[rbt]

Unless you have had long conversations with the general managers of each of those hotels about what they think about public transit, and discovered that those who have spent much of their lives commuting by public transit are so blinded by their hotel experience that they are unable to apply any other lens to thinking about transit, that is certainly not a good basis for your presumption that Mr. O'Brien is unable to view transit in any other way than as a kind of hotel.

Okay. How about I word it this way.

I expect the TTC will implement many strategies which have recently been put into place in Philadelphia transit, or things which follow the footsteps of MTR rather than discovering novel and untried approaches within Public Transit as a result of the Blue Ribbon panel.

 

[PinkLucy]

I'm not sure what other lesson they could learn. Hotels focus all of their attention on frequent visitors and virtually none of the guy who stays once per year; airlines too. Nothing like being on the top of a points program. Free upgrades to first class from Toronto to Hong Kong, free meals from the Hotel when you are there, extra service and privilages from the Concierge for touring the city, then a bump to first class home and all because you happen to travel once per month instead of twice per year.


Lesson for the TTC will be to increase cash fare to $6, tokens to $4, and metropass for $150; then hand out bagels and newspapers to metropass holders as they go through the fare gate and juice or coffee on the way home for metropass holders ($2 to $3 extra for each passenger).

This can be done by co-operating with the in-station restaurants and requesting them to give a substantial discount (25%?) to metropass holders. Some of them might get really into that particularly if there is no rule agaist them raising prices by 25% to start with.

Sure, that's what they do for "frequent fliers". However, I've been to many hotels and been treated very well the first and only time I've been there. They treat people with respect and provide good customer service because they want you to comed back. They're trying to get your business so they don't wait until they've got it to be polite -- they do it from the outset. THAT is the lesson that the TTC could learn from all of this. (and it doesn't require doubling the fare). Rewards for frequent users are a total other thing.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Three Cheers: TTC Looks to SEPTA for Customer Service Guidance

From article at SEPTA WATCH, including link to CBC story:

Posted by AuthorColin at Date12:54 PM in CategoryThree Cheers under Tagcustomer service

No, seriously, stop laughing at that headline. Apparently there are some major issues with TTC in Toronto, and the board is looking to SEPTA's customer service initiatives over the past few years for guidance.

Of particular note are the comments of one blogger:

Colin Weir, who runs the transit blog septawatch.com praised many of Philadelphia's changes, particularly the introduction of an online route planner similar to the one unveiled by the TTC last week. He also lauded Philadelphia's enthusiastic use of Twitter to give customers service updates.

But he said Philadelphia still needs a lot of work.

"They really need to work on the cleanliness of the system. [That's] what I would say my biggest gripe with them is."​

Check out the full story, plus the video. Worth noting is that the video leaves out my positive comments and leaves only my cleanliness comment.

 

[ShonTron]

I fail to understand some people's inability to grasp the difference between a public institution trying to provide the most basic transportation at the most basic cost and a private corporation who’s trying to make a profit by charging you a premium on everything they do... Service is a luxury item, public transportation is not meant to be luxury.

You cannot compare the service you receive from private corporations whose mandate is to make money through providing you with friendly customer service with a public institution working on minimal funding whose mandate is simply to provide the most transportation at the lowest cost. You pay for that friendly service you get from Air Canada and McDonald's because these corporations calculate this service as a cost to themselves that is to be transferred to you as a customer in your purchases and then add a premium onto this transferred cost to become their profit. The TTC simply charge you the minimal that they could so that you, along with as many other people as possible, can get from point A to point B with the greatest efficiency.

Some of the best transportation-based customer service I've had were on such government-provided services as VIA Rail (the best of Canadian on-board service), Amtrak, Ontario Northland rail and bus, even some GO Transit drivers could represent the epitome of public customer service.

The province has done a complete turn-around with the LCBO (from the old days of dank stores with surly staff to modern stores with informed and helpful staff) and with Service Ontario offices and on-line services (which the Feds have seemed to copy).

Many, if not most TTC passengers/customers/cattle, whatever you want to call them, are choice riders - even many people without cars, like me, are choice riders, because I earn more than enough to go out and buy or lease a car, even though I really don't want to, as car ownership is very expensive, and I'd like to spend the money on other things, like travel, or savings. It is crucial that choice riders be retained and attracted to the system, and customer service is part of it.

