- It’s International Women’s Day, and TPE’s Customer Experience Director, Kathryn O’Brien, has won a national strategic leadership award.
The UK Customer Satisfaction Awards were hosted in London on Tuesday 7 March, and saw Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience Director at TransPennine Express (TPE), deservedly win the Customer Service Strategic Leadership Award.
The category came down to ten finalists, with Kathryn the only woman to make the shortlist.
Kathryn has been the Customer Experience Director at TPE since 2014, and has more than 25 years of experience in the rail industry.
Kathryn has led the change for customer service within the business, and has been relentless in her pursuit of excellence, consistently building successful teams to implement improvements for customers.
Kathryn’s strong leadership has reaped rewards with consistent year on year increases in TPE’s spring and autumn National Rail Passenger Survey scores.
Kathryn commented: “I’m truly humbled to have won. I’ve dedicated my working career to helping customers, and so I’m over the moon to be recognised with this award. It’s also important to me to try and be a role model to women who want a career in rail, and hopefully this goes some way to demonstrate that women can be successful in an industry that is traditionally male-dominated. I’m proud that TPE is prioritising the balancing of our workforce to ensure it accurately reflects the communities we serve.
Leo Goodwin, TPE Managing Director, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Kathryn has been recognised for the outstanding contribution she has made to TPE and the wider rail industry. For more than 25 years Kathryn has worked tirelessly to improve services, and has always put customers at the heart of everything she does. Kathryn is a role model for everyone at TPE, and I am proud to work alongside her.”