Talk with the East Coast Top Team

[YorkshireRider]

For anyone who may be intrested:

On Tuesday 24 January, between 12.00 and 15.00 we are offering you a new way to put questions directly to our key decision-makers.
Join us at www.talk.eastcoast.co.uk, where you can talk with the East Coast directors and senior managers in real time.
Any aspect of our service will be open for discussion. We really appreciate all feedback and look forward to hearing from you.
The online forum:your chance to make a difference!

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/about-us/latest-news1/talk-with-the-east-coast-top-team/

 

[Furrball]

So a repeat of the event a couple of months ago, where they stated that passengers were happy with all the changes that had been made to 1st class and where you also could not reply to their response without opening a new topic.

Be interested to see how this one goes.

Personally, questions would be:

What are they doing to address the inconsistency in the 1st class catering service and the lackadaisical attitude of some of their staff

Why problems persists on the online booking service despite being reported over 12 months ago

The lack of enforcement of the quiet carriages

 

[amcluesent]

the lackadaisical attitude of some of their staff

I was 'served' by a trolley-dolly last week who was positively seething with rage

 

[philjo]

I see there is another EC web chat on Tuesday 10th April, though I will be away then.


http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/about-us/press-release/2012/your-chance-to-chat-online-with-east-coast-top-team/

 

[142094]

There was a topic on there, and EC had provided an e-mail address for the person dealing with that issue (HR). Suffice to say I contacted that person the next day, and have yet to receive a response.

So, don't expect miracles as it'll be corporate waffle with not much new content.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . . don't expect miracles as it'll be corporate waffle with not much new content.

Now, how on earth could you have worked that out in advance?

There were the usual high proportion of questions about on-board catering including one very firm reply to a simple question: "will you be bringing back the the dining car silver service on at least one or two trains ?" answer "No we won't!" and quite a few about fares and specific journeys in the forum's area of interest (Newcastle and the North East).

Its regrettable that some of the responses which could have been a bit more thorough in their replies were, as 142094 predicted, either boasts of sucesses or dismissive, but to be fair to the EC Directors and senior staff who took part, some responses did sound as if somone was listening.

This was the best non sequitor:
Question.

What actions are you going to take after today?
A lot of questions seem to have 'answers' that justify the current situation.

To show that today has/will result in Eastcost doing things differently can each of the board members post here what actions they are taking away from today and when they will be completed by.

Answer.

Can I suggest that you please contact <email address> and I will make arrangements to share with you some detail around our managing disruption procedures and the work that goes behind customer management during disruption.

Kind Regards

[Presumably the answer was referring to the disruption while the questionner was refering to the forum, but what I want to know is did he intend to type 'Eastcost' ?]

 

[Yew]

We must remember that the increase in first clas patronage is obviously a direct result of the catering changes, and in no way related to the special offers every three months..

Its a shame that the management seem to be taking the approach of trying to fob off problems instead of any real effort to improve. I hate to say this, but I cant wait for the franchise retender.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Speaking as an ex front line Manager - I used to enjoy "meet the Managers" sessions face to face , as apart from a few odd characters and Mr Angry types - there was a lot of good ideas and feedback as to what could be done better , and what could be improved - as well as "why things are like this". Takes some courage to start with - especially after a run of poor performance....

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Takes some courage to start with - especially after a run of poor performance....

Indeed, and while we can be critical of some of EC's replies being 'corporate policy announcements', I wouldn't have been looking forward to the session.

One thing that impressed me was just how civilised, intelligent and polite most of the questions were! I was expecting more pricing complaints, "angry of Alnmouth" and trainspotter queries!

 

[Failed Unit]

Q. Why do so many of your trains terminate on the totally unsuitable platforms 8 or 9 at Edinburgh Waverley, resulting in missed connections as passengers with baggage battle thier way up the narrow bridges or queue for the inadaquate lift service? When the more suitable platform 11 is occupied by a local Scotrail service (which could have be platformed on the nearly empty platforms 12 - 18)
A. Network rail allocate the platforms.
Q2 why don't you ask Network rail to give priority to East Coast on platforms 2, 11 and 19?

 

[142094]

Speaking as an ex front line Manager - I used to enjoy "meet the Managers" sessions face to face , as apart from a few odd characters and Mr Angry types - there was a lot of good ideas and feedback as to what could be done better , and what could be improved - as well as "why things are like this". Takes some courage to start with - especially after a run of poor performance....

I've done a few of these Meet the Manager sessions, on both sides of the table and invariably you will get Mr and Mrs X, retired, who see it as the highlight of their day to complain about something (and even though they have every right to do so, it distracts from some of the more important things).

MTM and Talk to Us sessions are good, but the fact is that the times are often not suitable for people at work - how many people will be bothered to use their lunch hour or day off and take the time to go on an internet forum (which might be blocked by their IT department), to post questions and problems which will be replied to in the same identikit manner:

"Thank you for drawing that to our attention. I'm sorry to learn/hear that you feel/think that the catering/first class food/ticket prices/toilets on HST diesel trains are non extistent/expensive/lacking/ poor. We have conducted extensive research with passengers that has found we have the right balance, and we think this is good enough at the present time.

What really gets me is the fact that any apology made is not "I'm sorry that the service is poor/expensive" etc, but instead is "I'm sorry to learn/hear". There must be some sort of handbook issued to every company HR department which states this is the way to deal with each and every complaint or query.

The second thing is, if some of the managers/department staff were to travel on EC, without using their free pass or having EC regalia on and actually did some of their own mystery shopper trips, then they'd have a very good idea on why so many people complain to them. I did note that a person travelling from Alnmouth complained as the timetables were showing it as a breakfast service, but instead they had the morning offer, whilst some of the onboard staff had their Full English brekfasts after Alnmouth.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Speaking as an ex front line Manager - I used to enjoy "meet the Managers" sessions face to face , as apart from a few odd characters and Mr Angry types - there was a lot of good ideas and feedback as to what could be done better , and what could be improved - as well as "why things are like this". Takes some courage to start with - especially after a run of poor performance....

Most people (genuinly in my experience) - were remarkably polite and reasonable on a one to one basis - we had a gentleman from West Hampstead who put the fear of God into the customer complaints department , so I arranged to meet him in his own slot one evening (fearing the worst - and half expecting to be assaulted) - after a 10 min rant and a full explanation of issues and planned improvements we went for a coffee and more chat , and when I gave him (without prejudice) about a tenners worth of travel vouchers (which he wasn't expecting) - we parted on good terms and remained so for a while afterwards. Repeated this on several occasions. Shame you cant do it to everybody who has a bad experience - or who thinks they they are being ignored or exploited.