So why should there be a different standard just because the TTC is a public service? Indeed, some of the best models of customer service can be found at the government level.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Some of the friendliest service I've ever received was with Parks Canada, The US National Parks Service and Ontario Parks. As government services, their primary duty is not to serve people but to preserve the natural environment. In fact, when you think about it, catering to people actually undermines their primary duty of natural conservation, because the intrusion of human beings into natural habitats makes conservation much more difficult. So, if a parks service can provide excellent customer service to keep people coming back, why does a transit agency - whose primary duty, as Sean says, is to ensure that riders use the system - treat people with such contempt?

 

[Dilla]

Matthew Blackett is on the panel?

Next round, we've got to get some UT representation on there...

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/773973--ttc-unveils-customer-service-panel?bn=1

TTC unveils customer service panel
WestJet, GO, student and rider reps to work on a more passenger-friendly TTC

Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
Julie Tyios, the CEO of an online marketing firm called Red Juice Media, has tweeted her way on to the TTC’s new customer service advisory panel.

She joins nine other business and community representatives who will help Toronto hotelier Steve O’Brien review the TTC’s customer-service practices in the hopes of injecting a little more humanity into the transit system.

TTC officials issued an online invitation Feb. 18 for riders to post on Twitter what they could bring to the panel. O’Brien reviewed the resumes of the top tweeters.

Also on the panel will be an executive from WestJet, an airline that has built a reputation for customer service, and officials from GO Transit and the Montreal transit system.

Although he’s been critical of the TTC, panelist Matt Blackett, who publishes Spacing magazine, which is devoted to public space and urbanism in Toronto, said the opportunity to have real input was too good to pass up.

“That’s the mandate of Spacing, to help make Toronto better,” he said. “Each time I present them they say, ‘This is a great idea,’ and that’s the end of it.”

Blackett tried to convince the TTC to merchandise the station-stop buttons Spacing created. But transit officials wouldn’t even listen to his pitch, he said. Now there are about 120,000 buttons in circulation.

He wants to see maps on streetcars, maps in the subway that include bus route numbers and he wants more technology introduced faster.

The TTC panel is supposed to deliver a series of recommendations by June based on a review of employee customer service training; the TTC’s complaint process; hiring criteria for frontline transit workers and a customer charter of rights.

The group is expected to meet for the first time on Friday and will be conducting focus groups with the public and TTC employees.

In addition to Tyios, the panelists are:

Matthew Blackett, founder and publisher of Spacing magazine

Robert Culling, a highly commended TTC operator

Yves Devin, general manager of the Societe de transport de Montreal, that city’s regional transit system

Tyson Matheson, WestJet’s vice-president of people relations and culture

Melanie Morris, communications specialist, GO Transit

Sue Motahedin, TELUS community ambassador and manager, loyalty and retention

Roy Morley, a Ryerson University marketing professor

Krisna Saravanamuttu, president of the York Federation of Students

Kripa Sekhar, executive director of the South Asian Women’s Centre

 

[jswag]

Some interesting choices for the panel. I think they've got the appropriate mix of various expertise on there. I still don't think that Twitter was the right method of finding a citizen rep, but I guess we'll see how that works out.

Now, we wait to see if this is just a smokescreen or if the TTC will actually listen to the panel. They should be able to bring some fresh perspective.

 

[cassius]

Agreed, I'm actually pretty impressed with the list of group members. Like you said, hopefully the TTC actually follows up with some action on the ideas that this team can put together.

 

[Ed Drass]

A "permanent citizen advisory committee" for TTC

I recall it was reported that on Monday the city's exec committee said no to non-councillors on the commission, but I missed this motion in the reportage:

"The Toronto Transit Commission should create a permanent citizen advisory committee, executive council members recommended today.

The citizen advisory committee would consist of TTC riders interested in making recommendations on customer service issues. This committee would be separate from the recently-unveiled customer service panel led by hotelier Steve O’Brien."

Article:
http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2010/03/02/city-debates-merits-of-citizen-advisory-committee-for-ttc/

 

[Jonny5]

So the TTC is looking to Philadelphia as a beacon of public transit customer service. Interesting.

Getting There?

It's us. Phillyist. Your loyal customers.

Okay. Loyal may be a bit much. It's not like you have competition. Let's call us your regular customers. The ones who take your buses and trains and trolleys and subways to and from work every day. Sometimes, we take you at lunchtime, too. And sometimes, we take you on weekends.

