Posts about Customer Service

Especially when hidden behind a keyboard, some people apparently feel free to unload their frustrations in ways that far overshoot the bounds of civility.

Over just the past several months, my agency and I have been called insulting, negligent, cowardly, incompetent, inadequate, frustrating, cheap, clueless, mouthpieces, cowardly, villains, obstructionist, inferior, demeaning, unwilling, empty and inconsequential. My boss, a member of my staff and I were told repeatedly and publicly that we should resign or be fired. Note that all of this came from a single customer.

My message to those who say things like this is simple: knock it off. Government isn't something that happens to people without their active involvement, and government employees are not the help. When they fail you or give you an answer you don't like, they're not working to make your life less pleasant on purpose.

At their best, I believe this is a group of people called to serve a greater good. Even at their worst, even if only motivated by a desire to earn a paycheck at a steady and stable job, they deserve no more ire or disrespect than any other professional in a different line of work. Would you direct words like these at a doctor, a grocery cashier or a dog walker? Hardly.

The other problem with this uncivil discourse is that it tends to be aimed squarely at people who either didn't cause the problem or are actively trying to fix it. Taking the present management of an agency to task for something their predecessors didn't do decades ago is neither fair nor wise—especially when they are doing it now.

It is not the DMV clerk's fault that the law requires a certain type of document to prove your identity. And the workers standing calf-deep in cold water to fix the pipe outside your house didn't cause it to break and interrupt your water service. Yelling at them not only demoralizes people who are working to help, but distracts them from doing the actual helping. Folks, it's really time to stop berating the surgical team while they're standing over the bleeding patient.

What if we instead approached our public servants with kindness, patience and gratitude? My suspicion is that we'd end up with happier people, less burnout and better government as a result.

It has been nearly 8 years, but I will always remember the words of one particularly grateful constituent in Columbia Heights long after I forget her name or the service I performed on her behalf. She wrote, "You have single-handedly restored my faith in the institution of government."

At the time, I took great comfort in her words and hung them on my cubicle wall as a shining example of what I wished I heard more often. Today, I realize that if one's faith—or lack of faith—in the institution of government depends on the actions of a single person, government's relationship to its constituents is precarious at best. Even though improving that relationship isn't my job as an employee anymore, it will always be my job as a private citizen.

And I owe those on the other side of the service window, the phone line or the email inbox the same courtesy I hope they will extend to me.

I took my 3-year-old to Rosedale Pool, a brand new pool that opened in May, ideal for kids. My son and I arrived to find all three water slides closed. While playing in the pool for 2 hours, my little guy kept asking why the fun water-slides were closed, when they would re-open, and if we could come back when they did. Other toddlers were trying to climb onto the water slides only to have their parents pull them off.

When I asked the lifeguards why the water slides were closed, they said there weren't enough lifeguards to watch the pool and the slides. But I saw 5 lifeguards either working or sitting in their break room, rotating every hour so that only 2 were on-guard at a time. When I asked the park staff at the entrance, they said it was because the slides were broken. Something didn't seem right.

Perhaps more frustrating, though, was the apathy of the other families at the pool whose kids were just as disappointed as mine, yet who did nothing. I asked some other parents in the pool about the slides, and got one of two answers.

Some parents said the slides must be broken. When I asked if it seemed likely that all 3 slides were broken, a mere 2 months after the pool was built, they agreed but didn't know what to do. The other parents actually said outright, in a shrugging way, "what are you gonna do"?

Such apathy and defeatism doesn't do anyone any good. Sure, government can seem callous or unresponsive at times, but most often it's just that, a perception.

DPR Director Jesus Aguirre, for one, wants to change the entrenched system at DPR, but needs our eyes and ears. So I emailed dpraquatics@dc.gov, and received an apologetic reply within 15 minutes on a Saturday night. The slides were reopened, except for 1 of the 3 that was actually broken.

How can you quickly let the city know about issues at your local park and get a reply?

• Email them directly at dpr@dc.gov or, if it is aquatics-related, dpraquatics@dc.gov.
  
• Call them at 202-673-7647.
  
• Tweet them at @DCDPR.
  
• Create a 311 request on the 311 web site or using the 311 mobile app. From the list of Service Types, select "Parks and Recreation."

If the city is responsive to your request, compliment them at the new Grade.DC website. If they are not responsive, make sure to explain how they fell short.

