National Express call centre up for awards

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Karen Beasley and Golam Rabbani, National Express Coach Performance Manager
Karen Beasley and Golam Rabbani, National Express Coach Performance Manager

Centre takes millionth call this year and is up for two awards for customer service and a good working environment

The National Express customer contact centre is celebrating after helping its millionth customer in a year and being shortlisted for a top national award for being one of the best places to work in the UK.

As it took the millionth call, it was revealed that the coach operator’s contact centre was shortlisted for the prestigious national Contact Centre Association Excellence awards in two categories.Going up against other top companies, National Express was nominated for a customer service team of the year award and a great place to work award.

In celebration of the nominations, the national coach operator created a special phone cake for staff at the 24/7 contact centre to enjoy.

Based at National Express’s head office in Birmingham Coach Station, the contact centre is one of the biggest in the region, employing a team of nearly 200 staff. The centre deals with most customer issues, including queries, bookings, complaints and sales.

Customers have a wide range of ways of getting in touch with the centre including email, text, live chat, social media, phone and even hand written letters. As well as phone calls the contact centre has handled nearly 230,000 other types of communication so far this year.

Meanwhile customers have given the centre a 94% satisfaction rating in a post call survey.

Karen Beasley, National Express UK Coach Customer Experience Director, said: “It’s fantastic to see our contact centre being nominated not once but twice for this highly prized award.

“We’ve worked very hard to make the contact centre a great place for staff to work, and in return they have delivered great results. These nominations just underline the hard work, skill and dedication of our staff.

“Customers are at the heart of all we do so it’s absolutely vital that we have a high performing contact centre to make sure all journeys go as smoothly as possible.”

Award winners will be announced on November 26 at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, in front of more than 700 guests.