What's it like to be a Customer Service Manager on board a train?

It's a dark and damp Monday morning at London Paddington and the hard core commuters are hurrying off buses in washed out grey suits, tired looking eyes and with a look on their faces that says "oh no not another Monday!".

Customer Service Manager Sarah, makes a striking contrast to most of the Paddington Station early morning crowd, she's immaculately made up, wearing a navy blue and darkish pink/purple trouser suit ready to greet travellers on the 7.15 am train service to Cardiff. Sarah is already half an hour into her working day, travelling by tube from her South Ealing home to lead a 6.30 team briefing.

On board Sarah is gliding through the First Class carriages, dispensing pots of breakfast tea and coffee to bleary-eyed travellers, assuring them that breakfast will be served soon. "At first it's hard to serve food when you're moving and then it's hard to do it when the train is standing still. You learn to stand with your feet wide apart which is a bit ungainly.

Mushrooms are the hardest things to do silver service." Sarah's balance is not helped by the cut of her company issue suit: "The sizing is a bit skimpy, but I'm too vain to go up a size," she confesses. As the train starts to gather speed leaving behind the blurred suburbs of the City, there's a loud "Aaargh" from inside the galley as the toaster refuses to work. The chef puts the grill on to toast duty, which will slightly delay breakfast service, but will get the job done. "Anything can and will go wrong. Swapping the grill for the toaster is no big deal, but if the boiler goes wrong that is a crisis as we have to use trolley water, which is much slower. You get used to dealing with little things," says Sarah resignedly.

This journey marks Sarah's two year anniversary as a Customer Service Manager (CSM) with her employer. She is celebrating the occasion by applying for a new job as Resource Service Manager, managing supplies, staff and equipment for on board services, but critically she would be working at Head Office rather than on a train, with less erratic hours.

"You do get used to getting up at 4.30, and I have every other weekend off," she says brightly. Weekend leisure travellers are the bane of Sarah's life. "Sunday is the busiest day, week day working is better because it's steadier, while at the weekends it's either all or nothing. Also at the weekend there's more football fans, drunks and problem passengers." Delayed passengers tend to take their frustrations out on Sarah. "But if we do what we can to assist people, they calm down and are grateful - that's what good customer service is about."

Luckily the train is running like clockwork and Sarah's three Customer Service Assistants are deftly serving bacon, eggs and bangers from huge silver plates and the 8.30 call for second breakfast sitting goes out.

Once the breakfast rush is over Sarah and her team sit down to their own breakfast, having survived on toast on the hoof for the past three hours. At Bristol Sarah has a short break, although some of that will be spent checking stores and possibly doing another team briefing.

Sarah's journey back to the City begins at around 11.30 when the London service departs Cardiff. In theory Sarah's day ends at 6pm, but there's still stocks to check and cashing up, and the possibility of yet another team briefing. Her employer has increased its customer facing staff by 25 per cent in the last year, and is clearly very keen on keeping passengers happy. Sarah is not facing another twelve hour day tomorrow as she is going on leave, but back to back long shifts or working all weekend are all part of the territory.

Sarah says the pros of her job are:

* Developing ideas to improve customer service

* Variety; no day is the same

* Helping customers

And the cons:

Only one she smiles: "Delayed passengers taking out their frustrations on you!"

Why not check out the latest "Customer Service Manager Jobs" on JICS