Director Aguirre has demonstrated his commitment to creating a responsive, service-oriented culture at DPR. And now they've put the tools in place to submit questions and issues. The ball is now in our court, to quickly let DPR staff know of all issues in local parks.

It actually takes more time to complain to your neighbors about your local park than to fill out the online 311 form. We have to get into the habit of channeling our frustration about issues with local parks into the feedback system DPR has provided. Only then can DPR staff to respond to issues, and only then will Director Aguirre be able to hold his staff accountable for responsiveness.

So the next time you have an issue with the District's parks and recreational facilities, don't let it fester. Tell DPR, and give them a chance to rectify the situation.

With the fare table Metro chose, a customer that doesn't notice the note would buy a card with the fare listed on the table, get to the destination, then get frustrated when they realize their farecard doesn't have enough to pay for the trip. The exit fare machines don't take credit cards, so customers that don't carry cash could end up stuck (or station agents will let them out without paying).

If Metro instead listed the paper farecard prices and stated there was a Smartrip discount, the worst case is that a SmarTrip customer would end up with an extra dollar per trip on the card. SmarTrip customers are more likely to load a larger amount regardless of the price of an individual trip, so this is not likely to be a huge problem.

Further, Metro's latest improvements to SmarTrip allow you to add fare online or have your account automatically topped off when your balance gets low, so SmarTrip rail customers are not as likely to need to use the fare vending machines or the fare tables.

Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel defended the move. He wrote in an email:

Today, roughly 80 percent of Metrorail trips are taken with SmarTrip cards. We wanted to show what the vast majority of customers would be paying as clearly as possible.

It is not correct to assume that the majority of people using the fare machines are paper transactions. Already, SmarTrip transactions exceed paper farecard transactions at the machines—and the share of ST vs. paper will only increase over the next several months due to the surcharge.

Speaking of "surcharge," that's what we're calling it. It's not a "discount" for using SmarTrip, but rather a "surcharge" for using paper. So, the fare charts display the fares as they are, and there's a big bold box that says add $1 if you're using paper.

This is all technically correct, but ignores the key difference between different types of customers that use the vending machines. Many customers that use the fare vending machines don't look at the table at all, such as Smartrip customers topping off a card by adding a fairly large amount of money that they plan to use on multiple trips.

The customers that want to look up the fare for a specific trip or a round trip are more likely to be infrequent riders or visitors, are less likely to know the fare system well, and are less likely to be using SmarTrip.

Metro's leadership seems to feel that increasing surcharges on paper farecards will eliminate their use entirely, or reduce it to the point that the customer experience with paper farecards no longer matters. I disagree. Metro should make the system as simple as possible (though more expensive) for paper farecard customers.

Governors Bob McDonnell and Martin O'Malley announced plans to spend $10 billion to build a new freeway across the Potomac River in order to accommodate the Metro riders, but added that funding is too scarce to contribute more to speed up the Metro repairs. "We think this is the best way to use our state transportation dollars to help commuters," said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Proaughton.

In addition, MARC will add new service on the Brunswick Line. CSX announced that it would allow MARC to run more trains and actually tell its dispatchers to give priority to passenger trains on the line, as opposed to previous times when they claimed to have done so but dispatchers did not actually follow through.

Metro is launching a new public relations campaign around the closure, called "Red Line: Deal With It." Customers will see construction walls at Red Line station entrances with slogans like, "8 Months Isn't So Bad, Is It?" and "No More Delays. No More Red Line."

Organizers of large national events are also being informed. A national tea party convention has already modified its website to inform attendees driving to the region from points north on I-95 to take the Beltway to Vienna instead of driving to Glenmont or using any other station.

Metro will suspend all work on other lines, including Silver Line construction, in order to complete the work in 8 months. "We hope that by the time the Red Line reopens, we'll only have to single-track twice a month," said WMATA CEO Richard Snarles.

Dessel said Metro is working with Mayor Gray to hire thousands of unemployed District residents to help with the 24-hour repairs. The program is part of a new employment program called "One City, One Line."

A social media component of the program, called "Metro Fast Forward," will equip track workers with helmet video cameras and editing software so that they can produce videos of the work in real time.

This concept has actually been in the works for over a year. Previous WMATA spokesperson Lisa Dystone planned not to tell riders about the closure, arguing that nobody would notice. However, Michael Perkins noticed an obscure footnote in a WMATA Board presentation and encouraged officials to mount a larger campaign to inform riders.

