Project: Irish Rail by Matrix Internet

The Brief

Ireland’s national rail network needed an analytics partner for its digital platform to help derive useful insights from its 40 million journeys a year, and Matrix was chosen to be that partner. From optimised User Experience (UX) on their transactional emails to transforming Irish Rail’s Google My Business locations, we have given customers a smoother ride from screen to station.

Every second counts, whether you’re a daily commuter or an occasional passenger, so a clear, concise and quick UX was a key requirement for this project. We streamlined the booking process by optimising on-screen content and information retrieval, and our automated email response system for bookings and modifications improves customer confidence. Passengers now have more relevant information about their journey instantly by email — drastically reducing the number of calls and emails to Irish Rail’s customer care team.

Passengers are generally on the go, so we also configured Irish Rail’s Google My Business platform to show all 145 stations with accurate location, opening hours and any other relevant information for passengers in all corners of Ireland.

While Irish Rail has benefited from a higher number of passengers and enhanced brand perception, we have optimised the website to facilitate powerful analytics, as it’s now possible to track users’ behaviour at critical steps in the booking process.

Crucially, we’ve built a solid relationship with one of Ireland’s most important national bodies. Through our rigorous consultation work, Irish Rail can trust us to immediately address any concerns they have about their digital presence, and we’ll keep them on track.

See the project

Key Features

01
Vastly improved User Experience (UX) on booking emails so customers can easily plan and review their journeys;
02
Automated emails to confirm bookings, modifications and registration;
03
Enhanced Google My Business page — uniformed, relevant information for all 145 stations;
04
Optimised, accessible website with clear funnels and analytics for Irish Rail.

Goals

To transform the digital impact of Ireland’s rail network.

Improve Irish Rail’s booking and registration process;
Overhaul the company’s email platform;
Enhance brand identity;
Gain insight into customer behaviour.

Process

Enhance the experience of booking and retrieving information, while providing Irish Rail staff with key statistics and performance indicators.

Optimising on-page content and booking system after deep UX analysis;
Revised email templates and code rewriting to improve booking confirmation, modification and registration;
Optimising information displayed on the Google search results page;
Set up clear funnels for powerful analysis of customer behaviour during the booking process.

Results

Increased number of passengers and confidence in Ireland’s rail service.

Increased number of customers — record number of online bookings on the network in 2018
Increase in successful conversions of online bookings on irishrail.ie;
Increase in reliability — decrease in callers to customer care and decrease in abandoned carts.
Improvement in transactional email open rate percentage.