20th February 2015
Media information: for immediate release
STAGECOACH CALLS ON BUS PASSENGERS TO NOMINATE THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE CHAMPIONS
• Customer Service category part of Stagecoach Group Champions Awards
• Cash prizes for passengers who enter winning staff member
• Awards also recognize success in safety, environment, health, innovation and community
• Customer nominations can be made by visiting www.stagecoach.com or emailing champions@stagecoachgroup.com
Stagecoach Group has launched its 2015 Champions Awards for employees – and is inviting bus and coach passengers in Devon to nominate their favourite member of staff for the Customer Service Champions Award.
This is the sixth year of the company’s Group-wide Champions Awards which recognise staff achievements in a number of categories including safety, environment, health, innovation, community and customer service.
The awards are open to employees across Stagecoach’s bus and rail operations in the UK and North America.and more than 90 staff members have been honoured for their outstanding efforts over the past six years.
Stagecoach South West is calling on the help of its customers to nominate their favourite employee – it could be a driver, customer service assistant, inspector or any other member of the Stagecoach team.
All employees nominated will be in with a chance of winning a gold, silver or bronze champions award along with a cash prize.
In addition, customers who nominate a winning employee will also receive a cash prize*. The customer who nominates a gold award-winning employee will receive £500, the customer who puts forward a silver award-winning employee will receive £250 and the customer who nominates a bronze award-winning employee will receive £125.
Managing Director of Stagecoach South West, Michael Watson, said: “We know many of our staff have a great relationship with our customers and the job they do is appreciated by many local people. This is a chance for our customers to help local staff gain recognition at a national level as well as potentially winning a prize themselves.
“We hope people will take the time to nominate their favourite Stagecoach employee across Devon.”
Customers who wish to nominate an employee should visit www.stagecoach.com or email champions@stagecoachgroup.com to give details of the staff member and an explanation of why they believe the employee deserves to win an award. The deadline for nominations is midnight on Thursday 30 April 2015.
For further information about Stagecoach Group visit www.stagecoach.com
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact: Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email: media@stagecoachgroup.com
Notes to Editors:
*Please note – in cases where more than one customer has nominated a winning employee, the prize will go to the customer who emailed their nomination first. If the nomination is made by a group of people, one cash prize will be awarded to the group, not to each individual within the group. Employees or family members of staff who work for any Stagecoach company are not eligible for these cash prizes.
Stagecoach Group
• Stagecoach Group is an international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, continental Europe, the United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,300 buses and coaches. Around 2.8 million passenger journeys are made on Stagecoach’s buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates a network of inter-city services across the UK and continental Europe.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast rail franchise. It also has a 90% shareholding in Inter City Railways Limited, which has been awarded the contract to operate the East Coast rail franchise from March 2015.
• Stagecoach operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,400 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter, transit, contracted, charter and sightseeing services.
Stagecoach South West
Stagecoach South West provides local bus services across Exeter, East Devon, Torbay, South Devon, North Devon, Somerset and into Cornwall and Dorset. Over our financial year from May 2013 to April 2014 we carried a total of 28.7 million passengers over the year and operated a total of 15.17 million miles. We employ a total of 999 staff located at 3 depots and 6 outstations.