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West Somerset Railway improves their online booking experience through a new integrated website journey.

Railway Attractions
West Somerset Railway Integrated website experience
West Somerset Railway

The Brief

Historically, due to a complex ticket offering and older guest demographic, West Somerset Railway did not see many online bookings, with the majority of guests preferring to use the website for research, and then purchase their tickets at the station or on the train during their visit. 

However in recent years, as buyer behaviour has changed, the number of online and advance bookings has dramatically increased, requiring the website and online ticket booking process to evolve in line with guest expectations. 

As Sam White, Sales and Marketing Manager at West Somerset Railway explains, the growth of online bookings also created an opportunity for increased operational efficiencies such as improved 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.”
 

The Challenge

With the percentage of revenue from online bookings growing, coupled with the need to navigate ever more demanding guest expectations, there was a lot at stake. It was essential to make the customer journey as easy as possible to mitigate any risk of losing bookings and to elevate the brand experience for new and returning customers alike.

“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,” Sam explains. “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 fresh and new website experience that was optimised for online bookings from the outset, creating a more streamlined journey to enhance the guest experience, mitigate basket abandonment and maximise conversions. 

Building an integrated website journey with DigiTickets & Website Vision

The Solution

As their existing website and ticketing providers and as industry specialists, Website Vision and DigiTickets were the clear choice for the new project, thanks to a great working relationship, coupled with the industry expertise and best practice knowledge we could offer: 

“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, " comments Sam. “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 & helpful.” 

An integrated booking journey:

The new website was designed from the ground up with an integrated booking journey in mind. Featuring a seamless integration between the Website Vision CMS and DigiTickets booking system, the new booking flow displays real-time ticket options, pricing and availability in both the website’s unique timetable view and by ticket type via the events and experiences page. 

The process of adding tickets to the basket and checking out is also now much more streamlined, removing steps in the process by retaining the date & time the guest selected, as well as their contact/payment information if they’ve entered it previously. 

Speed and ease of use:

In addition to the guest experience, the website also needed to be quick and simple for the West Somerset Railway team to update. Commenting on the new website CMS and booking system integration, Sam said: 

“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. 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.”

Enhanced reporting capability:

Through the new and improved CMS, booking flow and the addition of Google Analytics 4, the new website journey also boasts superior reporting capabilities, enabling West Somerset Railway to more easily measure, analyse and optimise the new user journey and booking process. 

Launched in October, West Somerset Railway’s Christmas events bookings were the perfect test case to measure how the new developments performed and work collaboratively to deliver any improvements needed before opening for the peak season in March 2024. 

West Somerset Railway
West Somerset Railway

Benefits/Results

A more positive experience for guests and staff:

Commenting on the improvements in the booking journey since launch, Sam and the team are feeling confident and excited about the potential the new website brings for their 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. When we start running on 23rd March, we’ll be able to see the real benefits.” Sam adds.

Continuous improvement & industry best practice:

One of the biggest benefits for West Somerset Railway throughout their long-standing relationship with DigiTickets and Website Vision has been the ability to benefit from continuous improvements. By working with an industry specialist supplier, attractions like WSR can enjoy the best practice learnings we gain from closely supporting thousands of visitor attraction sites across the UK every year. The Website Vision and DigiTickets product roadmaps are constantly evolving and we pride ourselves on rolling these improvements out to all our customers to ensure they always get the best product & service.  

“Historically, DigiTickets have been very good at making small improvements that actually have a big impact,” explains Sam. “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.”

What’s next?

During the new season, West Somerset Railway plan to leverage their enhanced reporting capabilities to measure and optimise the journey further, working with Website Vision and DigiTickets to make incremental improvements based on user behaviour to maximise conversions, as Sam elaborates: 

“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.” 

Commenting on the partnership and whether she would recommend DigiTickets and Website Vision, Sam said:

“Yes, absolutely! Not only are they extremely supportive and responsive, 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 & how to help me.”

If you’re looking for ways to optimise your digital guest experience and optimise your booking process through an integrated website journey, our experts at Website Vision and DigiTickets would love to help. Read our quick guide to creating an integrated website journey, or get in touch to kickstart your new project today. 

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