Transit Customer Service from F to A grades

English: by me UTA bus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Bus 2909 of TriMet, the public transit agency in Portland, Oregon, is a 2009-built New Flyer D40LFR. It is pictured on Harrison Street at 4th Avenue in downtown Portland, outbound on route 54 to Beaverton Transit Center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Denver - CBD: RTD Light Rail (Photo credit: wallyg)

     The following are three customer service examples from three different transit agencies in the western US. After reading the three incidents and the response from the transit agency, which one of these agencies would you like to be a customer of? The three offer the best examples of a total failure, adequate action, and giving outstanding customer service.

   

      

Denver RTD

Grade: F 

      Denver RTD gets the worst grade for customer service. My experience started when I flew into DIA for a meeting and took a RTD bus and light rail to my motel. I boarded one of their MCI commuter cruisers with an all day, all zone pass which I purchased on-line. The driver has to punch the day pass for it to be valid, well the driver did and punched the wrong day. Unfortunately the drivers do not carry day passes so when we got to the light rail station I had to purchase another day pass. 

      First of all I was not mad at the driver and when I talked to Denver RTD customer service I did not mention which bus or time that it happened. A couple of weeks, that's right weeks after I talk to them about the day pass they send me a nasty email saying basically too bad, not our problem. The email was extremely unprofessional and showed a lack of customer care by RTD. 

Portland TriMet

Grade: C

     I have been riding TriMet for about a year now since moving here to Portland. For the most part most of my trips are pretty uneventful except for the random person that has to talk on their cell phone way too loud telling the other person about their sex life and so on.  However, I have had two experiences with TriMet operators in which I took up an issue with their customer service department. I should point out that I have also sent in three commendations for drivers also so I am not only complaining, but also commend those that are excellent in their jobs. 

     In both incidents I got a email from a customer service rep that said sorry you had an issue and said the driver would be talked to. I will say that both letters were written individually and not form letters which I gives points to TriMet. TriMet does the basics in good customer service, nothing more so it gets a passing grade. 

Salt Lake City Utah Transit Authority

Grade: A 

     In my time riding UTA, I only one time sent in a complaint. That day I went to take one bus to a Park N Ride lot to catch a second bus. It was daylight out so that cannot be used as an excuse. The driver of the first bus passed me right on by didn't even bother to slow down. Immediately behind him was another bus deadheading to the Park N Ride lot. This driver hit is breaks but then kept on going. I then waited for the next bus to come along. Because the next was supposed to do a loop before heading to the Park N Ride lot I would miss my next bus. However, the driver of the next bus went ahead and dropped me at the Park N Ride Lot so I wouldn't miss my next bus. 

     The customer service person at UTA offered me two free day passes (since at the time I was not riding on a daily basis so I didn't need the discount on a monthly pass). Of course I didn't complain to get the free day passes and never sent in another complaint. However, UTA did the best job of taking care of the customer and ensuring they will be happy with UTA service. 

     You can clearly see why UTA gets the best grade here. Some would argue that they should not waste the money trying to please a dissatisfied customer however, that response would be narrow minded. Transit systems need to work on their customer service skills just like any other company that provides a service and deals with passengers every day of the week. 

     

       

Related articles

• Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Customer Experience

Contract Out Services?

Rep John Dougall out of Highland has called for UTA to look into contracting out services in order to save money. I am not sure what Dougall's motives are, as I am cynical about most politicians and their true motives, but lets take a look at the pros and cons of contracting out services.

First of all, cost usually go down when you contract out services. Most contract operations do not use union labor (I will do my union rant some other time), so they pay less than union wages. In addition the operations usually cut down on overhead over the bureaucratic transit agency.

However, the cons currently out weigh the positives.

First of all, while I believe in private enterprise and especially small business, there is little change a small operator the Resorts (owner of Lewis Brothers) or a company like LeBus would end up operating the service.

Instead one of the "big" operators such as Stagecoach that are not only non local companies, but are not even US based. There for the profits and the benefits of the outsourcing not only leave the immediate area, they do even benefit our country. Since employement will stay the same but wages go down there is no benefit to the community.

In addition the quality of service can be questionable at best. Because these operators do not truly care about the local community they do not care about the quality of service provided to the customer. While some union drivers don't care about the quality of service they provide because they know it is so hard to fire them, the outsourced drivers have very few oportunities for advancement and there is little oversight, often the drivers can have questionable attitudes.

A few years ago I was in Denver for a meeting. At the time Denver's bus service was outsourced to three different providers. I actually had a wonderful experience with a bus driver so I decided to let RTD in Denver know. Usually companies only hear negative so I go out of way to let them know when I have good service. I called RTD and the operator was in shock they were getting a compliment.

He said it was the first time he had ever gotten a postive comment about a contratracted service. Whether that is a sign that people don't have the class to compliment the drivers when they do right or the drivers are that bad in general, you will have to decide for yourself.

Other downside of contracting out service is maintence. Often the companies will scimp on taking care of things to make more money. Once again because the companies are not local they do not have any reason to ensure that the equimpment is properly maintianed to help the community.

In Los Angeles and other cities that have contracted out service there has been bad experiences with air conditioners, wheelchair lifts, and other equipment malfunctions. In addition there has been multiple horror stories about last runs of the day missing due to malfunction equipment so thus people being stranded. In addition I have seen photos of buses being held together with duct tape in order to keep major items such as the A/C cover from falling off.

The only solution is to have oversight and conditions in the contract if they things happen or maintence is not up to standards, the contracter can be fined.

Am I saying that all contractors are bad? Of course not, like anything there is good and bad. However, anytime you contract to a company that has no financial interest in the local community, you send the money out of town with no benefits to the community.

While I have no idea what Dougall's true motives are, you need to look at the unitended consequences of any action taken and make sure that the local community benefits from the decisions made.