Virgin Trains plots Christmas push after website refresh
Virgin Trains has partnered with children’s charity The Book Trust to kick start its Christmas activity, a move that comes after the company overhauled its website bid to make booking easier.
The first wave of its Christmas marketing has seen it ask primary school children nationwide to design a Christmas Train that will appear on two trains across Virgin’s franchises on the east and west coasts.
The activity was inspired by Virgin Trains’ ‘Traindeer’ campaign which was based on a Christmas card by sisters, aged nine and 11.
“Traindeer was such a hit with our customers that we wanted to make this year’s Christmas Train even bigger,” said Patrick McCall, chairman of Virgin Trains. “Christmas is a special time for everyone at Virgin Trains as we transport people and presents across the country to family, friends and loved ones.”
Refreshed website
It comes as Virgin Trains overhauled its website to introduce a simpler user experience ahead of the Christmas booking rush.
Designed over the past 12 months by Lowe Profero, the design has embraced more photography while its journey planner tool and seat picker functionality has also been updated.
Steve Tennant, executive director, customer experience for Virgin Trains, said: “Our newly updated website has been designed based on what our customers want it to be – fast, easy, and above all, useful.
“Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us and we always do our best to react to their feedback. Our new website, created following a full year of development with our customers’ wants and needs in mind, will help people get where they want to go.”