Ferry operator bucks traditional solutions for innovative offerings

Ferry operator bucks traditional solutions for innovative offerings

Ferry operator adapts to consumer demand by offering experiences rather than remaining a traditional transport provider.

Using the web-based Expian admin interface, users with the right permissions are able to manage all the ticketing requirements of a Ferry Operator across all of the markets they operate within and sales channels. Multiple products can be easily set-up including single trip dated tickets, off peak tickets, return tickets, open return tickets, same day return tickets, weekend return, and prepaid passes (i.e.: 10 trips a month). As vessels can carry both vehicles and passengers, the inventory management solution is advanced to effectively manage capacity for different capacity areas within the vessel.

Using Expian, operators are able to sell journeys where one or more leg of the journey is operated by a third party partner. Customers are able to select their departures dates and times for all legs of their journey with live availability to receive tickets that work across all the ports and businesses involved in a seamless way. Moreover, the solution has been built for driving upselling across all sales channels to prompt customers for example  to upgrade from a single to open return, from an off peak to peak ticket or from a car under 6 meters ticket to a car+trailer ticket.

Expian is easily adapted to different languages spoken within a country. All thanks to the simple yet powerful multilingual and multi-currency functionalities.

The web-based Reservations portal allows contact centre staff with the right permissions to look up and manage bookings. Any refunds or extra payments required are handled directly in the platform. For security reasons, the pay by email functionality is used for taking payment. Customers receive a payment link by email with an expiration time. The customer needs to pay before time expires otherwise reserved inventory gets released back in the system.  
The speed of onboarding vehicles and passengers is typically of paramount importance. When it comes to vehicles, self-service ticketing machines are  equipped with cameras and sensors capable of reading car plates, understanding the car classification, length of the queue and more. Those data points are fed into the Expian system that is then capable of delivering a tailored booking user experience aimed at speeding up the selling of tickets or check in whilst surfacing upsells that can be easily selected and paid for. Those upsells are divided into mandatory upgrades like someone has purchased a vehicle ticket but they turned up with a car+trailer, or turned up on the wrong date or time, and optional upgrades (when port is not too busy) that include upgrade a single to open return ticket. Bookings or changes on bookings are communicated instantly to other parts of the organisation's digital infrastructure including finance, reporting and business intelligence systems.

These examples of evolution are essential in order to innovate the entire customer experience.

Features used
  • Capacity Management
  • Route Builders
  • Customer Booking Portal
  • Trade B2B booking portal
  • Customer booking portal
  • Group Bookings
  • Internationalisation
  • Hardware and business critical solution API integrations
  • Reports & Yield Management
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