TTC: Customer Service

[kandaman]

You bring up a good point. It's not uncommon for corporate executives to receive golden parachutes when they're forced to resign even if it's due to bad performance. Robert Nardelli, for example, was CEO of Home Depot whose share price plummeted before he was ousted by the Board for bad performance and Mr. Nardelli was paid $210 Million after resigning as part of his severance package. And then after being fired for doing a bad job at Home Depot, he was immediately hired by Chrysler and we know how that's turning out. They live in a different world and the public just accepts it.

But two wrongs don't make a right and Mr. Kinnear's tirade in blaming everyone but his union members just throws flames into the fire with his righteous attitude that typifies some of the members he represents.

Hes not blaming everyone except his members. Hes defending his members because thats what we pay him to do. If you listen to the whole thing not just what the media has chosen to air, you will see hes acknowledged his members are at fault as well. If he thought it was all just the public and management than he wouldn't arrange for town-hall meetings. Hes obviously admitting theres fault on his members. Remember the union is essentially its members lawyer. He has to pick and chose his words so it doesn't alienate the very people he represents. Were not paying union dues so Bob can join the rest of the city and say its all the drivers fault the world is coming to and end

 

[nfitz]

As much as I think Kinnear is ... well lots of things that are unprintable; there is the point that customer treatment of transit employees is often unacceptable. Just like 99% of TTC employees are doing their job properly, 99% of customers are not a problem. But I think we've all seen the occasional customer swearing or shouting at an operator because he wanted to check a transfer, or because he wanted them to pay their fare. Personally, I've seen this more frequently than an operator being the problem (which shouldn't be a surprise, as there are far more customers than operators on most vehicles).

 

[noctis]

all i can say is, if you really have to take a break, then at least let your riders know. if there are only one or two riders on the bus (this applies to the late night shifts, of course), you can even ask them if they want something. this is called respect, and common sense. i am a frequent user of the TTC and so far i've encountered this type of problem once, and it was during daytime too, and in the rush hour i might add. so just think about this (directed specifically at the transit workers), if you were a passenger one day and the driver took off for a break without notice, how would you feel?

and kandaman, if all the transit workers think the way u do, the ttc would not have this problem today. so amen to that.

 

[UD2]

TTC and Customer Service;

TTC exist to provide transit and not customer service. If you can't live your day with out your bus driver pampering your emotions, then you should be looking for a shrink.

Organization that provide customer service also transfer the cost of this service to their customers. I will refuse on any day in any season to pay extra on my bus ticket just so that the operator will say "hi" to me in a big pretty smile. And I will rather have the TTC use my fair/tax dollars to expand its transit service than to spend it into teaching their drivers how to smile.

 

[PinkLucy]

Customer service isn't about pampering.

 

[kandaman]

When I went through the training process customer service was not a big component to the 30 day training. In fact the CS component was more about defusing a difficult customer. As mentioned before the TTC mandate is to provide public transit. It works with a very crappy budget for a system of its size yet it still manages to exceed a lot of other major well funded systems. The problem is most of the people who ride the TTC have never been any where else so they dont know any different. You cant compair well funded systems to a under funded broke system. A lot of people complain for the sack of complaining yet they have no clue what their complaining about. Dont believe everything the media trolls toss at you. Papers have to sell and the TTC sells papers.

 

[kEiThZ]

TTC and Customer Service;

TTC exist to provide transit and not customer service. If you can't live your day with out your bus driver pampering your emotions, then you should be looking for a shrink.

Organization that provide customer service also transfer the cost of this service to their customers. I will refuse on any day in any season to pay extra on my bus ticket just so that the operator will say "hi" to me in a big pretty smile. And I will rather have the TTC use my fair/tax dollars to expand its transit service than to spend it into teaching their drivers how to smile.

Fine. Then look at as providing a public service. And the public wishes to receive that service to a certain standard. This applies to both the employees of the TTC and the management which runs and coordinates the delivery of those services.

 

[Hipster Duck]

TTC and Customer Service;

TTC exist to provide transit and not customer service. If you can't live your day with out your bus driver pampering your emotions, then you should be looking for a shrink.

Organization that provide customer service also transfer the cost of this service to their customers. I will refuse on any day in any season to pay extra on my bus ticket just so that the operator will say "hi" to me in a big pretty smile. And I will rather have the TTC use my fair/tax dollars to expand its transit service than to spend it into teaching their drivers how to smile.

Don't get me wrong: I don't care if a TTC fare collector is an emotionless guy behind a booth who just dispense tickets - I don't expect him/her to force a smile or thank me for what is just a routine transaction. However, there is a problem when a TTC operator is surly, mouthes off to me, or generally assumes an air of arrogance that ruins my mood for the next half hour - all of which I've encountered on the TTC. Now, this is not to say that I am entirely innocent nor the most polite person in the world, but I've never been provoked by a gas station attendant, or a McDonald's cashier, or a barista at Starbucks or a sales rep at Home Hardware, or even the cabin crew of Air Canada. Now, I've definitely experienced my share of incompetent customer service but, in the end, the servers, cashiers or what-have-you were generally fairly courteous and maybe even apologetic. I've also had a few waiters who were as surly as the aforementioned TTC operators, but this has maybe happened twice or three times in my life. If I were to statistically track the number of times a customer service representative was genuinely aggressive and beligerent, not just incompetent or inefficient, a disproportionate number of those occurrences would have taken place on the TTC. This is not a generic transit problem, either. I've taken public transit just as many times outside of Toronto as I have inside Toronto, and I can't remember the last time that an operator of another transit agency crapped on my mood. There is something seriously wrong at the TTC.

