Matthew Springett

Said the following about Oxford Welcome Hosts:

“Great Western Railway (GWR) is one of the biggest rail franchises in the UK, part of the First Group of companies, operating the Western network since 1996, rebranding ourselves as GWR in 2015. We employ over 6000 people across our network and we carry more than one and a half million customers over two million single journeys on 10,000 services every week. People are at the heart of our business and our ethos is that we are 'greater together'.

The Welcome Host Desk at Oxford as you can imagine is a very busy place, with its constant hustle and bustle of City life, with a very high tourism rate, with this high footfall brings a daily challenge to the guys on the desk, not only with repetition of the same questions over and over again but with the added pressure of delivering a service to people who are less able to get around In daily life, this is where we are so proud of how the team deliver such a great personal service. On average our team can deal with up to 40-60 booked assists per day (depending on the time of year) which is daily divided up between the team to ensure no one is missed, not only this but they often have to deal with the challenge of walk up passengers who require our help, the team make every effort depending on clashes with pre booked assistance to help where they can, delivering the best customer service where possible. The team deal with a range of passenger assists ranging from customers in wheelchairs/scooters, Visual Impaired, the elderly and frail but also a range of passengers with other disabilities which might not be visible. There is an enormous amount of a personal touch from our team with every individual who comes through our station this is reflected in the feedback we receive via letters and our social media outlets, the team have also built up a really good relationship with our local regular passengers who know they will be looked after at the station. The team not only have to deal with the constant flow of booked passenger assists on services they are the first port of call for all other customer enquires which adds to the pressure of maintaining a top level of customer service, this is additional made more and more difficult in times of disruption.

Team work is key with the Welcome Host Team, as without it our passengers would suffer and people who have pre booked assistance would be missed, not having the team in place would put additional pressure and strain on other parts of the station including the dispatch of trains and the gateline team protecting revenue. Communication is vital within the whole team as without it things wouldn't go to plan, things like letting the dispatch team know that they are about to board a service with a passenger so that they can find there correct seat properly and prevent the member of staff taking an unnecessary trip to the next station also communicating with the gateline team to ensure they can reach the platforms on time and safely. A key part of passenger assistance also involves communicating and calling the destination station as soon as possible to ensure the correct information is passed on. All Welcome Host Staff members are also trained to work in the Ticket Office, this comes in very handy with staff sickness and annual leave.

The Welcome Host Team are a vital and important part of not only the station but also as a business, this shows the values that we offer as a company in supporting those in need but also to support each other in difficult times, we are not only assisting our own GWR passengers but we also assist with other Train Operators with their business. We feel this nomination is justified for the support and effort this team puts in and delivers on a daily basis 7 days a week.“