Reinvigorating Customer Service Culture (Leadership APTA 2022)

To improve transit service, attract discretionary trips, and illustrate our value to policy makers and taxpayers, the industry must refocus and reinvigorate our collective commitment to customer service. Our goal is to catalog best practices and drive industry improvements to enhance customer service culture by examining best of breed transit and non-transit entities. We want to help move the industry from one that is focused on capital assets and employee discipline to an industry that centers its brand around the customer experience. This includes:

• How to set up an internal brand of customer service from frontline employees to top level management, starting with hiring, onboarding, and training.
• Defining customer service measures (KPI’s and changes to customer surveys) that focus on positive outcomes and experiences not just complaints
• Examining both employee and rider facing initiatives that have helped move the needle and how they were communicated with employees, customers, and stakeholders

Project Team:

• Jeremiah Bryant (coordinator) Omnitrans
• Alicia Trost (BART)
• Charles Reeves (Port Authority of Allegheny County)
• Jamie Acton (Anchorage)
• Kathryn Wittman (TriMet)