The manager of National Express' Birmingham based contact centre has beaten off stiff competition from colleagues from around the world to walk away with the Customer Value award at the company’s recent employee recognition awards.

Claire Horvath, from Great Barr, was given the international award for her commitment to providing the best possible service to customers, at National Express’ annual Values Awards ceremony at the London Transport Museum on Thursday 23 May.

Claire said she was pleasantly surprised to have won the accolade:

“I am thrilled to win an award for doing a job that I love. It is a real honour to be recognised for my work.

“I work with an amazing team of people day in and day out and would like to thank them for all of their support.”

During her 15 year career with the international transport provider, Claire has dealt with some extremely complex situations including taking control of a recent phone call from a distressed customer threatening to harm himself. Remaining calm and professional throughout the call, Claire kept the customer on the phone for hours reassuring him and guiding him to get some support, bringing the incident to a positive conclusion.

Chris Hardy, Managing Director at National Express UK Coach, said:

“Claire is an inspiration to everyone around her. She deals with complex and challenging situations on a daily basis, often going above and beyond her call of duty because customers are at the forefront of everything she does.

“We are very proud of Claire for her hard work and commitment to our customers. She is a real asset to the National Express family.”

Now in its seventh year, the National Express Values Awards celebrates the hard work of staff across the international business in its five core values - Excellence, Safety, Customer, People and Community.