Published on: Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
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.
Angela Milton, who has worked in the ticketoffice for six years, received 21 nominations from regular station users whoappreciate her friendly and helpful manner.
One customer commented, “I would like tonominate Angela Milton who works at Great Shelford train station for a customerservice award. Angela always greets you will a big smile and a warm welcome nomatter the weather or the hour. I only travel from the station once a week butshe always remembers my destination unprompted. That sort of customer service isvery rare in this day and age. I hope she receives an award as a recognition ofher outstanding customer service.”
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.
Angela, from Littleport, has completed atotal of 19 years working in the rail industry working at stations and ticketoffices across the country. Over the years, she has worked hard to create apleasant and welcoming environment for passengers at Shelford station. Someof her activities have included a creating a library in the ticket office, puttingon a Christmas party, tending to the flowers and offering free refreshments,all in addition to her ‘day job’ selling tickets, providing assistance topassengers and keeping the station tidy.
On winning the award, Angela commented,“What I enjoy about my job is solving problems for customers, surprising themwith cheap tickets because I have the time and interest to sit down andlook at all connotations to a journey, making travel easier, cheaper andenjoyable.
“If a customer has complicated tickets, I arrangefor them to come after I close, so they don’t feel pressured by a queue. I alsotake details of any long journeys and watch for when the cheap tickets becomeavailable, then ring the customer straight away, so that we can get the bestvalue deal.
“Shelford is special because I have put myindividual stamp on it. It was an empty space previously but now we have alibrary, lovely pictures of steam trains on the wall, a community notice board,flower tubs, bowls of sweets and often fresh fruit.
“Some of the villagers pop in justfor a chat. I have been known to ring or visit customers that Ihaven’t seen in a while to make sure that they are ok, and send get well cardsif they are sick.
“To receive nominations from my customersis lovely and shows they appreciate all the extra things that I do at thestation.”
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.