Customer service

Bus passengers come from a wide range of demographic groups, so the industry must provide a range of different ways for customers to make contact with feedback and enquiries. Traditionally customer contact was by letter, phone call or in person, today there is a growing trend for customers to use email, website and social media platforms to send feedback. While electronic feedback is easier to log and reference in investigations, it can be complex and time-consuming to manage customer service across multiple channels.

Bus operators have a goldmine of data which they can use to investigate customer feedback, all captured in sophisticated, standalone systems.

However, the difficulty comes in combining data from multiple systems into an easily accessible platform. Without a central hub to pull everything together, customer feedback investigations can take a long time to complete, and the more time it takes, the more of a strain it puts on customer goodwill

The feedback from customers has a vital part to play in improving service delivery. If a particular route is attracting a lot of complaints, it’s not enough to simply deal with those incidents as isolated issues.

Operators need the ability to drill down and spot where trends are happening so they can address the root causes of poor service. There could be temporary issues such as roadworks on the route, or it might be something more fundamental – the timetable needs a complete overhaul, for instance. Operators need an effective way to turn their customer feedback into information which can be used not only to deal with complaints but to inform network planning.

The National Bus Strategy calls on operators to demonstrate improvements in customer satisfaction with good levels of local knowledge and up-to-date customer charters. Operators will increasingly be working with their local authorities to ensure they know and understand their communities well enough to provide a good bus service.

The information that LTAs have to provide in their bus service
improvement plans (BSIPs) include current values and future targets for journey time, reliability, passenger numbers and average satisfaction. As a result, it is becoming even more important for bus operators to be able to spot trends and patterns and gather the evidence to show the LTA they have developed thoughtful strategies for future improvements.