When you are developing a Transit CX program, one of the first questions to resolve is the Scope of the effort. To define scope, there are two key questions to answer:
Who is the "Customer" in Customer Experience?
What aspects of the Customer Experience are in scope?
1. Let's start with "Who is the "customer" in Customer Experience?"
Is it only bus and rail riders?
Does it include paratransit customers?
Does it include those who use ancillary services you may provide like shared bikes or shared scooters?
How about people who attend community meetings to comment on your projects? Are they considered "customers"?
And how about job applicants, or people who contact your organization to bid on contracts?
Or how about employees that need internal support like Benefits Information or Supplies, or have questions about their paycheck? Are those employees considered "customers" in your CX program? Can you ultimately get rider CX action items accomplished in a reasonable timeframe without streamlining internal processes and supporting employees?
Answer: Ultimately, ALL of these groups are important to your CX program, but scale your effort to the resources available so you don't spread yourself too thin. If you need to, define "customers" narrowly at first, and phase-in additional types of customers after you tackle top pain points for the first customers you choose to focus on.
2. What aspects of the Customer Experience are in scope?
Should the scope cover operational issues like on-time performance and cleanliness?
Should it include public safety?
Or should the scope be limited to improving passenger information?
Are there any exclusions? For example, should the scope exclude issues that require the cooperation of outside entities to resolve? Should it exclude issues perceived to be intractable?
Answer: Every aspect of the customer experience should be in scope. You can and should prioritize the top issues that surface in your comprehensive customer experience surveys and look for low-hanging fruit to deliver early wins, but no issue gets a pass. Customers tell us what aspects of the Customer Experience to tackle, based on comprehensive customer experience surveys. It's not for us to dismiss issues or grant exclusions ...