CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ABOUT INSTINCT AND COMMON SENSE
The second one walks into a railway station or boards a train, customer service is live and a moving feast. From station posters and the booking office to on-board signs and seats, as well as cleanliness and the general condition of the environment, we absorb it all through our senses, which feeds our perception.
We remember our last experience using the train just as much as our last experience using a supermarket, or calling our home insurer or energy supplier.
Each interaction with a service provider is an opportunity with the customer. The single biggest factor in most customer experiences are the people. Each individual involved has the ability to ‘wow’ those they come into contact with – as equally as they can anger and turn them off.
While one person has the power to influence a customer outcome, the key element is that it doesn’t take a great deal or cost anything to do.
Radiotherapy
Take the case of an elderly person who lives in my town of Kenilworth. She had to travel to University station in Birmingham three times a week for a course of radiotherapy treatment, involving a change of trains at Coventry and Birmingham New Street.
After receiving her treatment, she was quite tired and consequently got up too late at Coventry to alight from the Avanti West Coast service to London Euston. She got to the doors just as they had been locked and the ‘Pendolino’ had been given the ‘right away’. The train manager happened to be nearby and went to the lady to enquire what had happened and what the circumstances were.
The train manager’s response was: “I am not putting you off at the next stop which is Watford as the rules say, because of what that will mean for you in changing platforms and the long wait you will have for a northbound service. Stay on the train to London Euston, and I will sort things for you when we get there.”
First Class
Upon arrival at London Euston, the train manager (TM) was as good, if not better than their word. The manager helped the lady off the train and escorted her to a waiting AWC service to Coventry. The manager spoke to the TM for the Coventry service and explained what had happened and asked that the lady be placed in First Class for her return to Coventry.
This is customer service excellence, not some slavish adherence to rules and ticket requirements. The train manager used common sense and empathy, but above all, acted on their instinct to do the right thing.
Leadership and customer service is about empowering staff on the front line to make these type of decisions – and ones which have the potential to make a positive difference.
This example shows the potential from the positive actions of one individual, it’s just been shared with you and about 35,000 other readers.