This kind of customer regularity is what keeps you from going bankrupt, even when your drivers' union get selfish. You need to raise your rates? Not much we can do about it, is there?

So is it too much to ask, in exchange for our complacency, that you could practice a little thing called customer service? It's not that you don't have some great employees—we love us some Operator 55—but, um, don't you think that when you have around 500 people waiting over half an hour for a train, and when one finally comes but is so crowded that it can't accommodate any new passengers, and so many people keep stacking up on the platform that they can't even make it through the turnstiles anymore ... you could be a little proactive about it? Make an announcement, at least? Apologize to the hundreds of people who will be late to jobs they're lucky to have? Set up shuttle buses? Hell: pass out hot cocoa. Something. Anything.

But keeping us in the dark, letting us stand outside or underground, continuing to accept people's fares to the point that standing on the platform becomes dangerous? This is not the way to treat the people who rely on you. You oughta be ashamed of yourself. (The Twitterverse seems to agree.)

Oh, and you owe us for gas and parking. After half an hour, we gave up, walked the third of a mile down un-shoveled sidewalks back home, scraped a week's worth of ice off our windshield, and drove to work.

The Star should send someone down to Philly to actually see if their self-proclaimed excellence is really just akin to the TTC's self-proclaimed excellence.

 

[jswag]

I actually remember reading somewhere that the Philly transit system was looking at the TTC as an example in the last few years.

CBC did a report on the possible lessons to learn from SEPTA recently on their evening news, the video is here: http://www.cbc.ca/video/player.html?category=News&clipid=1418337577 IMO, it doesn't seem all that impressive. I think in general we have more to learn from European systems than we do from American ones.

 

[TO City of Light]

Give credit where credit is due

As a periodic resident of Toronto I have watched over the years as service continued to plunge. Just when you thought things couldn't get worse the TTC found another way to add to the dirt and grime, to slow down maintenance and just generally add to the lack of a decent service.

But one must give credit where credit is due - probably the viral photo of the sleeping booth attendant. I got caught in the stoppage of service at the east end of the Bloor line yesterday. Lots of announcements as one approached Woodbine, lots of staff on hand to direct passengers, lots of shuttle buses, courtesy and respect from TTC staff, etc. The journey took a bit longer but at no time did one feel that the TTC wasn't doing the most they possibly could to keep the service running.

Coming back to the centre, there was a stoppage of some sort at St. George but again lots of announcements. When stopped at Pape I could make a quick decision to take bus and tram the rest of the way.

At Bloor and Yonge, the disgusting leakage on the passage to southbound Yonge which had been there for years seemed to be gone and the horrific grunge on the walls of the eastbound Bloor line looked like it had been scrubbed. The new motion activated sliding doors at Wellesley were up and running!

It looks like the TTC can do a good job when they want to and when management is also engaged.

If Mr. G. can stick with the TTC for a few years and turn it around he is practically a lock on eventual election as mayor.

 

[PinkLucy]

You raise some good points, i.e. it's not service disruptions per se that tick people off, it's how they are handled. Too bad that it took something like the viral photos and video to get management to sit up and take notice, however.

 

[Tacoma]

...But one must give credit where credit is due - probably the viral photo of the sleeping booth attendant. I got caught in the stoppage of service at the east end of the Bloor line yesterday. Lots of announcements as one approached Woodbine, ...

Coming back to the centre, there was a stoppage of some sort at St. George but again lots of announcements. When stopped at Pape I could make a quick decision to take bus and tram the rest of the way...

If Mr. G. can stick with the TTC for a few years and turn it around he is practically a lock on eventual election as mayor.

So let me get this straight... you praise the TTC for your experience on this single trip but yet on this single trip, you experienced a major stoppage requiring shuttle buses near Woodbine Stataion going and then experience another stoppage coming back at St. George & Pape requiring you to consider taking the bus again. Goodness, how low can the bar be set these days?!

And if Mr. G can get credit for getting out of the mess he created, then perhaps Obama should hire Dick Cheney to run Iraq and if he can impove the situation, Dick's practically a lock for President, right?

 

[GraphicMatt]

Stoppages and service disruptions are not themselves customer service issues (and are often beyond the TTC's control - a suicide or smoke at traffic level are not generally preventable these days) - the customer service issue is how those stoppages and service disruptions are handled by staff.