Some have already criticized Metro's plan. The critical blog DeCrapify DC Metro said 8 months is far longer than needed to finish the work. Another blog and popular Twitter account, WTF WMATA, wrote that customers deserve better treatment and vowed to hold Metro accountable.

How will you adjust to the Red Line closing? Let us know in the comments.

Here's an example service disruption from a report I received from a WMATA insider:

TRAIN GOES TO B4 AT POINT OF POWER, HAVE TO CUT OUT ATP TO MOVE, NOT DISPATCHED, K08, CMD, ATCC, 918

Other reports are a little simpler to understand:

NO ALL DOORS CLOSED CUSTOMER POSSIBLY HOLDING THE DOORS

A lot of this message wouldn't make sense to the vast majority of commuters. WMATA could still post these with a glossary that helps decode even this cryptic report, though there is the possibility that customers would see them and be confused, or call in to customer service about it.

Instead of posting these, WMATA created a "Vital Signs" report, which lists a few high-level metrics like overall rail on-time performance. But one number for rail on-time performance hides a lot of important information. A train can be late up to half the headway and still count as on time, meaning that when trains run every 20 minutes, trains could still be 10 minutes late or early. It doesn't include performance during planned track work, and other factors.

Today, WMATA's approach to public information seems to be to release only a few conclusions, not any deeper information. When the Riders' Advisory Council or others have asked for more, they've been told that it's the job of staff, and nobody else, to analyze data and tell the public and press what to believe about the issues.

But to many riders, this isn't satisfying. WMATA officials say they're aggressively fixing problems, but will those fixes actually lead to better performance, and when? So far, the agency has just cut the on-time performance target from 95% to 90%. It's never met its goal for the frequency equipment breaks down ("mean time before failure") since the data have been reported, and does not appear to be improving.

It's no secret that WMATA's reputation as a reliable transit service is tarnished by frequent service delays and offloads. If Metro begins to publish these reports again, customers could decipher the differences in service disruptions that are the fault of customer behavior like blocking doors, sick passengers, or police activity, and those that are due to maintenance issues like brake, track control circuit, or door problems.

Compare this to San Francisco and Chicago, two transit agencies that have longer histories of reporting service data.

Chicago reports number of rail delays of 10 minutes or more, percentage of track that is affected by a slow zone restriction, miles between rail vehicle defects, percentage of the rail fleet unavailable for service, and percentage of customer complaints not closed out within 14 days.

San Francisco reports how closely they're meeting the schedule (similar to WMATA), how the headways match up against the plan (more useful to customers for frequent routes), the amount of service, late pull-outs, overcrowded vehicles, the number of unexcused absences, mean distance between failures for trains, vacancy rates for service-critical positions, and the complaint resolution rate within 14 days.

San Francisco and Chicago implemented better performance reporting as part of an effort to regain the public trust after a long decline in service. Metro should do the same in a concerted effort to truly move Metro Forward.

Mary Hynes, having noted the common complaint that Metro Tweets @metroopensdoors but doesn't follow anyone or reply to tweets, made the radical suggestion that Metro "[think] about tweeting back."

DC's Tom Downs said that years ago, Metro had a big electronic sign in the lobby showing performance metrics. As those metrics deteriorated, first the sign stopped getting updated, then disappeared completely.

Jeff McKay warned against letting metrics drive personnel. The metrics, he said, are tools for improving service, not ways to get a "gotcha" on a particular staff member. That's right, and if someone misses a goal a few times, it shouldn't necessarily warrant punishment. Perhaps it's the goal that's wrong.

Also, a good organization wants to encourage people to set ambitious goals, it shouldn't punish people for missing some of them. However, management should take a closer look at people who constantly don't make real progress toward goals, to decide if either they're setting unreasonable goals or aren't doing good work.

Downs and others also pushed hard on better communication as well as better processes on escalator and elevator outages. Downs said that WMATA "did a lot of stupid things" which got the agency into its current escalator mess, adding, "Admitting we bought some junk and are replacing it is an important part of the story."

Metro has recently been working to announce track work for the entire month at the beginning of each month. Yet in January several other track work projects were announced throughout the month. The work Matt is referring to in particular was announced on January 25 and is scheduled to last until February 11.

