BLOG - “We are being innovative in our business design to ensure we deliver a great customer experience.”

As WCPD continues to develop future High Speed Services, Head of Business Design, Stacey Pugh, explains the importance of having the right operating model in place to deliver a great customer experience.

In West Coast Partnership Development’s (WCPD) role to design the High Speed Services of the future, my role is to look at the business model required to deliver the best possible outcome for the customer. This isn’t about changing what is already in place, this is about asking ourselves as an industry what we truly need to do to deliver a great customer experience, together with operational reliability. This will shape the future model for our business and the future infrastructure manager as we prepare to operate new High Speed Services.

In these situations, other businesses normally start by developing a Target Operating Model (TOM), which specifies the capabilities, functions, and processes necessary to operate the business. For WCPD, we need the same outputs however we are part of a complex system. Therefore, we are working with HS2 and Network Rail to collaboratively build a Unified Target Operating Model, or UTOM.

We are being innovative in our business design to ensure we deliver a great customer experience. The design of the UTOM enables the seamless development, operation and sustainable growth of High Speed Services, alongside our partners in the industry. It supports alignment across the organisations involved whilst clearly defining the requirements for each organisation. The process also allows us to understand how ways of working can be integrated across the industry to ensure, that we collectively, work effectively.

We are working with our partners to create a UTOM that has the customer experience at its heart

The HS2 Target Operating Model was used as the starting point, and we are working with our partners to create a UTOM that has the customer experience at its heart.  

It gives us the chance to look at the now and the future. We will understand what Avanti West Coast – who run intercity services on the West Coast Main Line - are doing today and reviewing what works for well for them. As we develop the operating model and business processes, we will identify what we can build into the high-speed operation.

The high-speed programme presents us with a unique opportunity to design a rail service that focuses on the customer. Through innovation and new ways of thinking, like the UTOM, we will deliver transformative change for our people, and for the regions we’ll serve.