Case Study

Docklands Light Railway is a Light Railway system serving the East London area as part of the vital public transportation services provided by Transport for London.

DLR engaged Appius in 2001 as their strategic web provider, and we have delivered the entire DLR web communications strategy until the present day through a consultative relationship based on results.

Appius originally delivered a self contained website for DLR including a powerful mix of sales and service features, based on thorough User Experience processes including analysis of site statistics and transportation industry best practise. Our support has continued to re-define DLR's web presence in line with Transport for London guidelines demanding the highest levels of Accessibility and content management.

Website functionality aimed at commuters included real time train departures information, a commuter hub page, email disruption alerts, detailed train times information and e-commerce for tickets.

Daily off peak travel is promoted with destination information including lunchtime and evening venues with integrated email campaigns and an innovative content management solution empowering marketing partners such as Tour East London to add and maintain venues information.

DLR's tourist marketing objectives are achieved with Pay-Per-Click advertising based around destination searches such as the Tower of London, raising awareness of the DLR as a mode of travel and providing links to pages on how to get to the destinations. The DLR Amazing Days Planner lets families plan a day out on the DLR using this interactive itinerary building tool, incorporating calculated travel and visit times in a personalised and printable form.

Appius' website Development work has been based on an extensive programme of long term 'Horizon Study' work to define DLR's 3-5 year web communications strategy, supplemented by ongoing Usability Testing and Usage Analytics campaigns to gain user input to improvements and future ideas.

"DLR needed a complete web communications provider with a highly consultative and results driven approach and Appius have consistently delivered online return-on-investment against our objectives across the last 6 years. We provide an essential public service and the standards of Appius service have been exceptional throughout, most notably in our times of greatest need during the London bombings and as part of our obligation to deliver new versions of our web presence in line with Transport for London projects".

Sarah Allen, Marketing and PR Manager

Objectives

• Public service website delivered for travellers segmented into commuters, tourists and off-peak

• A balance between marketing and service requirements

• Accessibility considerations were key to success, with text only and mobile handset versions of site delivered

• Extensive use of web for cost-effective marketing campaign delivery

• Real time departure boards information

Results

• Increase in visitor levels from 15,000 to 88,000 per month

• Commuter features receive 50% more visits per month

• Off-peak features receive 10,000 visits per month

• Successful generation of extensive customer mailing lists for news and disruptions alerts

• Usability testing achieved 40% uplift in usage through navigational changes

• Measurable reduction in customer service enquiries

• Usage analytics insights have re-focused content management effort to achieve dramatic conversion improvements for key online tasks