Centro sales teams break through £9m barrier

Listen to this article

Centro’s sales teams have defied the difficult economic times to chalk up sales worth more than £9m.

A drive to encourage people to buy their monthly nNetwork and nTrain season tickets by Direct Debit which offers an attractive discount, or the Corporate Travel Scheme with companies such as Severn Trent Water, Wragge & Co solicitors of Birmingham, The Gambling Commission, and Birmingham City Council, has resulted in a projected annual turnover of £9.1m in 2011.

In just one eight week period last year Centro’s Direct Sales team processed 920 applications for the adult and child direct debit schemes.

This was part of a successful year that saw a total of 2,480 new people sign up to buy their tickets via direct debit and take advantage of the great savings available, bringing the total currently paying by direct debit to 7,120.

At the same time the Corporate Travel team notched up supplying more than 650 bespoke annual tickets to Severn Trent staff relocating to new premises in Coventry city centre.

This generated £750,000, with 70% of those signing up being new users to public transport.

Toby Rackliff, Head of Customer Services at Centro, said: “In what has been a very difficult economic climate the Direct Sales team have been very successful in raising awareness to the benefits of buying season tickets by Direct Debit or through an employer-based Corporate Travel scheme which are offered by some of the major employers in the West Midlands.

“With Severn Trent we worked with them closely in order to offer staff bespoke information, journey planning advice and an attractive option to the car, which would encourage the workforce to choose to use public transport.

“A key theme for us is delivering best-in-class service to each and every customer, no mean feat when you consider that in one eight week period alone the team dealt with more than 2,800 telephone calls and responded to in excess of 1,000 emails.”

Paying by direct debit for monthly nTrain and nNetwork tickets for bus, train and Midland Metro is easy and convenient and customers can make some real savings.

Buying a monthly nTrain ticket for Zones 1-4 through the Direct Debit scheme results in a saving of £17.30 a month, compared to the cost of the same ticket bought at the station.

Users can travel anywhere within their chosen zones, and share the savings with friends and family who can travel with them on the train off-peak. One adult pays just £1 and up to two children 50p each.

Centro chairman Councillor Angus Adams said: “I applaud the efforts of the sales teams and congratulate them on achieving this fantastic figure in these difficult times.

“The savings on offer with a Direct Debit monthly ticket means there has never been a better time to make the switch to public transport.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

ORR review leads to 50% reduction in maximum fees for ticket refunds

New rules will mean that from 2 April the maximum fee that train operators and ticket retailers can charge...

More like this...