Journeycall wins contract extensions with Transport for London

Listen to this article

Journeycall, which provides customer service support and smartcard services for the UK transport industry, has won three contract extensions with Transport for London (TfL).

Part of the ESP Group, Journeycall has been partnered with TfL, the local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, since 2006. These contract extensions will see Journeycall continue to manage the customer service handling for some of the major contact points for TfL: Oyster cards, Santander Cycle Hire and correspondence for people travelling in London.

In total, these three contracts experience an average of 4 million contact requests per year, including 3.5 million phone calls, which will be handled between two Journeycall centres in Arbroath, Scotland and Hull, England.

The contracts include all call and correspondence handling for Oyster cards; fulfilment and dispatch of new and replacement Oyster cards; call and correspondence handling for Santander Cycle Hire; fulfilment of cycle hire welcome packs and replacement keys; and customer support queues through written correspondence.

The award-winning Journeycall team uses world-class customer-service skills 365 days a year across a wide range of contact channels including telephone, email, live chat, Facebook messenger, and other social media channels. 

In April this year, the ESP Group opened new premises in Hull to service a new £3.8m Journeycall contract with Network Rail, as well as the Systex part of the business. These contract extensions will see TfL workstreams going live in Hull for the first time, providing new opportunities for the business in England and providing business continuity across the two sites.

Theresa Slevin, Group CEO, ESP Group said: “We’re thrilled to be continuing to work with TfL on these three contracts and are very proud to have partnered with them for over 16 years. TfL is one of our key clients, with over 100 members of our team employed specifically to work on the account. This will be the first time that we have people working on TfL across both of our sites in England and Scotland, which is opening exciting opportunities for the business across the UK. 

“We pride ourselves on our customer relationship management services, and this long-lasting partnership on such a high-profile contract is testament to this. We’re committed to ensuring that every contact we have with passengers and customers provides a positive experience, and our highly skilled teams have a proven ability to effectively and efficiently manage a full spectrum of inbound and outbound customer interactions. We look forward to continuing to help thousands of travellers move around London every day.” 

Fola Olafare, Customer Service Delivery Manager at TfL added “The customer is at the heart of everything we do, so we are delighted to continue working with Journeycall to provide the high-quality service our customers expect to receive from TfL.” 

Part of the ESP Group, Journeycall provides customer services and technology-led solutions focused on mass public transport systems such as rail and bus,and operates the largest dedicated transport contact centre in the UK. The business provides smart card technology and customer support for Network Rail, Translink, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains among others, ensuring smooth passage for millions of rail commuters.

Following the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020, Journeycall was immediately granted key worker status, to keep the country moving at a time of national crisis. As the quantity of calls reduced they strove to retain the quality of service. Over three days, ESP Journeycall’s IT team moved more than 200 people onto homeworking, providing the necessary software to keep the service operating smoothly, while setting up three additional emergency lines purely to support key workers as they travelled during this critical time.

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...