9.7.2007 First Capital Connect highly commended at Rail Forum Innovation Awards
First Capital Connect has been recognised at the Rail Forum Innovation Awards.
The company was highly commended in the Small Scale Innovation
category, which recognises small innovations that make a big difference to the operational effectiveness of the railway.
First Capital Connect was recognised for its Service Quality Management System (SQMS), developed in partnership with Datasys, which it has developed to effectively monitor and continuously improve the service it provides to customers.
The SQMS regime means that every station and every train is assessed every two periods (once every eight weeks) from a customer’s point of view. Visits are unannounced and results are recorded using PDAs. Every day, information recorded on the PDAs is uploaded and all passes, fails and assessor comments from each assessment are stored within SQMS for reporting purposes. Once all information has been uploaded, all results are sent via email to the relevant departments and managers to ensure that any fails are understood and actioned promptly. Likewise, that continual passes are recognised and highlighted.
Katherine Lewton, Head of Service Quality and Environment, said: “We are delighted to be recognised at the Rail Forum Innovation Awards. Customers quite rightly expect change and improvement across our business. First Capital Connect is using innovative technology in the form of our SQMS, to quickly deliver better results to everyone who travels with us. We passionately believe in delivering a consistently high quality service and have developed SQMS to translate our challenging aspirations into tangible reality for our customers and staff.”