If the work is lasting so far into February, why didn't the agency reiterate that it would be doing mid-day work on the Red Line in its press release on Monday? The title, "February's planned work on all lines to improve safety and reliability," certainly indicates that it should contain all of the month's maintenance work.

Of course, there is no reason to re-announce every maintenance project at arbitrary intervals with respect to when they started, but if WMATA wants to establish a precedent of giving customers a full outlook of trackwork for a month, it needs to be sure to include all projects, not just those that begin in that particular month.

Supplement, don't replace:
These new full-month charts are good step in the right direction on the part of Metro's communications department. Metro is ecognizing that it needs to communicate the minimally necessary information to the vast majority of its customers without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.

Simplification is a great thing, no doubt, but it appears that Metro is creating a false choice between simplicity and more information, replacing the information-laden press releases with the new, simplified chart, rather than supplementing them.

Metro's new format for monthly scheduled maintenance is definitely simpler to understand than the text-heavy press releases of the past. But, it no longer includes the amount of information the old format did. The agency should continue to announce each project in detail, at the same time it explores ways to compile the projects into a simpler format, not do one at the expense of the other.

The general work description, and ultimate benefit columns are a very good idea for customers who don't care that WEE-Z bonds are being replaced or new light bulbs are being installed, but ultimately want to know what the benefit to them will be. But some of the vague benefit descriptions will inevitably beg the question "what does that mean?" from a fair number of customers.

Improving the trackwork "calendar":
The format, too, leaves something to be desired. WMATA could make the charts available as a simple webpage. Although the PDF format is nearly universally accessible these days, it is still a barrier to some. In a webpage format, the data can be entered in XML that would allow it to be accessed by developers who want to incorporate it into apps.

A webpage could also be easily programmed so that users can sort the projects by line, date, or any other category for that matter. Additionally, in a webpage the colored rail line dots can have alternative text attributes assigned to them for people with screen readers, which is not always possible in Acrobat.

This is particularly important because currently people with visual impairments will not be able to tell which lines are affected by each project. While some would recognize, for instance, that Takoma and Forest Glen are on the Red Line, not all necessarily would, particularly if they are not end stations. A transit agency should always build communications tools that don't make any assumptions about its users' knowledge or familiarity.

The most logical way to communicate scheduled disruptions to Metro riders is in a calendar format. That is, after all, why we created our Scheduled Service Disruption Calendar that can be accessed from any page in the sidebar. It is in no way perfect, but it operates on the open Google Calendar platform so that people can import the feeds to their own calendar programs and allows riders to view all disruptions or show only those on lines that are relevant to them.

Finally, Metro needs to improve the way this information is accessed on its website. Scheduled disruptions should be available from the front page. As far as I can tell, the only way to access track work schedules is to find the press release in the News archive. Metro has a calendar page, that includes a "Track Work" category, but none of the track work is actually in the database. Even if it were, this "calendar" is still only in a list format and is not exportable to any other platform.

Delayed trains or delayed people?
Reader Matt raises another point in his e-mail which indicates a larger problem with the way WMATA handles and communicates maintenance-related disruptions.

The indication that there is no delay is very misleading. Over the 6 days I have experienced this singletracking, 3 of the days I have had to wait more than 10 minutes for a train, with today requiring a wait of approximately 18 minutes. This is certainly much more than normal - and it shows with a much more full platform. The extra 5-15 minutes is not a major delay, but it does matter.

Though I can only speculate, it would appear that by "no delays," Metro is indicating that trains are moving through the single track area on the schedule that was established during the maintenance plan.

This is a symptom of Metro's often operating more like a logistics company than a person-oriented transit agency. Saying that there are no delays during single tracking indicates that WMATA treats delays with respect to moving trains through the system rather than moving people.

While a train may be maintaining the established schedule during track work times, this will still manifest itself as a delay to the customer standing on the platform at one of the affected stations. Matt is right that Metro should communicate this to its customers.

Make no mistake, the new track maintenance format is a very good sign from Metro's communications office under Sarles' leadership, because it shows that they're willing and able to be creative in how they communicate information to the public. When talking to Lisa Farbstein, WMATA's director of media relations, on Wednesday at the blogger roundtable, she said she hopes this new format is only the first iteration and that they'll continue to improve it over time. We hope they'll consider some of our recommendations.

Metro still has a long way to go until they have created a truly transparent operation that fully communicates with its customers, but, with developments like PlanItMetro and these new trackwork calendars, they are making serious efforts to improve in this area.