Recruitment
“Abbie and Dave have worked hard to roll out a behaviour change programme where colleagues across the Stations Directorate at Transport for Wales understand the needs of customers and feel involved, valued and informed.
Regular Customer First forums provide a place for station colleagues across our network to get business updates, raise issues and concerns, and explore customer expectations and behavioural preferences. To date, over 200+ colleagues have attended over 48 sessions with many returning for a second and third time. Abbie and Dave have been agile and delivered locally and adapted sessions where the release has been tricky and secured speakers based on feedback from the station's team. The programme has allowed colleagues from Train Planning, safety, IT, Digital Fraud and many more to share the work they do in a face to face format and get feedback from station colleagues about their initiatives. The forums provide a valuable feedback loop for the business.
The forums have also provided a link to stations for external stakeholders like BTP and Railway Chaplains so they can embed themselves and get a feel for the issues faced across the network.
Overall, the project has given a voice to colleagues at stations and they feel like they are being heard. It has highlighted issues and common themes which we can work together to put right and contributes positively to colleague wellbeing.
Customer First Testimonials:
“Always enjoy presenting about Core Valley Line transformation. Since I have started presenting, I now get stopped by front line colleagues when out on the network saying how good it was to understand what is happening. It is always good when they say they feel more confident when customers are asking questions about transformation. Look forward to presenting soon.”
“I enjoyed the personality test; it helped me learn about my own style of customer service and helped me to understand how my colleagues work differently and how best to delegate in future due to our own unique strengths. More things like this would be interesting and useful. Also just being able to generally chat and ask questions about all current issues and upcoming changes on the railway was very beneficial. Being able to give feedback and make recommendations for change and having a follow up meeting to provide updates was amazing being able to see things that were previously discussed being put into effect gave me more confidence in the railway and made me feel more excited about future projects and improvements.”
“I think the forums are brilliant and a great chance for staff from other stations to meet and share incidents, experiences, observations and raise queries. Very valuable and appreciate the opportunity to attend. We've been able to bring back what we have learned to the rest of the team also.”
“I feel it’s the best way to raise awareness of various aspects of the business out to the frontline. Emails just don't work to roll out updates to a lot of people”.
“I've always been made to feel welcome at the workshops and value the opportunity for myself and the team to present to front line colleagues the reasons why we do some of the things we do and to give colleagues the opportunities to ask questions which helps us understand the impact some of the decisions that we make have on our front-line colleagues and customers.”“
“Dave & Abbie are always professional, warm, engaging and include everyone on the Customer First Sessions.
I personally get a lot out of the Customer First sessions as they not only help me to do my job better, they also give me a good understanding of how I interact with others in every aspect of my life.
I particularly enjoyed doing the Colour's and Insights session and found this really beneficial and quite rewarding.
These sessions are always delivered in such an efficient and professional manner and I am always made to feel part of the group.
As well as the information being helpful to my job It is always a nice experience and quite fun!
Thank you Dave & Abbie :) :)“
“I arrived, wondering, ‘ right , what’s this about’ , and I must say I was very happy leaving. It was a customer first workshop headed by David smith. From the start David was engaging. There was 3 of us and we all enjoyed it.
It was about understanding customers but by the end of the day I’d learnt a few things about myself. I feel this is going to help me with customers.
We had activities and two speakers on the day. I can’t remember their last names , one was lowri, who spoke about the Welsh language and the other was Sian who spoke about understanding customers, who may need that little extra. It motivated me to want to do sign language. !!
The activities were clever, thought out and enjoyable. I would recommend his workshop to all across the board. I think everyone, including managers, directors and all staff should have a go. I’m left learning more about myself with David using the Lund theory, where different personalities and traits are worked into 4 colours . I was a green/ yellow. Really clever. If all workshops were like this I’d go to every single one
Keep up the good work guys. I have messaged/ emailed my managers to recommend this workshop . Thanks to David for being engaging and personable“
“I felt extremely honoured when i received an invite for the Rail Staff awards 2014. I really did not expect it so it was a very pleasant surprise and had no hesitation in accepting the invite to this prestigious event. My experience of the evening was amazing. We choose to get into the spirit of the evening and arrive in fancy dress which thankfully so did a lot of other people. The food was of fantastic quality and the little deserts were the best. The entertainment provided was thoroughly entertaining. The evening was expertly planned from beginning to end. It was a very humbling experience to watch the nominees and winners and listen to the reasons why they were there. I felt extremely proud to be part of the railway family.”
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