A Southeastern employee has been crowned the national customer service champion for 2011.
Denise (Dee) Janes, who works at Shortlands Railway Station, beat over 200 entries from a wide range of industries across the country.
Dee, who can now call herself the best in the country, has worked in the railway industry for eight years, three of them at Shortlands and is a well known face to all who use the station.
Dee said:
“It is very nice to be recognised in this way by passengers but honestly, I am just doing my job! I always go into work to do my best and make the commuters life as easy and pleasurable as possible. I can’t wait till the awards in March, although sure I will be a little nervous!”
She was nominated by her colleague Eugene McConlough, who was delighted to have the opportunity to highlight the great work Dee does every day with Southeastern’s customers.
“Dee knows her customers extremely well and always goes the extra mile to assist them.
“Her positive and friendly manner doesn’t go unnoticed by customers who regularly take the trouble to tell the station’s management team how good she is. So far this year she has received 16 customer recommendations.
“Nothing is too much trouble for Dee and she recently organised a charity event in the station car park and donated the £700 raised to the local Community Association.”
Institute of Customer Service chief executive, Jo Causon, commented:
“Dee is a perfect example of someone who puts the needs of customers at the heart of everything she does. She is a credit to her employer and a role model for all professionals working in frontline service roles.
“Customer service needs to be on the agenda at the very top of an organisation for it to work well on the front line. Organisations that understand and recognise this are the ones who will reap the biggest benefit.”
Dee will officially be recognised at the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards in March 2012.
The Institute recognised excellence across ten UK regions. The regional winners were:
- Alex McGregor, Stafford and Rural Homes, West Midlands
- Nicky Collier, Lloyds Banking Group, North East England
- Issac Caruana, LV=, East of England
- John Callaghan, Prudential, Scotland and Ireland
- Lizzie Huckle, City University London, London
- Margaret Webster, Modern Housing Solutions, North West England
- Rowena Togni, Experian, East Midlands
- Helen Crosbie, LV=, South West England
- Mohammed (Mo) Shaid, Lloyds Banking Group, Wales and West of England
- Denise Janes, Southeastern Railway, South East England – overall winner.
