“With Salesforce, we can give members the peace of mind they need to focus on the joy of travelling and discovering new places.”

Nothing ruins a trip like stress. That’s why in Switzerland, Touring Club Suisse (TCS) protects 1.5 million members from this unwelcome passenger – whether they’re travelling by car, bike, plane, public transport, or on foot.

“Our mission is to keep people safe on their travels. Salesforce helps us provide the right support to the right people at the right time, wherever they are in the world,” explained Bernhard Bieri, Director “Business Unit Club” at TCS.

With support ranging from roadside assistance to advice about sustainable transport, and tips on what to do if a volcano grounds your flight home, TCS’s skilled agents have a big responsibility, but with an NPS score of +88 for roadside assistance and more than 125 years’ experience, keeping customers happy is just part of the culture at the organisation.

TCS was founded in 1896 by a group of touring cyclists who wanted to take the stress out of travelling across borders. Today, the organisation has evolved into Switzerland’s largest travel insurance company, the number one roadside assistance service, a major player in the field of legal protection, and offers a full range of customer-centric products to keep people safe, however they choose to get about.

Despite its 125-year heritage, there’s nothing traditional about TCS, and staying ahead of trends is key. “Our members are at the centre of everything we do, and we shape our services to always be relevant to modern life in Switzerland,” revealed Bieri. “We’re helping our members and society in the huge mobility transformation that is going on right now – from the combustion engine towards the electrified mobility. We are doing so by offering our expertise in the field by conducting tests, consulting our members but also by offering ready to use solutions as our wallboxes or eCharge-App. As a major player in the field of travel insurance we have a long history in supporting our members with health problems while travelling. Today we are developing this experience into new services as our Covid-Helpline or our own ambulance and patient transport services in Switzerland. It is our goal to take personal safety to the next level.”

With 1.5 million members, unlocking actionable insights relies on comprehensive, 360-degree visibility across the organisation, and that’s where Salesforce comes in.

TCS has been using Salesforce for 8 years, but under the direction of Bieri, the team decided to revamp the platform to swap customisations for out-of-the-box functionality, improve customer engagement, and achieve 360-degree visibility.

The platform, comprised of Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud, is integrated with core systems such as those used by emergency services, the website, ecommerce platform, and customer-facing app, giving 1,000 staff full visibility of the entire customer journey.

“Salesforce helps us connect with customers at the right time on the right channel. The contact centre handles cases via email, phone, Live Chat, and WhatsApp from a central console to give customers seamless omnichannel service,” said Bieri.

The team handles up to 800,000 cases per year, including 500,000 calls. Cases are automatically routed to the most relevant agent with all the customer information needed to help them get straight to the point and resolve the issue quickly.

“We pride ourselves on building trust with customers. We can’t know every one of our 1.5 million members, but Salesforce does,” revealed Bieri. “We track metrics in dashboards to monitor performance and identify areas to improve our service. As a non-profit, it’s our members, not shareholders, who we’re accountable to.”

In emergency situations, responding rapidly and providing excellent roadside assistance are crucial. By using more precise routing, the team slashed average handling time by 22% and has a first-time resolution rate of 85%.

And it’s not just roadside assistance members are delighted with, the contact centre achieved an NPS score of +67. “We don’t talk about cases at the support centre – we talk about customers. It’s important to remember there’s a real person out there needing our advice and support,” added Bieri.

This level of personalisation also extends into marketing, and with between 90-100,000 new members onboarded every year, marketing needs to be relevant, timely, and engaging.

“Our magazine “Touring” is the biggest in Switzerland. It has a readership of 1.3 million households and our content is created by the leading mobility experts,” said Bieri. “We use Marketing Cloud to segment our audience and follow up with offers that match their interests at different stages in the sales funnel. With Einstein, we can pinpoint the best time to send communications so they’ll have the biggest impact and highest engagement rates.”

By using predictive analytics and tracking customer interests, TCS can shape campaigns to offer more value to prospects and use these insights to develop new services.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the team responded to a spike in queries around travel restrictions with more content offering advice and guidance on how to travel safely at a challenging time.

“Being customer-centric sets us apart from the competition. We’re planning to explore Next Best Action to help the support team make smarter decisions about customer needs, and we’ll be rolling out more marketing automation so we can focus on creating engaging content,” Bieri explained. “With Salesforce, we can give members the peace of mind they need to focus on the joy of travelling and discovering new places.”