EMT first to offer 24x7 customer helpline

[IKBrunel]

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk...ffer-customers-round-the-clock-help-1-5961946
says

East Midlands Trains says it is demonstrating its commitment to improving the service offered to passengers by becoming the UK’s first train company to offer a 24/7 customer service.

The operator serves Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough stations.

The new customer contact team, based at the East Midlands Trains operational control centre in Derby, will be on hand 24-hours a day, seven days a week, from today (Wednesday, March 26), to book passenger assistance, answer help-point calls, help track lost property and deal with urgent customer queries. The team will also be available to respond to customer queries coming via social media 24-hours a day.

Jayne Moyses, head of sales and customer relations for East Midlands Trains, said: “We are very pleased to have become the first train operator in the country to be providing a local point of contact for our customers for 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

“Our new customer contact team are based within the operational control centre in Derby, which we share with Network Rail, meaning that our team have first-hand information to pass directly to our customers at any time of the day or night.

“This is a clear demonstration of our commitment to providing the best possible service to our customers. We know that many of our customers work around the clock and want to be able to speak to somebody when it’s convenient for them.

“For the first time ever, our new team will be able to provide a point of contact for these customers regardless of the time of

day or night, and being Derby-based, our team will have all the latest information on our services and network at their finger tips.”

Linda McCord, Passenger Focus senior passenger manager, said: “Passengers travelling on East Midlands Trains will welcome the launch of this service. We hope East Midlands Trains’ approach to providing round the clock access to its customer service staff catches on with other train companies.”

East Midlands Trains’ Customer Service Centre Team, also based in Derby, will continue to be the main point of contact for any general customer enquiries, comments/complaints, assisted travel bookings, lost property and group travel bookings between 08:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours, the new customer contact control team will now be available to deal with queries.

interesting precedent, comes the same day LM announce 150 job losses.

 

[SS4]

Will be more interesting a few months down the line when we can assess what's happened. I can't see many people calling in at night and in the early hours.

 

[YorkshireBear]

I sense it will be a member of staff who has other duties but can respond to customers. That is what the wording seemed like to me. Say you have 1 person on night duty at Derby doing a job that needs 1 and a half people. Employ another person and they can spend the other half doing this. Kill two birds with one stone and a bit of a PR exercise.

 

[asylumxl]

All well and good, how about improving the quality of the actual train service.

 

[WestCountry]

All well and good, how about improving the quality of the actual train service.

The 125mph upgrade on the MML has only been active for a couple of months, what more do you want right now?

 

[LateThanNever]

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk...ffer-customers-round-the-clock-help-1-5961946
.

I think that is excellent news - it is reassuring that there is a 24 hr service - albeit it may be little used overnight but it is there in case of need. That's what service is all about!

 

[Qwerty133]

The 125mph upgrade on the MML has only been active for a couple of months, what more do you want right now?

Correct annoucements over the PA so passengers don't get delayed en-route by TMs who don't know their own timetables?

 

[BestWestern]

Will be more interesting a few months down the line when we can assess what's happened. I can't see many people calling in at night and in the early hours.

I'm sure there will be a few regular F'book/Twitter idiots to keep them suitably occupied...

 

[Be3G]

This sounds like good news indeed. One of the reasons I've never touched a help point is because I know that all I'll end up doing is speaking to NRE who aren't much help for anything other than journey planning. Being able to get through to someone in a control room who can tell me e.g. where my delayed last train of the night is is much more reassuring.

 

[ExRes]

What, I wonder, is a 'customer contact team', is it one dedicated person, one person already performing another task and now expected to do two, or a whole gang of newly recruited worker bees straining at the leash ?

When it all hits the fan a control centre has far too much to do to worry about some silly help-point telephone, operational matters come first and if the phone rings it's probably a Driver or TM who really needs information, not whether a total signal failure is likely to mean Bert and Doris are going to miss their bus connection at Long Eaton

It might sound like a good bit of PR but is it really any more than that ?

 

[LowLevel]

The control room doesn't mean the actual controller in a literal sense - I believe this is all based in the EMCC at Derby - the EMT operational controllers, customer service controllers and Network Rail controllers all sit in the same room. There's dedicated staff to carry out this kind of role who live in the control room so can have a decent handle on what's going on.

It's mainly as well to alleviate the kind of problems you get late at night if trains are cancelled or whatever else where people are stuck with skeleton staffing and duff gen from India.

 

[Gathursty]

I ought to be a mystery shopper at Havenhouse or Elton & Orston at 2.30 am and see the reception I get for enquiring about the next service to anywhere. :P

 

[wibble]

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk...ffer-customers-round-the-clock-help-1-5961946
says

interesting precedent, comes the same day LM announce 150 job losses.

South West Trains were probably the first TOC to open their customer service centre 24/7 but stopped in 2006 (I think) - it still operates 0600-2200 7 days a week which is better than most TOCs

 

[LowLevel]

I ought to be a mystery shopper at Havenhouse or Elton & Orston at 2.30 am and see the reception I get for enquiring about the next service to anywhere. :P

You'd probably be the only person apart from the odd station maintenance bert and guards dispatching the one train a day each way to have set foot on Elton & Orston station in quite some time - I reckon the only reason it has any usage figures at all is because enthusiasts buy tickets to there

 

[bunnahabhain]

You'd probably be the only person apart from the odd station maintenance bert and guards dispatching the one train a day each way to have set foot on Elton & Orston station in quite some time - I reckon the only reason it has any usage figures at all is because enthusiasts buy tickets to there

No, there's one semi-regular gentleman. Hence why the figure is so low, he travels once every couple of weeks to Nottingham and back, and has done for many years, there used to be three regular commuters plus this gentleman I believe, but the regulars have either retired, died, started using other stations or started driving in, take your pick.

 

[Qwerty133]

No, there's one semi-regular gentleman. Hence why the figure is so low, he travels once every couple of weeks to Nottingham and back, and has done for many years, there used to be three regular commuters plus this gentleman I believe, but the regulars have either retired, died, started using other stations or started driving in, take your pick.

Busy station then... Looking at its Wikipedia page, does he have a bike?, or have the bike racks been removed
if your who I think you are I think I was on your train yesterday

 

[Frontera2]

Erm..

Southeastern Customer Services has been 24/7 for as long as I can remember..