Creating Customer Confidence

Creating Customer Confidence is our improvement programme designed to make rail travel simpler, more reliable and more comfortable for our customers.

The programme brings together multiple initiatives across our network to improve the things our customers tell us matter most to them, from receiving accurate travel information and improving accessibility, to providing welcoming stations and delivering excellent customer service.

Our ambition is to increase customer satisfaction to 90% by focusing on the areas that have the biggest impact on the customer experience.

The customer journey at the heart of our programme

Creating Customer Confidence is built around the entire customer journey, from planning and buying a ticket, through to travelling on the train and completing the journey.

By understanding the challenges customers face at every stage, we can focus on the improvements that will have the greatest impact on confidence and satisfaction.

Our vision

Our goal is simple:

• A journey that's easy from start to finish.
• Clean, safe and welcoming trains and stations.
• Reliable services customers can trust.
• Helpful support when it's needed.
• Accessible travel for everyone.

By delivering improvements across these areas, we're creating a railway that customers choose with confidence, again and again.

What we're working on

We've identified seven key areas where we can make the biggest difference to customers.

1)    Reliability

We know our customers want a railway they can depend on. That's why we're working to improve the information you receive before and during your journey, to help you stay informed and make confident travel decisions.

We are:

• Introducing email journey alerts to give customers direct updates about their frequent journeys.
• Improving our service updates page to make travel information clearer and easier to access.
• Working to improve how customers are informed when we make changes to trains during times of disruption and to allow engineering improvement works.

2)    Information

Clear, accurate information helps customers travel with confidence.

We're improving the information available across our trains, stations and digital channels so you can find out what you need quickly and easily.

This includes:

• Enhanced customer information screens in stations.
• Improvements to onboard announcements and information systems.
• Local plans to improve information at stations across the network.

3)    Accessibility

We want everyone to feel confident using Northern's services.

Our accessibility projects are focused on making journeys easier to plan and complete, while ensuring you can access support when you need it.

We are:

• Expanding our mobility scooter permit scheme.
• Introducing GoodMaps technology at more stations.
• Enhancing Passenger Assist through new tools and notifications.
• Improving Passenger Assist meeting points in stations across our network.

4)    Customer Service

Positive interactions can make a significant difference to a customer's journey.

We're helping colleagues deliver consistent, high-quality service and making it easier for customers to get support when they need it.

We are doing this by:

• Simplifying processes for customer-facing colleagues.
• Improving lost property services.
• Using customer feedback to identify opportunities to improve the experience we provide.

5)    Standards

Customers expect trains and stations to be clean, safe, welcoming and easy to navigate. We are:

• Supporting improvements to customer environments.
• Ensuring customer standards are considered as new trains and facilities are introduced.

6)    Retention

Great experiences encourage customers to choose rail again. We're exploring new ways to reward loyalty, better understand your feedback and use insights to improve future journeys.

7)    Ticketing

Buying and using tickets should be simple and straightforward.

We're working with partners across the rail industry to make journeys easier by:

• Improving the integration of tickets across different modes of transport.
• Exploring discount opportunities for small groups.
• Supporting modern retailing and ticketing improvements.

We will continue to update this page as the programme progresses, and we introduce more initiatives for our customers. 

Our customer satisfaction scores, which are updated every month, are published on our performance page to show our progress towards our target of 90%. Our annual customer report is also published on the page, and details our performance over the previous year.