Bus Drivers and the Five Principles of Customer Service

Hi Everyone

I want to have a whinge and apply what I am learning at the Polytechnic at the same time.

Anyway at the moment we have been learning about the 'Five Principles of Customer Service'. These are: Value for Money, Reliability, Quality, Environment/Atmosphere and Expertise/Knowledge.

Value for money is about getting competitive and realistic prices, special deals and discounts etc. The Metro Bus service has realistic prices but there are never any deals or discounts, or any way they reward long term customers.

Reliability is about timeliness, following up enquiries and complaints and having products in stock when advertised. I think the bus service usually runs on time and has the required stock but they always rush through enquiries and complaints as if the customer was an irritation rather than the reason they are in a job.

Quality is for products and customer service. Let's deal with products first. The bus should be a good quality bus that gets people where they want to be on time without undue fuss. This is not the case with Metro. So many of their buses are faulty. Yesterday the ticket validator ate my ticket.

Quality customer service means striving to exceed customer's need, providing high level service and individual attention. Metro really stuffs up on this. As stated previously they rush customers through, fail to listen properly, are often curd or downright rude and seem to resent anyone with a question. They are also discriminatory - they do not wait for the aged or disabled to settle before taking off, they often yell at Africans and Asians with language difficulties and they treat all high school students as if they are troublemakers. I've actually been shocked at just how bad all this is!

The Atmosphere/Environment part has three sub-parts - the physical environment, the staff
and advertising/promotion. Let's deal with the physical environment first. The buses are OK but could be better. Some are a bit too old and many have used bus tickets etc lying around.

The main problem in this category is the staff. They are often not very well groomed. Their shirts and hair is messy even though they are in uniform. They are also often rude, arrogant and unfriendly.

Promotional material is great - I love bus ads! What a pity the service doesn't live up to its advertising.

The last category Knowledge/Expertise is in two sections - Knowledge of internal services/procedures and knowledge of equipment. Metro continually falls short of expectations in their knowledge of their own services. The drivers don't know any routes/bus stops except their own and if people dare to ask for assistance the reply is often very curt.

They are a little better with driving the bus, navigating etc but they still occasionally miss stops etc.

Overall this is not good enough! If it gets any worse I will make a formal complaint.

God Bless you all and pray for me to forgive bus drivers from the very depth of my heart.

Amber