Archive for the 'accountability' Category

Yet again the 8.51 National Express from Peterborough to Kings Cross evades me. Not that I was late. The car park that is supposed to open to non-season ticket holders at 8.45, yet again fails to open until 8.50 as the train is making its way into the station with one of those ‘I’m on time’ smiles across the face of the driver (I imagine).

The story of the new car parking system is one that any regular will talk to you about. It’s a blog or ten in itself. I know it’s no use complaining about the whole system but decide to test the customer service response about the car park opening.“We’ve asked for a new part but been told we can’t have it” says the customer service representative on the station.

“We go out there every morning usually to reset the clock but you can’t do it before 8.30, and sometimes we forget” he continues.“Most times” I add. “To be fair, yes”, he says

“So when do you expect it to be replaced” I continue. “Not sure, as I say we not able to get the part” he repeats with a broad smile and friendly open hand guesture that says ‘love to but…not my problem’

So I leave with a sideswipe at the whole car parking system. “Rip the whole lot out while you’re at it” - which gets a hearty laugh of agreement. I walk away feeling I’ve lost the battle. (Is it a war?)

I use the next 35 minutes before the next train arrives to write this blog. I then use my 3G datacard to post it before getting on the train. Why is the on-train WiFi free? Because it never bloody works!I feel better…until tomorrow morning at 8.45.

National Express, accountability, feedback, train | No Comments

As I sat on a train heading out of London Waterloo today I knew we were in for few problems with emergency engineering work on the line ahead and the departure boards looking decidedly void of useful information. Past the departure time the Guard announces that the train will not stop at 3 of the usual stations, including mine. As we hurry off the train clutching coats and laptops we meet the said Guard and naturally bombard him with questions. With a very uninterested look on his face he lifts his arms and answers “don’t know” to all the questions. “Go and ask someone” he says, pointing back to the harassed looking team on the station information desk.

You get the picture. Accountability is something we all need to take responsibility for. The customer experience we design, so carefully and at great cost, is not worth the investment of effort if it all falls apart when something goes wrong. When the areas of the business which cause the problems fail to learn from them, the frontline start to pass the blame. When the frontline pass the blame, the reputation of the whole organisation and trust of customers is damaged. In day to day operations, everyone needs to take a shared accountability for delivering the best customer experience whether things go right or wrong. But this will only happen if the business take accountability for fixing the root causes of problems.

accountability, customer experience, train | No Comments