Innovative solutions from SWR colleagues at first ever Track’a’thon

South Western Railway (SWR) colleagues from across the business met in Southampton on 7^th and 8^th March for SWR’s first ever Track’a’thon event. The two days were part of SWR’s innovation strategy, bringing together colleagues who formed teams to work on finding new ways of tackling existing problems. This collaborative approach led to a number of great ideas that will be trialled over the coming months to improve the service that SWR provides to its customers.

The winning idea is a new resource called iQR, which would give SWR customers ownership of their journey and experience. Customers would have access to QR codes onboard, which they could scan for information, questions and reporting.

Second place went to a Fast Track Ticketing proposal which would allow for the multiskilling of colleagues to enable them to sell tickets at gatelines.

The third-place idea is called ‘Customer Xchange’ and this would create a culture change in customer experience by identifying trusted colleagues who could deliver staff training in familiar venues such as on trains and at stations. This would come in place of using outside agencies and meeting rooms.

SWR’s Innovation Delivery Group will be taking these ideas forward and they will be trialled in the next few months. They can then be refined and become part of an improved customer experience on South Western Railway as the business adapts to our customers’ changing travel patterns and expectations as they return to the railway in ever greater numbers.

Christian Neill, SWR’s Customer Experience Director, said: “SWR is looking to provide a lead in finding innovative solutions to some of our existing problems in order to provide the best possible service we can for our customers.

“Track’a’Thon is an innovative way of finding those solutions as it brings together colleagues from all parts of SWR to share their wide range of knowledge and experience of the rail industry. Harnessing this knowledge, they work collaboratively to generate ideas which will give a real boost to customer experience”.