Transit Ambassadors
Post by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
Well, I just got back from this year’s APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference (quite a bit more sunburned than when I arrived). Usually I don’t like talking about a show after it’s over since, well, it’s over and as most of us know, transit moves pretty quickly, so we’re already focusing on the next big event. This time, though, I wanted to talk about something that happened even before I set foot at the show.
As I got off the plane and gathered my bags, I turned to a coworker and asked him where we were staying. I had my information, but couldn’t remember the hotel’s name off the top of my head. As we discussed this, we passed by a MTA Nashville table and a pleasant MTA employee, Dorothy, asked if we were there for the APTA event.
Finding out that we were, she explained to us that MTA was offering free service from the airport to the host hotel. And here’s the cool part — she also told us when the next bus would be arriving, walked us down to the bus stop and stood there and talked with us until the bus showed up a few minutes later.
That is customer service you can’t pay enough for.
Having been to Nashville earlier in the year to meet with MTA CEO Paul Ballard and tour his system for our May cover story, I can honestly say everyone in his agency was polite and just downright nice to me.
This got me to thinking, how does your staff handle itself when they aren’t doing their “normal” jobs? How do your bus drivers handle themselves when they aren’t behind the wheel? Your supervisors when they are working with the public at special events? Your maintenance personnel when they aren’t in the garage keeping your fleet humming?
While it could be said that the folks at APTA are the “transit ambassadors” for our industry, that’s a little myopic in view. We’re all transit ambassadors, each and every one of us. From Carla Saulter who writes a transit blog under the handle of Bus Chick, to myself as I travel around visiting agencies, to the agency officials who speak for their systems, right down to the everyday joe who rides transit to and from his job.
You know what, transit gets a bad rap. Buses are smelly. Buses are dangerous. There are weird people on the trains. Yeah, well, cars are smelly, highways are dangerous and there are weird people anywhere you go in the world.
All of us — each and every one — who has any contact with a transit agency from riding it, to fixing it, to running it, even to writing about it has a responsibility to represent it. We have a responsibility to tell people why it’s a good thing. Only then we may be able to overcome that automobile inertia that keeps this country from getting into a more transit-oriented motion.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Thursday.
May 10th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Great points, Fred. Those of us in public service ARE the ambassadors of our various industries, what ever they may be. And it’s the front line employee — the bus driver, the receptionist who answers the phone, the person at the customer service counter — who give our customers and the public the inevitable “first impressions” our compmanies, agencies, and businesses. The Dorothy’s of the world are invaluable to our images. Unfortunately, it only takes one indifferent, grumpy, or rude employee to wipe out all the “atta’ boys” our Dorothy’s achieve. That’s why I just sent 8 of my front line employees to a seminar on Communicating with Diplomacy & Professionalism.
May 10th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Wonderful article!!! I am sharing with the entire staff of our small public transit project in South Dakota. We like to think of ourselves as being good ambassadors, but are we? Do we ride our system, take pride in our vehicles? Is our telephone voice welcoming, and are we expressing that we are here to provide transporation, and want to do the best job we can?
Yes…we all need to be good ambassadors, and it’s a continuous mission!
Brenda Schweitzer
Executive Director
Brookings Area Transit Authority, Inc.
Brookings, SD
May 10th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
A a recent all-employee meeting we analyzed and discussed a particularly interesting customer complaint. We asked two questions. 1. What does good customer service look like to this customer? and 2. What does good customer service look like to us (the driver, dispatcher, scheduler, etc.)? The group concluded that good customer service often begins with a good, reliable service plan that both the driver and customer can count on. When the driver does not have to defend or explain - good service is easier to deliver. Extraordinary customer service is evident when the customer still feels well served in spite of unreliable service due to poor planning or other circumstances outside the driver’s control. We concluded that we all have a responsibility to assure good customer service is possible, even if we personally never see the customer to be served.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Every day I get up and come to work and I think…………I really hope that every customer that we come in contact with today will have a positive customer service experience. I will share this article with our agency staff and contractor staff as well. Thanks for sharing.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Mass transit should be banned. It’s a giant criminal boondoggle that diverts money away from roads.
Buses are rolling roadblocks that make traffic worse. Mass transit is a major target for terrorists, and it just plain doesn’t work.
And yes, mass transit is smelly, dangerous slow, inefficient, and isn’t flexible. My loved ones would be safer spending time in a prison yard. The population would be very similar, though.
Of course, you’ll probably not publish this comment. Anything that might de-rail your gravy train is forbidden.
May 18th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I love comments like this. It shows what everyone in transit is really up against.
Your comment is peppered with incorrect statements and fallacies. This is just the type of thinking we need to overcome to make transit more successful.