First ScotRail's Customer Contact Centre in Fort William is celebrating its first anniversary on Wednesday 4 October 2006, which coincides with Customer Service Week.

The centre, which is run by First ScotRail's sister company, FirstInfo,provides a dedicated workforce of over 50 staff, who are on hand everyday to take calls from customers regarding general travel enquiries, ticket sales, customer relations and anyone requiring assistance on their journey.

When it opened, it was anticipated that the team would handle more than 277,000 enquiries a year. This figure has been exceeded and records to date (at the end of September) show that over 280,000 contacts have been handled. Of this figure, over 800 or 23%, were from customers praising staff and the quality and standard of service First ScotRail is providing as it reaches the end of its second year of the franchise.

The success of the centre can be attributed to the highly professional staff who work there - their knowledge of Scotland and understanding of the rail industry, coupled with the fact that its location reverses the trend of sending such work abroad - has lead to a very positive first year of operation.

The facility, which has also dealt with more than 40,000 letters and e-mails over the last 12 months, is a commitment by First ScotRail, who delivered on a promise to open a contact centre in Scotland for the benefit of customers, within the first year of the franchise. This delivery also brought with it a welcome boost to the local economy.

Natalie Loughborough, Service Quality Director at First ScotRail said, "The success of the contact centre in its first year is testament to the level of service being provided by the staff that work there. It is also representative of First ScotRail meeting customers' demand for a knowledgeable, Scotland based contact centre."We focus hard on improving customer service across all areas of our business and this is just one area where we are clearly seeing positive
results and increase in quality thanks to a dedicated resource."

Debra Revens, Managing Director of FirstInfo, said: "We are delighted to be celebrating our first year of providing assistance and support to First ScotRail customers. We look forward to continuing to deliver high quality customer care from our Scottish Call Centre in the coming years".