Greater Anglia wins Achievement in Customer Satisfaction award at the 2013 UK Excellence Awards

Abellio train operator Greater Anglia has won a major national award for achievement in customer satisfaction. The train operator was awarded the 2013 Achievement in Customer Satisfaction award at the British Quality Foundation's UK Excellence Awards.

The UK Excellence Awards recognise excellence and achievement across all UK organisations in all sectors - public, private and voluntary. The judges recognised Greater Anglia's progress in raising customer service standards, improving train performance and working with Network Rail to markedly reduce disruptive weekend engineering work. They were also impressed by the company's initiatives to enhance the complete end-to-end journey experience for customers, by making ticket purchase easier (with more on-line and mobile ticket options), upgrading integrated transport links (with more cycle facilities at stations and better connectivity between trains and buses) and other customer-focused improvements to trains, stations and customer information. In addition, mention was made of Greater Anglia's work to improve employee engagement and it's proactive work with regional stakeholders to make the case for on-going investment and upgrades to the rail network and services in East Anglia. The demonstrable progress in all these areas and the evidence of the tangible impact achieved on the satisfaction levels and perceptions of customers, stakeholders and employees all contributed to Greater Anglia receiving this significant accolade. The fact that the awards assess and benchmark companies and organisations across all sectors makes them even more demanding and competitive.

Commenting on the award, Ruud Haket, Managing Director for Greater Anglia said :

"We're delighted to receive this major award for improvements to customer service and satisfaction. It is a real tribute to the dedication and focus of our employees that we have achieved this accolade when bench-marked across UK organisations of all types (public, private and voluntary sectors), not just those in the rail industry. We know we have much more to do to meet the aspirations of our customers and deliver a higher quality service, more consistently. In particular, passengers are looking for more improvements to punctuality, customer information and the on-board travelling environment, so we are working hard to make further steps forward in these crucial areas. But this award from the highly respected British Quality Foundation provides a notable endorsement of our efforts and progress in providing a better train service for customers and stakeholders. We are committed to maintaining this positive cycle of improvements."

The Achievement in Customer Satisfaction award is Greater Anglia's third major award this year, after winning the Train Operator of the Year award at the Rail Business Awards in February and the Outstanding Teamwork Award (for its Olympic and Paralympics performance and customer service) at the Rail Innovation Awards in June.