Customer Journey Mapping: Metlink Rail Services

An academic Service Design project leveraging User Research Insights to document an existing customer journey and offer suggested improvements.

Introduction

For this individual academic service design project, I took a closer look at Metlink rail services to discover what is going well and what some potential areas for improvement might be, based on user research. There is not a specific problem that I set out to solve, but sought to uncover problems or pain points through research.

I chose this topic for my first service design project because it is widely available to the general public, so there are plenty of users, and I found it particularly interesting that there is limited to no market competition in the wellington area for this type of service.

Because of this, I wondered if limited market competition would influence how users viewed the service. Were they willing to put up with more pain points because there are no other options available?

Objectives

Learn who a typical Metlink user is, and understand how they use Metlink rail services
Understand the user’s pain points, needs, & expectations related to Metlink rail services
Understand what is going well so that we can build on those experiences
Identify areas of opportunity where we can improve the customer experience

Process

Select Product & Identify User
Design Interview Questions
Conduct User Interview
Empathy Mapping
Customer Journey Mapping
Outline Suggested Improvements

The User

Ashley (Female, age 28, daily train commuter to and from work)

“I want a predictable and reliable commute.”

Why did I select this user?

Represents a typical daily train commuter who travels from Paraparaumu station to Wellington station on weekdays
She is relatively new to using these services, so she has some “new user” insights that are fresh in her mind and could point out things others have become used to over time.

User Interview

Designing the Interview

For this interview, I wanted to focus on what the user says, thinks, does, & feels in relation to both their physical rail service experience and their digital experience while interacting with the mobile website to plan their journey.

Physical Experience

Researching ticket options
Purchasing tickets
Planning trips
Boarding
Transit
Arrival

Digital Experience

Metlink mobile website
Using mobile web/app for trip planning, train schedule lookup, announcements, etc.

Conducting the Interview

Sample questions:

Describe your typical experience using Metlink Rail. What steps do you take? What do you think/feel/say do during each step?
What aspect(s) do you like the most about your overall Metlink Rail experience?
Are there any aspect(s) about your overall Metlink Rail experience would you like to see improved or changed?
Do you use the Metlink Mobile Website? What is something the Metlink mobile website does particularly well? Why is that important to you?
Is there anything you would change about the Metlink mobile website to make it more useful for you?
Does anything frustrate you during your commute? What do you like about your commute?

Empathy Mapping

Each quadrant represents something that the user says, thinks, does, or feels.

Some cards are assumptions, while other cards were insights discovered during the user interview.

Empathy mapping is valuable because it helps us get into the frame of mind of our user and start to see a bigger picture of what is important to them so that we can craft a better experience.

Customer Journey Map

Each column represents a stage in the user's journey. Within each column I’ve captured what the user:

Does
Feels
Says
Their highs and lows
Suggestions for improvement

This can provide value because we can easily see the highs and lows of the user's journey and can then prioritise and focus on making improvements in lowest areas.

Suggested Improvements

Trip Search algorithm Metlink mobile web:

Notice when searching for a city (Wellington in this example) the railway station does not show up on the list. This is frustrating for users because they have to type more to see the railway station option.
The algorithm is also inconsistent. See examples of different phrases and what shows up, below.
Consider consistently prioritising train stations in the list.

Modify trip - Metlink mobile web:

Notice after searching for a trip time/location, it’s not
intuitive on how to modify your trip. This is frustrating for users because they have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the option.
Consider moving the edit trip button up towards the top of the page.

Other service improvement suggestions:

Make web and mobile announcements for delays, etc. more informative. They often are ambiguous. This is frustrating for users because they may walk all the way to the train station only to discover their train is cancelled or delayed
Consider reviewing ticket prices or options. Are they affordable based on the average salary of the Wellington region?
Consider creating an ability to purchase digital tickets on web and mobile. This would be environmentally friendly & a user convenience.
Enforce standards on where the trains stop on the platform. By creating a predictable stopping point on the platform, passengers will know where the doors will be lined up and this would reduce some of the chaos in the boarding experience where everyone rushes to a door once the train stops.
Invest in more maintenance programs or upgrade trains to prevent frequent in transit breakdowns.

Key Learnings

What I would do differently:

If time wasn't a constraint like it was during this academic project, one user would not be enough to draw conclusions from and make changes based off of. A much wider audience would be needed to validate research findings. I'd also re-design the empathy map and customer journey map to be more visually appealing; this was my first UX Design academic project.

In person interviews:

I learned interviews are a very valuable way to gather detailed customer feedback.
I gained a better understanding of what makes a “good” interview question
The ability to conduct follow up questions, diving deeper based on the user's response, is far superior to user surveys.
There’s no substitute for in person interaction when gathering feedback and insights

Customer Journey Mapping:

I learned how to look at a customer experience “end to end” to be able to spot areas of opportunity and what is already going well, which can help improve the overall service.

Empathy Mapping:

I learned the value and importance of understanding a customer’s needs, frustrations, & expectations to improve the overall experience. This really helps you see things from their perspective so you are in the right frame of mind to design for their needs.

Actionable Areas of Opportunity:

The most valuable lesson I think I learned here is how much insight you can get into areas you can improve by actually talking to users. Rather than speculating or designing in a vacuum, the business value of talking to real users and getting real data to make better design decisions is clear.