• 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