Lisa takes the strain during the recent travel chaos
During the recent bad weather, Lisa, the virtual assistant on the National Rail Enquiries website, found herself extra busy answering more than three times her normal workload with around 32,000 questions asked by travellers on Monday and again on Tuesday of this week.
Lisa is able to assist users of www.nationalrail.co.uk with all sorts of information associated with every type of user enquiry, from helping them choose the best ticket for their journey, to telling them what facilities are available at their local railway station.
A new ‘hand hold’ feature is especially popular, leading people through the journey planning and booking process. Around a third of people using Lisa make use of this feature.
An independent audit found that Lisa is currently answering 95% of questions first time and in 90% of cases was rated as giving the ideal answer, an accuracy that is on a par with the call centres.
