Northern receives 8,000 Whatsapp messages in first year of use by customers

Northern, which runs services through Ilkeston Railway Station, has received 8,000 WhatsApp messages from customers in the first year since it joined the global messaging platform.

The train operator says the entirely AI-operated service has freed-up over 1,000 hours (1,277) of employee time.

Customers can message to ask for live train times, service updates and information about any associated disruption as well as onward ground transport connections such as local taxi companies.

It can also be used to direct people on how to request assistance, enquire about lost property, report a problem, submit a delay repay claim or make a complaint.

To use the Whatsapp service, customers should message: 07870 606060.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “We launched our Whatsapp service to simplify the process of getting live train information to customers ‘on the go’. It functions entirely on AI and is therefore available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“By answering thousands of basic questions for us in the blink of an eye, it frees-up time that our customer experience centre can instead dedicate to the more in-depth, complex enquiries we receive.

“We hope to develop the service this year so that users can ask any question you can find the answer to on our website via Whatsapp instead.”

During the design process for its Whatsapp service, Northern used extensive customer insight to inform developers what the top queries would be.

This included details of existing queries received by the train operator’s customer experience centre, station teams and on-board train crew.

The service was trialled with focus groups prior to go-live and continues to evolve to ensure it meets the needs of customers.

Northern officially launched the service in August 2023 and it was quickly nominated for a Transport Ticketing Global Award.