Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at bus companies to ensure that you reach your destination safely and on time? At leading public transport operator Go-Ahead Singapore, technology is central to enabling the team of over 1,000 to deliver superior commuting experiences and to create a world where every journey is taken care of for everyone, every time.
Putting the customer at the heart of its business means that the need to transform digitally becomes a catalyst for Go-Ahead Singapore to streamline its entire bus operations. From simplifying the processes used to monitor and evaluate its bus captains’ performance, improving its cash collection processes and rolling out the right bus services based on the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) specifications, every aspect of the commuters’ journey can be transformed with technology to positively impact the overall commuting experience.
“Go-Ahead Singapore takes pride in delivering a seamless commuting experience so that commuters will enjoy their journey with us every single time. By adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 as the first step in our digital transformation journey, we are now able to have commuter feedback at our fingertips, understand the challenges that they face and implement necessary changes to deliver seamless journeys and exceptional customer service,” said Andrew Edwards, Managing Director at Go-Ahead Singapore.
Streamlining bus operations for greater operational efficiency with Microsoft Dynamics 365
Prior to the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, Go-Ahead Singapore stored its data across various systems. However, as the company continued to expand to meet the growing demand for its services, there was a need for a new system that can work in synergy with the current systems, including the Common Fleet Management System (CFMS) and the Duty Allocation System (DAS), to improve its operational efficiency.
In order to move forward, Go-Ahead Singapore partnered with MNG Solutions to leverage Dynamics 365 – a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) system to help connect data collected on commuters, services, employees, and operations. By breaking down data silos, this helped to address Go-Ahead Singapore’s challenges.
“Upon acquiring the operational requirements from Go-Ahead Singapore’s key users, and combining that with our understanding of the management’s plans to transform its IT infrastructure, we concluded that Dynamics 365 is the perfect solution that can address each party’s needs and concerns from the operation floor to the higher management levels,” said Huang Fei, General Manager, MNG Solutions.
Since deploying Dynamics 365, Go-Ahead Singapore’s management team could easily gather information on bus captains’ performances and analyse it with ease, enabling them to identify areas of improvement that they can work on in future training sessions to plug performance gaps, and equip their bus captains with the necessary skills to excel in their roles in the future.
The system has also helped to improve the accuracy of the cash collection process for Go-Ahead Singapore. Today, the finance team can better keep track of the cash boxes on board their bus fleet, which are marked individually and linked specifically to each bus, to reduce the possibility of accounting mismatch and financial loss for the company as it continues to grow on the road ahead.
As for their customer service teams, the use of Dynamics 365 has helped to streamline the workflow and improve operational efficiency. “Microsoft Dynamics 365 is user-friendly and has a great overall experience. Three elements which I particularly appreciate are the ease of accessing commuter feedback, improved efficiency and a clean interface that does not overload a user with information,” said Tay Yu Ying, Customer Service Officer, Go-Ahead Singapore.
Empowering employees with the ability to action on commuter feedback
As a public transport operator that enables thousands of journeys every single day, customer feedback and satisfaction is extremely critical for Go-Ahead Singapore’s long-term future in the city-state. In the past, Go Ahead collected commuters’ feedback via a multitude of channels – email, telephone and walk-in conversations at passenger service offices, now they have decided to streamline the process and implement an online feedback form to save time and resources.
As a convenient and easily accessible platform, the online form became an extremely popular feedback channel among commuters, driving a 30 percent increase in commuter feedback since implementation. It also provided Go-Ahead Singapore with a better view of the actual experience that the commuters encountered on the ground, and gave them deeper insights into the specific areas of improvement required in the commuters’ journey.
Go-Ahead Singapore’s Customer Service Officers (CSOs) were also able to save a significant amount of time – an average of 30 hours per employee each month – from the manual processing of the commuter feedback data. The time saved is eventually redeployed to more meaningful tasks, such as the understanding of commuter feedback to enhance service delivery and raise their satisfaction levels.
“Commuter feedback is very important for us to understand our performance in service delivery, as well as how we can better improve the commuter experience. For instance, a commuter feedback on crowded buses on selected routes during peak hours, particularly for buses plying routes to schools and industrial estates, has enabled Go-Ahead Singapore to understand commuters’ concerns better and promptly address it by discussing solutions with the LTA to enable more seamless journeys for all,” said Edwards.
“Looking ahead, we are planning to launch new on-demand employee bus services that will transform the way our colleagues commute to work. Additionally, we envision a paperless future for the company as we push ahead to digitalise more of our processes, as part of our ongoing transformation into a fully digital company,” added Edwards.
Discover how Microsoft Dynamics 365 unleash your organisation’s potential by breaking down data silos to connect customers, products, people, and operations at https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-sg/