White. “These are rolled out stage by stage, so you’re always getting a better version thanks to these incremental changes. We know there’re always developments going on that we will benefit from – and often it’s something you haven’t pointed out or even thought of.”
White explains that West Somerset Railway will use its improved reporting capabilities to measure and optimise the journey with Website Vision and DigiTickets to maximise conversions this season:
“We’re doing a lot more to try and streamline the journey and reporting further so that we can see where the issues are and where we need to focus. A lot we’ll be able to do ourselves, but we know we can also lean on our Relationship Manager to advise on how & where we can make improvements if we aren’t sure.”
When asked if she would recommend DigiTickets and Website Vision, White adds:
“Yes, absolutely! Not only are they extremely supportive and responsive, but they’re very knowledgeable about what they do. Their team knows the ins and outs of both their ticketing system and the website and what they’re capable of. When I can’t think my way through a situation, I can guarantee I can phone, and someone will know exactly what I need and how to help me.”
Last month, DigiTickets shared details of a seamless, cross-channel booking experience that it has developed for The Royal Liver Building 360 Tour.
