Kansas City Southern Railway Company officials reached out to their customers when they researched all elements behind an enhanced website. That customer engagement proved crucial as the company recently launched a new and improved website (www.kcsouthern.com).
The enhanced website is for the Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) and Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (KCSM). Besides adding a refreshing look in a new, mobile-friendly format, website users have access to new tools, resources, and navigation to help them quickly find what they need.
C. Doniele Carlson, AVP Corporate Communications & Community Affairs, The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, told Loyalty360 that while all KCS stakeholders are important, serving customer needs is the company’s No. 1 priority.
“The new kcsouthern.com and MyKCS portal were designed with customers as the primary target audience,” Carlson explained. “Their input was paramount in creating the new website. Our objective was twofold. For existing customers, we want to make it easier than ever to do business with KCS online. For shippers seeking new solutions, we want to clearly illustrate how KCS is a smart choice for their supply chain needs.”
Highlights of the new website include:
A new Explore Shipping Options tool delivers rules publications, public tariffs and intermodal transit times in a streamlined format with just a few simple clicks.
The interactive network map page within Why Choose KCS, shows the depth and breadth of KCS’ partnerships, including intermodal terminals, transload facilities, and short line partners, etc.
A new Customer Resource section helps new customers get started and provides helpful tools and guidelines for existing customers, such as access to MyKCS, service status updates, online bill pay and fuel surcharge information.
The MyKCS customer portal offers streamlined tools and tutorials, helping customers more easily and efficiently handle their accounts – without requiring a new log-in.
A new Corporate Responsibility section showcases KCS’ work in the community.
Information on KCS’ board of directors, executives and sales leaders is contained in About Us/Leadership.
“Input from Kansas City Southern customers was received from personal discussions with customers, regular customer satisfaction surveys, and research gathered from the company’s top transacting customers,” Carlson added. “In addition to this input, KCS leveraged best practices from other transportation and partner websites and reviewed analytics on navigation and searches (online behavior) from the previous kcsouthern.com. KCS considered these factors and the customer’s perspective when mind-mapping content and flow for the new website.”
Carlson believes that the Customer Experience “is when the perception of a relationship between a business and customer is solidified through the business’ actions for the customer. It is the sum of the parts that make the relationship, not one particular action. Customer loyalty is based on customer choice vs. chance. It is the desire of the customer to remain loyal to the business based on past experiences or the relationship that has been established.”