Mark Andrews

Said the following about Karen Barnes:

“As a customer experience manager Karen is, as the title suggests, responsible for delivering a great customer experience, not only through ensuring that the facilities at the ten stations she manages meet the high expectations of our customers, but also by establishing strong employee engagement among the eighty staff that she is responsible for.

Since arriving at the Brighton Mainline group of stations early in 2014 Karen has taken to the role with enthusiasm and has built a good rapport with her team. Karen emphasises to her staff the good customer service behaviours that are expected of them, but does so in a positive and engaging way, trying to show staff what they do well rather than just being critical and focusing on negatives.

Karen has always stressed that she would like her staff to feel that they can approach her about anything at anytime, rather than just through the formal staff development channels such as “1 to 1” sessions. By always being relaxed, friendly and approachable in this way she has gained the trust and confidence of her staff. By approaching her role in this manner, and working alongside fellow managers who share a similar ethos, the Brighton Mainline group of stations saw a nine percent rise in staff engagement scores following her arrival to the group and a reduction in complaints that relate to staff behaviours.

The Brighton Mainline has one of the most intense levels of service in the country and is particularly prone to disruption, but Karen leads by example and is always visible to staff and passengers alike on such occasions. When faced with a crowd of angry customers she remains the consummate professional and always does a good job of managing their expectations.

Having never dealt with a suicide incident before, Karen was faced with a run of successive fatal incidents following her arrival to the Brighton Mainline station group. During one such incident that occurred at my station a year ago, the relatives of the victim arrived shortly after it had happened. Karen took some time out from dealing with the disruption and spoke to the the relatives in a caring and empathetic way before leading them away to a place of peace and calm and then returning to the station to deal with what was a particularly challenging incident.

On a personal level Karen has helped me greatly in my own personal development, always sparing me her time when I needed advice on my career progression, going through interview feedback with me and discussing ways I can improve my interview skills and additionally arranging coaching sessions for me. In turn, Karen has sought contributions from both myself and my colleagues towards her own appraisals, showing that she is open to the views of others and willing to seek a diverse range of opinion in order to aid not just herself in her own personal development but also the business.“