Island residents connect with Red Funnel management at recent Customer Forum

Last month (February), Red Funnel hosted a group of Island resident customers at its first Customer Forum of 2023. The face-to-face discussion provided the opportunity for customers to connect with some of Red Funnel’s senior leaders, including CEO Fran Collins to raise questions and share feedback directly with the company.

A wide variety of topics were discussed during the 3-hour session, including pricing, disabled access, apps and technology, retail, food and beverage, customer service, shoreside facilities, staffing and sustainability.  

A summary of the session has been posted online, here.

Discussing the Customer Forum, Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel, said: “Since our last Customer Forum session in October 2022, we have made many positive developments across the business but have also experienced some challenges.”

“We were unable to offer a three-boat service over the Christmas period due to changes in our refit schedule and vessels undergoing essential maintenance. We are planning to upgrade our vessels and the shoreside infrastructure, and 2023 will see us share some of these ambitions with you.”

“We are very excited about our East Cowes Terminal redevelopment, and we spoke at length about this during the session. I am pleased to share that we will be starting consultation this year and there has been a lot of work happening in the background over the past few months. East Cowes marks the start of an exciting journey for us in upgrading our shoreside infrastructure, so it’s really important that we have through plans and proposals in the right format, before we take them public. Before any final decisions are made, we will be engaging with customers, our people, residents and local stakeholders to ensure the community is aligned and comes with us on this exciting journey. We will be sharing more information about this very soon and are really look forward to putting the public consultation in motion.“
Red Funnel will be hosting its next Customer Forum session on Tuesday 23rd May. Customers interested in attending a future Customer Forum, can contact [email protected].

-Ends-
For further information, please contact [email protected] / 02380 382 970

Notes to editors
About Red Funnel

Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service.  

In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and its on board café, ‘ReFuel’.

The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Wight Proms, and Walk the Wight as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s Charity of the Year, 2023 is Aspire.

For more information, visit www.redfunnel.co.uk