From tracks to tweets, Deutsche Bahn elevates social customer care

As one of Europe’s largest railway operators, the customer service division receives up to a million inbound messages per year across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube. These messages cover a range of topics — from schedules to service disruptions. The railway operator needed a comprehensive technology solution to track, respond to, measure and report on social conversations with passengers. The solution needed to allow for robust reporting as well as governance and GDPR compliance.  

Sprinklr Service unifies all social channels onto one AI-powered platform, increasing customer service agents’ productivity and enabling to offer frictionless support. 

"Our main focus is customer relationship management," explains Head of Social Media Aylin Karci. "We are working and speaking with all customers who travel by train, whether they are business partners or regular customers who get in touch with us via our native channels."  

Managing everything in one place 
Comprised of 25 agents, the customer service team now uses Sprinklr’s Unified Agent Desktop to field nearly a million inbound messages annually. With a custom homepage containing all the components and widgets most used by customer support agents, the team can interact with customers and switch quickly between channels, easily managing all interactions on social, including comments, mentions, and direct messages. The best part? Multiple languages are supported. 

"I really like Sprinklr’s flexibility and that it integrates very well with native channels and social media accounts," says Karci. "Agents working with Sprinklr find its console very easy to understand. The reporting dashboards and interface are very intuitive."  

Saving time with automatic tagging 
Sprinklr’s automatic tagging feature allows the customer service team to save time by categorizing messages for action and reporting. The team ensures that every customer request is tagged with categories, such as train delays, train connections and events, so messages are easily found and handled. "When a customer mentions a delay on a train, the tagging works automatically and sees at what time, which train and which department should address that issue," explains Karci. The automatically tagged fields appear in the Case Details tab, a highlight panel that provides a quick update on important case information, including priority and other workflow properties. With this view, customer support agents and managers can access the information related to a case, such as the user's account and contact information, in just a couple of clicks. 

Sprinklr’s routing, powered by an inbound rules feature, allows agents to more efficiently manage messages and profiles. The rules automate the tagging and routing of messages to the Universal Inbox Queue, allowing for a streamlined handling of social media interactions. The rules determine the appropriate teams responsible for handling different types of messages. A color-coded system shows what messages have been answered.   

Reporting and tracking made easy 
Sprinklr’s Reporting Dashboard is critical for tracking important metrics, including agent response times and availability. This provides transparency and visibility for managers, whether for reporting or training. Through the dashboard, the company gains performance insights at the agent and team level, including productivity information, such as cases handled and reply counts. Case volume distribution and SLA reports are also visible. Because the customer support division has to comply with government regulations, such as limits on access to passenger data and the length of time that messages are stored, it's important for the company to have the tools to track, verify and report its compliance.  

In the same period, agents were able to decrease their average case handling time by 49% over the previous year — from 10 minutes one second to five minutes six seconds.  

Responding to passenger messages, including complaints, is an essential part of customer relations for any transportation provider. With Sprinklr, the railway operator has been able to handle customer messages more efficiently while also making tracking, measuring, reporting and oversight easier for its internal teams.  

"I really like Sprinklr’s flexibility and that it integrates very well with native social channels. The agent console and reporting dashboards are intuitive and easy for everyone to understand," says Karci.