SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGER - WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL

The service delivery manager is the responsible leader for all aspects of service delivery within a defined group of stations. Leading and inspiring a team of frontline colleagues and working collaboratively across the organisation, they ensure the highest standards of customer service, performance and safety are consistently delivered, meeting Rail for London’s (RfL) requirements as defined within the Concession Agreement as well as our core business objectives.

‘Honestly, we wear so many hats! Every single day is different. The main consistent duties are to be supporting stations in any capacity, whether to deal with incidents that can affect stations directly or issues that can affect other parts of the network like delays.’ – Selin Igdimir, service delivery manager

But what does it take to become a successful service delivery manager?

To begin our exploration of the service delivery manager role, we asked Daniel Sweeting, who helped train our new SDMs: what are the three key attributes all SDM’s need to obtain.

The ability to problem solve and have outstanding situational awareness. It can vary from reading the clues of every situation, foreseeing six steps ahead, considering the cause and effect of everything, and putting in contingency for this.

Health and safety is a big part of our role, so we ensure our stations are safe for staff and the customers that come through them. We need to communicate with agency managers regularly to ensure that agency staff’s training is up to date. This also ensures that managers and supervisors are aware of colleagues that may need support or praise. – Selin Igdimir

Being highly responsive and attuned to direct reports' needs and requirements and caring about wanting to meet and exceed their expectations.

A big part of my role is about people on the front line, so I like going into different stations, not only the ones I am responsible for, but across Anglia lines, to engage with staff. It promotes trust and helps build good rapport. Selin Igdimir

Ensuring you're highly organised. It can involve several things, such as tracking multiple workstreams, emails, messages, and phone calls while giving everyone appropriate attention and following through with every query.

Attend weekly management meetings as these are important to know new issues or policies. As well as Liaising with different departments across the business, such as revenue, HR, and facilities management. – Selin Igdmir

To ensure that every service delivery manager is equipped with the necessary skills. Through the training process, SDM’s are taught a breakdown of everything an SDM needs to know, nearly 400 areas of interest, from operational critical knowledge skills and information as well as just ‘nice-to-know information, across all areas of the business, Safety, Ops, HR etc. as well as personal development training. – Daniel Sweeting

I feel lucky that I have been trained well since I started, but my line manager has been very supportive. Also, I have joined a team of SDMs that really work as a team, and again, I feel we support each other and communicate well. – Selin Igdimir, service delivery manager