Customer Services Week 2015

•    Series of activities planned across East Scotland
•    Managers and directors to carry out frontline duties

Stagecoach East Scotland employees are gearing up to take part in this year’s National Customer Service Week.

The company will celebrate the national campaign with a range of local activities throughout the week from 5-9 October.

National Customer Service Week is run by the Institute of Customer Service and its aim is to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays in successful business practice and the growth of the UK economy.  

The most recent National Bus Satisfaction Survey by consumer watchdog Transport Focus showed that, across its UK Bus division, Stagecoach was voted as the best value major bus operator in Britain*. Stagecoach was also found to have the most satisfied customers of any bus operator surveyed in Scotland and the company continues to have one of the highest overall levels of satisfaction of any major bus operator in England.
In addition, Stagecoach was one of the best rated bus companies in the country by people with disabilities.*

During National Customer Service Week, Stagecoach bus employees across the UK will take part in a series of local activities aimed at highlighting the importance of continuing to deliver good customer service day in, day out for passengers. The theme of the week across Stagecoach is ‘Rolling out the red carpet every day’.

Among the activities taking place throughout the week at Stagecoach East Scotland are:

•    Back to the Floor - Directors and Managers will be going back to the floor as conductors, drivers, customer service and traffic office staff for a day
•    Tayway 73 - A vintage bus will operate in Dundee on the Tayway 73 route all week
•    Customer Service Stars - customers are invited to nominate their customer service star, with all nominations put into a draw for a top prize
•    Welcome to the weekend - giveaways in Perth (Mill Street) and Edinburgh Bus Station on Friday afternoon

Stagecoach East Scotland Managing Director Andrew Jarvis: “Delivering good customer service central to our business – our customers are at the heart of everything we do and it is absolutely essential that we provide a good, consistent service that is in line with what they, quite rightly, expect.

“Our team of employees has helped ensure we already offer high standards of customer service but we know we can get better and we will continue to work hard to improve even further.

“It’s great to see so many of our staff getting involved in Customer Service Week. However, we are well aware that we need to deliver high standards of customer service on a daily basis and we are fortunate to have a team of employees who work hard to do just that.”

As well as being rated by customers as the country’s best value bus operator, Stagecoach has also been independently recognised as offering the best value bus fares in Britain three consecutive times. The most recent analysis published by transport specialists TAS** found that Britain’s biggest bus operator provides regular passengers with the lowest cost weekly bus travel. The research showed that Stagecoach weekly travel is on average 12% lower than the next cheapest operator.

And a study by Stagecoach found that taking the bus is around 60% cheaper than commuting to work by car, despite falling fuel prices***.

Stagecoach invests millions of pounds a year in new vehicles to deliver a higher standard of service for customers. Earlier this year, the Group announced it had placed orders for more than £80million worth of new buses and coaches. Across East Scotland more than £9.7m has been invested in new vehicles over the past year.

In addition, Stagecoach is investing heavily in a multi-million pound digital strategy which will see the UK Bus division’s website re-developed and the installation of automatic vehicle location technology on all vehicles.

*More information on the Transport Focus survey can be found here   http://www.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2015/2015-03-12b.aspx
**More information on the TAS fares study can be found here http://www.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2014/2014-05-05.aspx
***More information on the Stagecoach cost of travel study can be found here http://www.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2015/2015-02-02.aspx