Chiltern Railways has announced extended opening hours for its customer service contact centre.
Until recently, Chiltern’s social media and customer service telephone lines have been monitored Monday – Friday between 0730 and 1930.
Chiltern will now have a comprehensive, seven days a week customer service offering as follows:
- Social media (Twitter/Facebook) – 0600 to 2200
- Live chat – 0600 to 2200
- Telephone – 0800 to 2000
This means that customer assistance will be available for the vast majority of Chiltern’s operating hours throughout the week. Rare service updates outside of these hours will be posted on social media automatically.
Late last year, Chiltern made a proposal to the Department for Transport (DfT) to enhance and extend its customer service offering as part of its new National Rail Contract (NRC), with a commitment to recruiting and training additional staff and extending opening hours by September 2022.
This follows on from the introduction of Delay Repay 15 earlier this year, which allows customers to make claims for compensation whenever their journey is delayed by more than 15 minutes, regardless of the reason or delay. As part of the Delay Repay 15 scheme, Chiltern also launched a new, automated system which will calculate and process refund claims, which will reduce processing times significantly. This has been well received by customers and since May, customers have been able to claim their delay repay with this new automated process.
Eleni Jordan, commercial & customer strategy director at Chiltern Railways, said: “As a customer-centric train operator, we are delighted to be extending our contact centre opening hours across all methods of communication. This enhancement will significantly improve customer experience and ensure that customers travelling with us are able to get assistance and support from a member of our team throughout the week and at earlier and later times during the day.”
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