 

[doady]

TTC and Customer Service;

TTC exist to provide transit and not customer service. If you can't live your day with out your bus driver pampering your emotions, then you should be looking for a shrink.

TTC has customers. Therefore it has to serve customers. Therefore it has to provide a certain level of customer service.

Organization that provide customer service also transfer the cost of this service to their customers. I will refuse on any day in any season to pay extra on my bus ticket just so that the operator will say "hi" to me in a big pretty smile.

No one here has complained that bus drivers don't say "hi" to them and give them a big smile. You just have no clue what customer service means.

 

[hbl33]

PWND!

Seriously, I find it interesting that GO's customer service far exceeds that of TTC, a transit system that is much bigger coverage and service offerings than its counterpart. I thought local transits (TTC, MT, etc.) were supposed to be friendlier.

 

[kEiThZ]

PWND!

Seriously, I find it interesting that GO's customer service far exceeds that of TTC, a transit system that is much bigger coverage and service offerings than its counterpart. I thought local transits (TTC, MT, etc.) were supposed to be friendlier.

GO is smaller than the TTC. And I hate to generalize but I've always thought that GO tends to attract a more upscale ridership which might help.

 

[UD2]

TTC has customers. Therefore it has to serve customers. Therefore it has to provide a certain level of customer service.



No one here has complained that bus drivers don't say "hi" to them and give them a big smile. You just have no clue what customer service means.

TTC don't have customers, it's got riders. riders should feel as indifferent to a driver ignoring them as they are to an automatic ticket dispensing machine.

And yes I do understand what customer service is, although I doublt your ability to understand the basic purpose of public transit.... and hey.. you tossed first...

 

[PinkLucy]

Airplanes don't have customers, they have passengers. Yet they provide decent customer service. Yes, safety is the airline's first priority, not customer service, but they manage to do both. Even on discount flights, they say hello and buy-bye when at embarkation/debarkation. Their ticket-takers don't sleep on the job, and the pilots don't pull over to take care of their personal business. (okay, that's extreme, but the point is that you can have passengers and focus on safety while still providing a level of customer service)

 

[UD2]

Don't get me wrong: I don't care if a TTC fare collector is an emotionless guy behind a booth who just dispense tickets - I don't expect him/her to force a smile or thank me for what is just a routine transaction. However, there is a problem when a TTC operator is surly, mouthes off to me, or generally assumes an air of arrogance that ruins my mood for the next half hour - all of which I've encountered on the TTC. Now, this is not to say that I am entirely innocent nor the most polite person in the world, but I've never been provoked by a gas station attendant, or a McDonald's cashier, or a barista at Starbucks or a sales rep at Home Hardware, or even the cabin crew of Air Canada. Now, I've definitely experienced my share of incompetent customer service but, in the end, the servers, cashiers or what-have-you were generally fairly courteous and maybe even apologetic. I've also had a few waiters who were as surly as the aforementioned TTC operators, but this has maybe happened twice or three times in my life. If I were to statistically track the number of times a customer service representative was genuinely aggressive and beligerent, not just incompetent or inefficient, a disproportionate number of those occurrences would have taken place on the TTC. This is not a generic transit problem, either. I've taken public transit just as many times outside of Toronto as I have inside Toronto, and I can't remember the last time that an operator of another transit agency crapped on my mood. There is something seriously wrong at the TTC.

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.

Yes, some TTC drivers may be sometimes rude but these to me have been very rare occurrences. I found that the TTC operators most of the times are very pleasant and helpful people. You can tell that some of them are tired and not wanting to talk, but that happens to everyone after a day of work. Although what i found is that treatment from most TTC drivers towards their riders is direct correlated to how the rider is treating them. I've seen operators who were very friendly towards me become a completely a-hole to the jackass who was standing after me. So think about this, how are you treating your driver? Because to all you people who complain in there forums about the TTC, you can't like them very much, and therefore i can't imagine you treating them with very sunny dispositions either.

But anyways, the point is. For what I'm paying for and for what i expect from the TTC. I found that most TTC operators are very decent people and most of them are very competent at their jobs. There are the lemons, but such lemons will exist in every organization. Only difference is that the Globe and Mail doesn't go on frenzy every time someone sleeps on the job at Air Canada.

 

[UD2]

Airplanes don't have customers, they have passengers. Yet they provide decent customer service. Yes, safety is the airline's first priority, not customer service, but they manage to do both. Even on discount flights, they say hello and buy-bye when at embarkation/debarkation. Their ticket-takers don't sleep on the job, and the pilots don't pull over to take care of their personal business. (okay, that's extreme, but the point is that you can have passengers and focus on safety while still providing a level of customer service)

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.

You pay for the service you receive on a plane ticket, which is a service that you do not pay for on the TTC. Your fare and tax you pay to the TTC only pays for the vehicles, the driving ability of the person operating the vehicles, the gas price of running the vehicles plus the overhead that's applied to operate the organization.

Service is a luxury item, public transportation is not meant to be luxury.

There should be more mandatory businesses courses offered at our primary educational institutions.