Czech Railways (CD) communicates with 600,000 customers using Adastra Campaign Management

Czech Railways, as the largest Czech rail carrier with a history of more than 175 years of service, conveyed 182 million travelers last year. In the year 2018, 204,824 trains provided long-distance passenger transport, and 2,370,610 delivered a regional service, together totaling 2,575,434. Thus, over 7,000 connections a day served most of the country’s bases and linked the Czech Republic with all its neighboring states, Hungary, and Switzerland.

For Czech Railways to be able to maintain its leading position in railway transport, the organization continuously improves its standard of service, which is determined not only by competitors but above all by passengers’ expectations. As a result, Czech Railways has decided to step away from the blanket distribution of untargeted campaigns to a large number of customers, and has chosen instead to take a targeted approach using customer segmentation. All registered passengers are addressed using offers aimed at each specific customer so as to ensure as far as possible their relevance and value. The organization looked for a solution with which they could easily and effectively communicate both general campaigns (to all registered passengers) and new personalized offers (to passengers registered for the loyalty program). Czech Railways requested a comprehensive solution that would

• segment customers according to various criteria, especially people’s interest in the target region/station
• make it easy to launch and manage offers and campaigns
• allow the organization to clearly evaluate individual campaigns
• simultaneously comply with GDPR

CD found all their needs met in the Adastra Campaign Management (ACM) tool, which is utilized to full satisfaction by many large companies in the Czech Republic. Using ACM, Czech Railways primarily implements two types of campaign:

1. transport news – informing passengers about, for example, current fare prices and discounts, seating, CD parking, a new menu in the dining car, etc.
2. interesting events at home and abroad – providing tips for various sporting, cultural and other social events and offering transport to the venue together with a reduced entrance fee. In the winter, offers that combine transport to prestigious ski areas with discounted ski passes have been very popular among CD customers.

Czech Railways did blanket promotions of how customers could benefit from the In Karta and the loyalty program. Targeted campaigns already included, for example, promoting the western express service connecting Prague with the west of the Czech Republic and travelling between Prague and Brno.

Using campaigns, CD can increase its standards of service and the comfort of its travelers, who certainly appreciate the attractive seasonal offers combined with interesting events that are worth visiting.

Adastra Campaign Management is used mainly by two CD departments – sales and marketing. Now, on average, these departments use the tool to:

• reach out to In Karta card holders – i.e. approximately 600,000 customers – twice a month through both blanket and targeted campaigns based on, for example, their most frequent journeys;
• target 80,000-150,000 CD Bod loyalty program members with specific offers or information about new partners and program benefits.

Using ACM, Czech Railways can proactively and deliberately communicate with its customers, as well as clearly and quickly evaluate how individual offers are segmented and how successful the campaigns are. They know, among other things, how much sales and click-through rates have increased as a result of ongoing campaigns; they can monitor each offer and promoted product, as well as who bought either that or something else. The departments have gained full control over running campaigns, and their employees can independently administer, manage, and execute what they send, when and to whom.

During the implementation of Campaign Management at Czech Railways, Adastra worked closely with CD-IS (Czech Realways – Information systems); deploying the solution to operation went quickly and smoothly. The cooperation on the project was pleasant and very professional for everyone involved.