Ahead of National Customer Service Week, South Western Railway (SWR) asked its customers and crew to share their favourite examples of staff members going above and beyond to deliver outstanding customer service.
The response was truly heart-warming and served as a timely reminder of how many different ways there are to make a positive impact when you work on the railway.
Perhaps one of the most dramatic stories received involved Southampton Central station’s Ewan Smith-Wainwright, whose heroic actions helped save a customer’s life following a heart attack in June.
During a late shift, Ewan received an urgent call from one of his colleagues telling him that a man had collapsed on the station’s platform. Ewan and Welfare Officer, Dan Stephens, came to the man’s rescue by dialling 999 before performing life-saving CPR to resuscitate the customer and get his heart beating again.
Thankfully, the customer survived this ordeal and contacted Ewan personally to express his gratitude for saving his life. Ewan talks more about the incident below:
Another of SWR’s customers may not have needed someone to save their life, but they did need someone to save their holiday. Judith Baker, who works in the ticket office at Dorchester station, was praised for her ‘absolutely fantastic’ and ‘reassuring’ approach by a worried customer who left a bag containing their passport on an SWR train.
