Published on: Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Rail passengers in East Anglia havenominated the station teams and individuals who they feel deliver the bestcustomer service, with Abellio Greater Anglia’s Alan Dowdall of Ingatestonestation scooping a National Customer Service Week award.
During National Customer Service Week from2nd - 6th March, Abellio Greater Anglia asked regular travellers to nominatethe station teams or individuals across the network who go the extra mile tomake passengers’ journeys pleasant and stress-free or who have gone the extramile to offer assistance or make a difference.
Alan Dowdall, who works in the ticketoffice, received an unprecedented 54 nominations from regular station users whoappreciate his friendly and helpful manner.
One customer commented, “I would like tonominate Alan at Ingatestone Ticket office. He is totally charming, engages all of the time with his customers,always cheerful and smiling and always goes the extra mile to help people. He is constantly buzzing around the stationand you feel his presence when he is on duty. He takes real pride in his work to keep the station tidy and alwayslooks out for us travellers. He willoften dash out to the rush hour commuters and school children to let them knowany updates that come through if they are not on the screen. He has an amazingcapacity to recall his customers’ journeys and ticket requirements, which makesyou feel a part of something and that you belong. He was greatly missed after a recent bout ofillness, and I like most people were genuinely pleased to see his return a fewweeks back.”
The awards were judged by the AbellioGreater Anglia Leadership Team who assessed each nominee for, amongst othercriteria, the effort they make to exceed customer expectations and the level towhich they know the value of excellent service to the business.
Jamie Burles, Abellio Greater Anglia’sManaging Director, said, “I would like to offer my congratulations andgratitude to all the teams and individuals who were nominated for a CustomerService Week award. I am very proud of our engaged employees across the networkwho do their upmost to exceed our customers’ expectations every day.”
Delivering excellent customer service is apriority for Abellio Greater Anglia and since the franchise began the trainoperator has invested in a training programme that has seen all front linestaff taking part in a two day Customer Service course.
Mystery shopping surveys have demonstratedthat the training is having a positive effect with many staff achieving perfectscores of 100% when they are secretly assessed by mystery shoppers.