Sally Ralston

Said the following about Joan Bennett-Durkin:

“Joan is a Station Retailer formerly a Station Assistant and comes to work and just does her job fantastically well. She delivers world class customer service consistently. She inspires her colleagues to do so also. How does she do it? By being herself is the clear answer. She has an infectious personality and a can-do attitude. Joan takes pride in delivering customer service to our customers. First impressions count and people remember Joan. Big beaming smile, friendly tones, and a great ambassador for our company. She has her regulars who at times queue to say hi to her. When I say thanks or pass on customer praise then she just says I’m just doing my job. She is the member of staff everybody would want in their team.

Here are a couple of customer comments received “That lady on the gate went above and beyond for us getting through the crowds Saturday. My son has autism and booked the indoor fair last minute. We often see her, and she is always so helpful thanks”

“The lady with the red hair is a credit to your company, she always offers to carry my bags.”

She has recently been promoted to a Station Retailer role and prior to this she carried out an intervention role at Liverpool Central. She had a massive impact in not only customer service but customer safety. Whether it is carrying bags, directing to lifts or just being a friendly face Joan gives everything. In 2021 our station was set a KPI of 39 passenger accidents, at the end of the year we had only 28. This was partly down to Joan’s pride in her customer service.

A strange standout example of Joan’s can-do attitude was a body cam that had been dropped into a toilet that needed a deep clean and we mean a real deep clean. Not exactly hygienic, she rescued the body cam and placed in a biohazard bag. She obtained everything required to sort it out before anyone else could help.

She has shown continued excellent delivery of assessing passengers requiring assistance under the alarm bells process over the last few years. She has by engaging with customers whilst on shift potentially prevented numerous passenger accidents Joan was very proactive and friendly with her application of the alarm bells process, successfully guiding passengers to the lift where required and potentially preventing numerous passenger

Joan is an exceptional member of staff who frequently receives praise from customers for going over and above assisting vulnerable passengers onward to their destination. Joan has a proven ability of working enthusiastically with an organised and very positive attitude towards safety. Her proactive and can-do attitude is admirable. She displays great leadership skills regarding safety by implementation of safe systems of work and company best practice. She shows an example to her team of the importance of managing and assisting vulnerable passengers by accompanying them to the lift or escorting them via the escalator, with the aim of reducing accidents Joan is very kind and pleasant and is an asset to the stations team. This in turn displays safety leadership and commitment whilst coaching and encouraging front line staff to reach higher levels of effectiveness by creating a dialogue that leads to awareness and action. Secondly, this can assist and aide passengers to improve their understanding on the seriousness of operational incidents with the goal of reducing accidents. Joan has such a strong work ethic and is dependable with a “can do” consistent positive attitude.“