Cancellations 24/6

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

I'd be extremely wary of advising anyone to email GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if they wish to complain taking into account that their Customer Service is in such a mess that they are no longer even prepared to give a timescale for a reply to be sent - that's likely to infuriate people even more.

[IndustryInsider]

The more complaints, the bigger the backlog, the more chance it gets sorted.  After all: See it. Say it. Sorted.

[didcotdean]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) CS needs to be sorted by greater capacity, rather than a firebreak.

[grahame]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) CS needs to be sorted by greater capacity, rather than a firebreak.

I'm feeling mixed threads here  - about a three way mix.

There would be logic to add capacity, and to use an element of that capacity (unfair though it would feel) to deal with new requests in a timeous manner, before each of those grows from a baby enquiry into an awkward teenager that requires even more resource.

[rower40]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) CS needs to be sorted by greater capacity, rather than a firebreak.

I'm feeling mixed threads here  - about a three way mix.

There would be logic to add capacity, and to use an element of that capacity (unfair though it would feel) to deal with new requests in a timeous manner, before each of those grows from a baby enquiry into an awkward teenager that requires even more resource.

As the parent of 2- and 4-year old daughters, that last bit fills me with dread...

[TaplowGreen]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) CS needs to be sorted by greater capacity, rather than a firebreak.

I'm feeling mixed threads here  - about a three way mix.

There would be logic to add capacity, and to use an element of that capacity (unfair though it would feel) to deal with new requests in a timeous manner, before each of those grows from a baby enquiry into an awkward teenager that requires even more resource.

Not overly difficult. Firstly you work out how much of a backlog you have - clearly it's pretty horrific as the ETA for a reply has gone from two months to indefinite - then you work out how many complaints an individual can process in one day. You decide what is an acceptable timeframe to clear the backlog, do some maths, and come up with a required number of people to do the work within this timeframe.

Based on this calculation, you hire in temp staff and clear the backlog, leaving the permanent staff (ensuring there are enough in place) to concentrate on the "incoming" and in that way you regain control of the situation, keep on top of the work, and maintain the necessary timescales going forward.

All this needs to succeed is a shift from GWR to becoming a Business which cares about its customers and their satisfaction with its services, and basic management skills. I fear these two aspects may present the biggest challenge judging by current performance.

Before the "ooooooos gunna pay for it then?" brigade start piping up, this problem has been created by and sits squarely with GWR, so any OPEX incurred needs to come off their bottom line - a painful, but potentially an enlightening opportunity for improvement and efficiency.

[grahame]

Not overly difficult.

Exactly ... we can be so much more helpful here to anyone who reads these forums if we make such constructive suggestions.  You never know who may be reading - especially as you started this thread on a public board 

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have a number of issues to deal with which are out of their control but for which they have to take the flack.  However, there are a number of things which the can/could do things about - ranging from this backlog to using the train that sits idle at Swindon from twenty five past four to ten to six each evening to run an extra trip to abstract from the 17:36 - which might cost them a little in the short term but would certainly bring far more sentiment onto their side.  I suspect that such sentiment would / will be useful for management contract and franchise stuff over coming years - so it really should be in their interest!

[didcotdean]

A CS which cannot answer in a timely manner to its customers is a disgrace to any organisation.

There have been plenty of reasons advanced as to how and why this situation arose (such as change of contractors, number of incidents all at one time) but if the capacity can barely cope with the regular demand the slug will never get cleared. Indeed if anything the evidence is that the queue is growing.

Triage the correspondence up front, concentrate the more experienced and knowledgeable staff (I guess these exist) on the complex issues, hire in others to deal with the more routine. Most of all keep people informed on a regular basis rather than giving the impression you don't care at all. All basic stuff really.

[LiskeardRich]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) CS needs to be sorted by greater capacity, rather than a firebreak.

I'm feeling mixed threads here  - about a three way mix.

There would be logic to add capacity, and to use an element of that capacity (unfair though it would feel) to deal with new requests in a timeous manner, before each of those grows from a baby enquiry into an awkward teenager that requires even more resource.

Not overly difficult. Firstly you work out how much of a backlog you have - clearly it's pretty horrific as the ETA for a reply has gone from two months to indefinite - then you work out how many complaints an individual can process in one day. You decide what is an acceptable timeframe to clear the backlog, do some maths, and come up with a required number of people to do the work within this timeframe.

Based on this calculation, you hire in temp staff and clear the backlog, leaving the permanent staff (ensuring there are enough in place) to concentrate on the "incoming" and in that way you regain control of the situation, keep on top of the work, and maintain the necessary timescales going forward.

All this needs to succeed is a shift from GWR to becoming a Business which cares about its customers and their satisfaction with its services, and basic management skills. I fear these two aspects may present the biggest challenge judging by current performance.

Before the "ooooooos gunna pay for it then?" brigade start piping up, this problem has been created by and sits squarely with GWR, so any OPEX incurred needs to come off their bottom line - a painful, but potentially an enlightening opportunity for improvement and efficiency.

Our former letter team where I used to work, had a target of 1 hour per letter. Every letter was bespoke, with no templates available to them.

[IndustryInsider]

This, and information during disruption, are the two areas GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) really needs to work on, but seem totally unconcerned about either.

[grahame]

This, and information during disruption, are the two areas GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) really needs to work on, but seem totally unconcerned about either.

I've been labelling up some old images - came across this one from the start of the rebranding exercise; some talk of what customers expect and what should be provided in here:

[Timmer]

This, and information during disruption, are the two areas GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) really needs to work on, but seem totally unconcerned about either.

Because they know these two issues are low down on Dft's list of priorities from a franchise?

[grahame]

This gets depressing ...

"I know - let's cancel the last train of the day ...

20:06 Swindon to Westbury due 20:49
20:06 Swindon to Westbury due 20:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

So why not use one of those trains that's just been released from the Severn Beach line?