Description
Railway passenger service agents spend time with railway station customers, answer their questions and react quickly and safely to unexpected situations. They provide information, mobility assistance, and security in railway stations. They provide accurate and up to date information on train arrival and departure times, train connections, and help customers plan their travels.
Other titles
The following job titles also refer to railway passenger service agent:
railway transportation service representative
railway customer transit agent
passenger representative
railway passenger agent
railway station customer service agent
railway station customer service representative
railway customer service agent
railway customer service representative
customer transit agent
Minimum qualifications
A high school diploma is generally required to work as a railway passenger service agent.
ISCO skill level
ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:
- the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
- the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
- the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.
Railway passenger service agent is a Skill level 2 occupation.
Railway passenger service agent career path
Similar occupations
These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to railway passenger service agent.
railway sales agent
train driver
passenger fare controller
train conductor
cabin crew manager
Long term prospects
These occupations require some skills and knowledge of railway passenger service agent. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of railway passenger service agent with a significant experience and/or extensive training.
international forwarding operations coordinator
aviation data communications manager
civil registrar
customs officer
department store manager
Essential knowledge and skills
Essential knowledge
This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of railway passenger service agent.
- Product range of railway companies: Know the product range of railway companies and use that knowledge in order to provide assistance to customers with problems or queries.
- Train routes: Know principal train routes and quickly search for relevant information to respond to customer questions. Provide advice on potential shortcuts and itinerary options.
Essential skills and competences
These skills are necessary for the role of railway passenger service agent.
- Guarantee customer satisfaction: Handle customer expectations in a professional manner, anticipating and addressing their needs and desires. Provide flexible customer service to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Interpret customer non-verbal communication: Interpret the non-verbal communication signals of customers, e.g. to assess personality traits or current mood. Use observations to tailor services to the client.
- Implement marketing strategies: Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.
- Deliver a sales pitch: Prepare and deliver an understandably constructed sales talk for a product or a service, identifying and using persuasive argumentation.
- Act as a company ambassador: Represent and defend the interests of the company to customers, and provide workable solutions to problems. Pursue the highest quality customer service.
- React calmly in stressful situations: React quickly, calmly, and safely to unexpected situations. Provide a solution that solves the problem or diminishes its impact.
- Manage the customer experience: Monitor, create and oversee customer experience and perception of brand and service. Ensure pleasant customer experience, treat customers in a cordial and courteous manner.
- Identify customer’s needs: Use appropriate questions and active listening in order to identify customer expectations, desires and requirements according to product and services.
- Relay messages through radio and telephone systems: Possess the communication abilities to relay messages through a radio and telephone system.
- Deliver outstanding service: Provide outstanding customer service by exceeding customer expectations; establish reputation as an exceptional service provider.
- Provide information to passengers: Provide passengers with correct information in a polite and efficient manner; use proper etiquette to assist physically challenged travellers.
- Tend to passenger belongings: Handle passenger belongings; assist elderly or physically challenged travellers by carrying their luggage.
- Write work-related reports: Compose work-related reports that support effective relationship management and a high standard of documentation and record keeping. Write and present results and conclusions in a clear and intelligible way so they are comprehensible to a non-expert audience.
- Strive to provide high quality customer service: Pursue highest possible quality of customer service; do what needs to be done to keep the customer satisfied.
- Listen actively: Give attention to what other people say, patiently understand points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times; able to listen carefully the needs of customers, clients, passengers, service users or others, and provide solutions accordingly.
- Maintain updated professional knowledge: Regularly attend educational workshops, read professional publications, actively participate in professional societies.
- Collect customer data: Collect customer data such as contact information, credit card or billing information; gather information to track down purchase history.
- Meet picking standards: Perform picking activities in a way that meets quality standards.
- Communicate with customer service department: Communicate with customer service in a transparent and collaborative manner; monitor how service is operating; relay real-time information to customers.
- Implement sales strategies: Carry out the plan to gain competitive advantage on the market by positioning the company’s brand or product and by targeting the right audience to sell this brand or product to.
- Think proactively: Take initiatives to come up with improvements.
Optional skills and competences
These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of railway passenger service agent. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.
- Act reliably: Proceed in a way that one can be relied on or depended on.
- Work in a rail transport team: Work confidently within a group in rail transport services, in which each individual has their own responsibility in working towards a common goal such as a good interaction with the customers, railway safety, and rolling stock maintenance.
- Speak different languages: Master foreign languages to be able to communicate in one or more foreign languages.
- Show confidence: Demonstrate degrees of maturity by fully understanding one’s own qualities and abilities which can serve as sources of confidence in different situations.
- Use positive language: Express oneself using positive language in conversation; the way in which language is used may persuade customers.
- Have computer literacy: Utilise computers, IT equipment and modern day technology in an efficient way.
- Perform services in a flexible manner: Adapt service approach when circumstances change.
- Use Microsoft Office: Possess the ability to work with the standard programs contained in Microsoft Office at a capable level. Create a document and do basic formatting, insert page breaks, create headers or footers, and insert graphics, create automatically generated tables of contents and merge form letters from a database of addresses (usually in Excel). Create auto-calculating spreadsheets, create images, and sort and filter data tables.
ISCO group and title
5112 – Transport conductors
References
- Railway passenger service agent – ESCO
- Featured image: By Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0