Personalized customer communication that pays off

Partner Case Study: SBB, Unic and Inxmail

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) want to offer their passengers a particularly close and convenient email communication. This includes digital tickets with a QR code that can be used offline without having to be printed out in advance. Recipients should be kept up to date individually at all times – and in four different languages at the same time. Together with the Swiss digital agency Unic and Inxmail, an ideal solution was found.

[Translate to English:] Frau mit Koffer und Smartphone auf einem Bahnhof in der Schweiz, ein Zug im Hintergrund.

[Translate to English:] Zwei Reisende warten auf einem Bahnsteig, während ein Zug im Hintergrund vorbeifährt. Der Mann hält ein Smartphone, die Frau hat einen Rollkoffer.

[Translate to English:] Ein Zugbegleiter in uniformierter Kleidung überprüft das Ticket einer lächelnden Reisenden, die ihm ihr Smartphone zeigt. Beide befinden sich in einem modernen Zugabteil.

Challenge

Away with the digital hurdles

For SBB, email communication is a central pillar of the customer journey and thus contributes to customer loyalty. What is special about this is that all email activities are covered in four different languages. In addition, the way of communicating has changed in many areas over the last few years. SBB has increasingly developed from a classic newsletter towards individual email marketing with highly personalized content that offers direct added value. This circumstance makes digital marketing significantly more complex.

There are also other challenges: digital hurdles should be reduced and made accessible. Not only communication with travelers, but also with our own employees should be orchestrated across the entire customer journey. This also includes purchasing tickets. SBB wants to offer buyers a particularly practical service here: after purchasing a ticket online on the website or in the mobile app, customers should receive an email with their ticket. This digital ticket should be accessible offline and have the highly personalized QR code integrated directly into the email. This requires a solution in which tickets can be accessed at any time after receipt without an internet connection. This eliminates the need for cumbersome printing for many customers.

What does this mean for SBB in concrete terms? All data flows in their system landscape had to be analyzed and prepared for the use case. To implement this exciting project, SBB teamed up with the Swiss digital agency Unic. Together, they were able to integrate the appropriate email marketing tool to create a reliable, sustainable and efficient solution.

[Translate to English:] Stilisiertes Symbol eines Fingerabdrucks in einem gelben Kreis, umgeben von einem Rahmen, der einen Scan-Prozess darstellt.

Personalized content

Individual content for each person: This is how communication at eye level works. Most of the content in an email can be easily sent automatically.

[Translate to English:] Illustration von zwei Händen, die ein Smartphone halten, während ein Symbol für Übersetzungen von Buchstaben A und einem japanischen Schriftzeichen angezeigt wird, umgeben von Pfeilen, die den Übersetzungsprozess symbolisieren.

Different languages

The barriers should be kept as low as possible – this also includes the selection of the language. At the push of a button, everyone gets the desired language.

Convenient online ticket purchase

Here too, it is important to avoid any hurdles. Tickets should be available to buy anytime, anywhere, and delivered digitally to the user's inbox.

“Multilingual, professional email marketing with automated campaigns, reliable ticket emails with QR code and efficient, internal newsletter management – with Unic and Inxmail, we have brilliantly overcome these and many other challenges.”

Jochen Burkhard

Product Manager, SBB AG

[Translate to English:] Zwei Reisende auf einem Bahnsteig, eine Person im Rollstuhl und eine Person mit einem Blindenhund, während ein Zug der SBB am Gleis steht.

[Translate to English:] Eine Reiseberaterin der SBB steht an einem Fahrkartenautomaten und unterstützt einen Kunden beim Kauf von Tickets.

Solution

Accessibility in every respect

Together, SBB and Unic went into the implementation after extensive consultation. It quickly became clear that the email marketing solution from Inxmail was suitable for the implementation. Thanks to a strong API connection, Inxmail can be optimally integrated into the existing system landscape. This means that data flows are efficiently used and bundled, and no complex interfaces have to be built.

SBB has been working with Inxmail for many years to create and send internal newsletters. Several hundred editors work with the solution every day to ensure professional email marketing. This allows many synergies to be exploited across the company. A new addition is the automation of email campaigns.

SBB's expectations are being met: now that Unic, Inxmail and SBB have jointly optimally integrated the email channel into the ticket systems, SBB can carry out even more effective email marketing. Several hundred processes have been improved and automated thanks to the email solution. A customized email template ensures that SBB's corporate design guidelines are always adhered to. This strengthens the brand image by ensuring a consistent appearance.

All of this enables the SBB to offer its passengers a high level of convenience and close one-to-one communication. As expected, this has increased customer loyalty. The effective email marketing processes form a solid basis for successful collaboration. The optimally displayed and highly personalized mailings are delivered with above-average deliverability. In addition, the reliable 24/7 system availability in particular offers great added value for SBB. A complete success and a very successful collaboration for SBB, Unic and Inxmail.

[Translate to English:] Mehrere elektronische Geräte zeigen ein digitales SBB-Ticket mit QR-Code, darunter ein Smartphone, Tablet und Laptop.

The advantages at a glance

Personal point of contact for customer projects and support queries
Individual support for your email marketing projects
Certification program from experienced consultants
Attractive partner discounts
Comprehensive sales support and marketing materials

[Translate to English:] Schaubild verschiedener Züge der SBB, dargestellt von der Seite in einer Reihe mit unterschiedlichen Zugtypen.

“Our customers often start with simple newsletter marketing and develop over time into real email marketing professionals. Together with Inxmail, we can provide the appropriate solutions so that, in addition to the classic newsletter, trigger mails, lifecycle mails and automated campaigns with highly personalized content can be sent. The solutions are easy to use and at the same time offer an almost unlimited range of functions. This ensures that we, together with our customers, can not only design professional email marketing, but also actually implement it in our day-to-day work.”

David Keusch

Senior Consultant & Lead Link Campaign & Email Services, Unic AG

[Translate to English:] SBB Hauptsitz in Bern Wankdorf mit modernen, farbigen Gebäuden und einer großen Bahnhofsuhr im Vordergrund an einem sonnigen Tag.

About SBB

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), or Schweizerische Bundesbahnen AG for short, in French Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses CFF, in Italian Ferrovie federali svizzere FFS, brand presence SBB CFF FFS, is the state-owned railway company of Switzerland based in the federal city of Bern. Every day, they transport over 0.88 million passengers and 185,000 tons of goods to their destinations. A total of 33,900 employees are passionate about serving customers.

company.sbb.ch

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