Published on: Thursday, 20 November 2014
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Rail passengers in East Anglia have nominated the station teams and individuals who they feel deliver the best customer service, with Abellio Greater Anglia’s Customer Relations and Social Media Team scooping a National Customer Service Week award.
During National Customer Service Week from 6th – 10th October, Abellio Greater Anglia asked regular travellers to nominate the station teams or individuals across the network who go the extra mile to make passengers’ journeys pleasant and stress-free or who have gone the extra mile to offer assistance or make a difference.
Abellio Greater Anglia’s Customer Relations and Social Media Team were praised by customers for the standard of information and assistance provided to customers, Garry of the Social Media Team was singled out for praise by one customer who commented, “Garry provides (along with the team) excellent customer service. He has great patience dealing with the vast array of ‘tweets’ coming in. He is polite and professional and takes time to build a rapport with regular ‘Tweeters’. Long may his good work continue.”
The awards were judged by the Abellio Greater Anglia Leadership Team who assessed each nominee for, amongst other criteria, the effort they make to exceed customer expectations and the level to which they know the value of excellent service to the business.
Other winners included the station team at Wivenhoe rail station, Paul Harvey, conductor, Florence Okemiri, Shenfield ticket gates, Stephen Hewitt, Lowestoft ticket office, Wayne Claydon, Braintree ticket office and Alex Steadman, London Liverpool Street ticket office.
Jamie Burles, Abellio Greater Anglia’s Managing Director, said, “I would like to offer my congratulations and gratitude to all the teams and individuals who helped in achieving these awards. Receiving these awards has only been achievable because of engaged employees who do their upmost to exceed our customers’ expectations every day.”
Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service commented: “National Customer Service Week presents a great opportunity for organisations to demonstrate both their commitment to improving their customers’ experiences and their dedication to developing the skills of their customer service teams.
“The awards programme which Abellio Greater Anglia planned to celebrate National Customer Service Week will help to highlight exceptional performance of individuals and teams, as well as help to focus internal teams and external customers on the important role that their front line staff holds”.
Delivering excellent customer service is a priority for Abellio Greater Anglia and since the franchise began the train operator has invested in a training programme that has seen all front line staff taking part in a two day Customer Service course.
Mystery shopping surveys have demonstrated that the training is having a positive effect with many staff achieving perfect scores of 100% when they are secretly assessed by mystery shoppers.