Redesigning the Wait at VIA
Role // Project Manager & Designer
Course // Customer Experience Design
Initiative // Industry Project Paper
Context
Recently, I finished this awesome CX design course that went into the depths of understanding the customer experience and how to deliver services to solve customer problems. For the timeline of the course, we were tasked with a final project that involved working with industry partners towards solving their current day problems. As for my group, we chose to tackle the issues revolving around the waiting experience in VIA Rail.
VIA Rail was established by the Canadian government back in 1977 and became the first national railroad. It’s become a staple for long distance travellers within Canada and is prominently integrated within major cities and townships all across the country.
The Problem
Currently, VIA Rail is working towards updating their fleet service for faster travel times and higher availability for its passenger. To improve their CX, the company must look towards improving all their touch points from passenger onboarding to in-fleet travel to service support. And one specific avenue that was highlighted for the premise of the course project was to focus in on the waiting experience. In a practical POV, waiting is an inevitable part of the travel experience that every passenger has to face within their points of travel
The Goal
Through understanding some of the root causes of issues surrounding the waiting experience and general user adaptive behaviours, the team and I concluded that there was a need to provide a scalable and efficient digital solution that could engage users across the board and abstract the negativity from a wait time, even if it's reduced. Given the nature of digital applications and its general accessibility, this solution would be one that provides prolonged value to multiple user segments VIA Rail has and intents to capture. We envisioned the application to allow users to experience inform
Research & Discovery
Reviews
Upon scavenging VIA Rail's Yelp Page and Google Reviews, it became apparent that the waiting experience and delays had left a sour taste for some passengers.
"Business class charges a lot more than economy but service is really subpar..."
"There must be a better way to get people in their right cars than staff repeatedly asking 'which car?' to literally every person, and again at the car door"
Expert Info
Based on news articles and an interview done with an Advisor of Innovation at VIA Rail, we synthesized some key points of info that helped to shed light into the state of the company and it's impression among users
- Average wait time for someone is 33 minutes
- Over 5M travellers in 2019 (nearly double since 2014)
- 1 in 3 trains are late
Three User Groups/Personas of Interest:
- Luxury Travellers
- Cost Conscious Travellers
- Practical Minded Travellers
Process
How Might We's...
1) Since waiting is inevitable, how might we engage customers to fill the void of empty space?
2) How might we transform the waiting experience to create value?
3) How might we make the wait more exciting than the trip?
4) How might we a waiting experience as innovative as the updated fleet service itself?
User Journey
To understand the user journey better and assess opportunities for improvement, the team went through small scale design sprints. These sprints helped to develop personas, allocate time for rapid brainstorming, and understanding customer pains, gains, and jobs.
Team User Journey White boarding Session
A Persona I Developed of the Conservative Spender User Group
Solution
After a timed design solution sprint, it was clear that there was a unique value proposition in providing a digital solution that is both accessible and scalable across different stations. The idea is to provide an application that can be used across the spectrum of touch points a user makes
Apart from showing basic utility informations (ticket purchasing, check-in, fleet boarding) , partnerships play a key role in the process. In partnering with different companies, the solution can provide options for passengers to utilize their time effectively through initiatives like meditation, physical therapy, localized information, advanced learning, and more. Once a user pays their ticket, they have access to a plethora of these options and an incentive under incorporated gamification strategies that could potentially reward players through in-app activity. Not only that, but passengers are encouraged to communicate among themselves and network. Doing so, increases engagement from riders and pitches into the long term overhaul of retention among riders.
Additionally, the application provides an opportunity to capture the complete user journey and assess user value through in-app reviews and ratings. With a digital solution and the abundance of business intelligence analytics tools available now, VIA Rail has the opportunity to host much of their customer support within the application and capture quality feedback through a vetted source.
Currently, VIA Rail has a dedicated application which poorly performs due to bugs and the inability of purchasing tickets. With gaps in the service journey, a new digital solution that is functionally adept and aesthetically standard would be advantageous.
Final Prototypes
The next step for the group was to develop a final prototype to showcase the basic functionality of the product. Due to the abrupt halt of the course from the current COVID pandemic, it was hard to rendezvous the team for allotted times due to the changes in time zone and other deliverables from courses.
In the user flow below, we decided to showcase the depth of the prototype in terms of functionality and specifically look at three core actions:
- Performing an in-class meditation activity
- Checking Wait Times and Destination
- Viewing Profile
With more time, the prototype would show more of the envisioned value propositions aforementioned.
With such a solution, the emphasis here lies on developing sound partnerships with distinctive value-providing parties that can help to provide unique, customized content to VIA Rail passengers. In making such an investment, this helps to increase the brand of VIA Rail as a higher tier travel service that alludes to all three user personas, especially those that seek relaxation in their service.
Once approved by necessary stakeholders, the idea would be to prioritize features for an MVP and lead out development to push within a beta rollout. The rollout can be performed in a variety of different VIA Rail train stations across a particular region and measured for NPS, usage rates, and user interviews. Once this is done, final product development can be pursued with iteration improvements if necessary. In parallel to the fleet release, this would provide an opportunity to market a much larger upscale update to the service offering and gather more user traction.
