Last week at Greater Anglia‘s Innovation Conference, a conductor was given an award, this was due to an idea that they came up with. The idea they came up with was tweeting information to his passengers during their journey.

The annual conference brings together both rail staff and partner organisations in order to focus on new and innovative ways to improve services for the industry and their passengers.

A 176 attendees heard from business leaders such as Risk Solutions, touchtechnologies and idea management company, Wazoku, at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium where they discussed ideas to improve rail journeys for passengers.

Senior Conductor, Blake Cracknell, received the Innovative Customer-Focused Idea of the Year Award for setting up a twitter account which allowed him to communicate directly with his passengers.

Blake, a conductor for five years, came up with the idea when the company asked him how he thought he could improve customer service. He now has over 1,500 followers.

What did the officials have to say?

Blake – who tweets as @ConductorBlake – said,

“I always try to look after my passengers as best I can, and let them know what’s going on during the journey.

“I make regular announcements, but sometimes during disruption I can’t always be near the PA, so I took to Twitter to keep people up to date.

“Passengers can then also tweet me questions and I can answer, even if I’m at the other end of the train to them.

“It just gives that human face to the company and helps me look after my passengers better.”

 

Rachel Margerum, Greater Anglia’s Innovation & Continual Improvement Manager, said:

“We’re constantly seeking to improve at Greater Anglia so that we can offer the best possible service to our customers.

“The innovation conference gives us the opportunity to listen to others and think about what we can do differently or better.

“Blake is an excellent example of someone who is dedicated to giving the best service and is always exploring new ways to do this.

“To spread creativity and energy like this around the company, we have now trained 38 employees – with the help of Wazoku – to act as ‘Innovation Catalysts’ and they will help their colleagues to develop and implement new ideas for improving our service.”

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