TTC Customer Service Advisory Panel Recommends Across-the-Board Improvements to Communication, Technology, Signage, and More

By David Topping

Half a year after its formation, the TTC’s Customer Service Advisory Panel released its report today—and the TTC is quickly throwing its weight behind it. “We support the recommendations and we will endorse the immediate hiring of a Customer Service Manager today,” TTC Chair Adam Giambrone told Torontoist.
Some of those seventy-eight recommendations contained in the report [PDF]:

• That the TTC “hires an individual whose sole responsibility is to ensure that everyone within the organization understands what constitutes good customer service, and implements the necessary programs throughout the organization to allow everyone to provide high levels of customer service, and meet the customers’ high expectations.” The Chief Customer Service Officer would, with the rest of TTC management, be responsible for “set[ting] the overall vision of what constitutes excellent customer service at the TTC” and ensure that vision is implemented across the board (especially by TTC frontline employees).
• That the TTC create “Customer Service Response Teams” that would “assist during emergencies or significant system delays.”
• That the TTC create a “Student Advisory Committee” as one way of “ensuring that student voices are adequately heard.”
• That “busy subway stations such as Union, Bloor, Eglinton West, and Kennedy should have a portable (wheeled) kiosk or dedicated area in the station where staff and volunteers can field questions or information requests.”
• That the TTC “should develop a plan to implement a consistent, system-wide ‘wayfinding’ process that is comprehensively tested by customers to address their needs (language barriers, poor eyesight, etc.).” Additionally, the report recommends “engaging outside resources to review the design of booths and the quality of signage, and determine if there are ways to make it easier for customers to quickly find the information they need,” as well as “monitor[ing] and implement[ing] standardized signage.” Paging Joe Clark.
• That, in the case of delays longer than fifteen minutes, “the TTC should override the platform screens….In such situations, the screens should also provide customers with information on route options or where they can find a shuttle bus. The system should also indicate the time of the beginning of the delay.”
• That “screens are installed outside [subway] station entrances or in unpaid areas that highlight all of the delays across the system. This will allow customers to make proper decisions about their trip before entering the system.” Additionally, “fare collection booths should be equipped with a computer screen or other form of information device, visible to customers, that displays the delays across the system.” On board buses and streetcars, the report recommends that vehicles “be equipped with the appropriate technology that allows operators to be informed of delays as quickly as possible, whether they are major delays or are specific to a connecting route. Operators should then relay this information to all passengers immediately.”
• That the TTC “expedite the replacement of all microphones at Collector Booths with higher-quality equipment.”
• That the TTC should “provide easy-to-understand posters that explain in a few steps (both visually and with text) how much to pay, the need for a transfer, etc. These posters should be placed in ‘paid’ and ‘unpaid’ areas.”
• That the TTC should post “a map of each subway line, similar in appearance to the iconic subway map, in every subway car. This map should show important information such as connecting bus and streetcar routes.” In addition, streetcars should also have “a map of streetcar routes…displayed above the rear exit doors of streetcars, as is already done in subway cars.
• That the TTC “should provide better signage at subway stations that indicates points of interest, attractions, and public buildings in the vicinity. For example, if a rider gets off the subway at Queen’s Park station there could be signs within the subway station indicating the route to Queen’s Park or the University of Toronto.”

– That a “high priority” is “improv[ing the TTC’s] station and subway car communications with its customers.”

• That, in addition to audio announcements on board buses and streetcars if those vehicles are short-turning, or subject to a route change or diversion, “all surface vehicles should be equipped to prominently display short-turns.” As well, “all possible service delay and route change messages should be pre-recorded, and on-the-spot announcements made only when absolutely necessary.”
• That “touch-screen kiosks, providing information in multiple languages, should be installed in all stations.”
• That the TTC “create a forum program where members of the public are invited to a quarterly session that allows them to ask questions and learn about new initiatives” and otherwise improve the complaints process. “The goal,” the report notes, “is to have a system in place that is easy for customers to use—regardless of whether the information they provide is of a positive or negative nature, or is simply a suggestion or piece of information being provided by the customer to the TTC.”
• That the TTC “consider extending the hours of operation for both the Customer Service Centre and the Information telephone lines”—possibly “align[ing]” with 311.
• That the TTC “undertake a[n annual] review of all customer service training courses.” It goes on to say that “all training should be created to help employees address and avoid actions that cause complaints to be received by the TTC. As well, training should help them understand what types of actions they can take to excel in the eyes of the public.” New operators should also take “an additional training program” that “should focus primarily on ways the TTC management and supervisors expect the employees to respond to common complaints and difficult situations, as well as focusing on, and reinforcing, all aspects of customer service.”
• That as part of other means to “measure customer service satisfaction” (such as surveys), the TTC consider “A Secret Shopper Program.”
• That “the frequency of refresher training for customer service skills”—which is “every five years for bus operators, and every three years for collectors, subway and streetcar operators”—should be reviewed.
• That, “at a minimum” for fare collectors, “an improved process for relief breaks and fare media replenishment [i.e. tokens, Metropasses, change] needs to be implemented.”
• That, because “there is no adequate process to ensure employees have the required abilities and skill-sets required for the role” of a collector, and because “the collector has a critical impact on the overall level of customer service as perceived by customers,” the TTC must “work to develop an improved selection process for future movement into this role.”
• That the TTC “must reinforce the key expectation that operators are not to start and stop vehicles in a way that produces jerky or quickly accelerated motions….In addition, the TTC may consider the installation of audio or visual signals that warn passengers when a bus or streetcar is about to move.”
• That the TTC review “adding times to routes,” to assist operators in “offer[ing] enhanced assistance to customers with additional needs…properly enforce fares, or wait for passengers who are running to catch the vehicle at a stop.” The report recommends “pilot projects” on certain routes “to examine if customer service can also be increased.”
• That, until the TTC implements a new fare collection system—likely to be either Presto or Open Payment—it redesign and simplify transfers “so that validity is easily apparent to both customers and employees at the time of boarding.”
• That the TTC “place a greater emphasis on the amenities available within TTC spaces,” and, as such “take action on customer concerns that include dirty washrooms, a lack of water fountains, and few healthy food options within subway stations. The TTC should develop a plan to review the amenities at each station and make improvements as necessary.”
• That the TTC “develop a document that provides details of its employees’ responsibilities to its customers. We suggest that TTC management work with their employees to come up with the final Customer Service Charter.” On the customer side of things, “the TTC must develop and display a simplified document listing customers’ responsibilities.” Among the latter document’s proposed items: “Practice cell phone courtesy by setting ring tones to vibrate. Please speak quietly so as not to disturb your fellow passengers.”

“The implementation of many (if not most) of the recommendations contained in this report will require significant operating or capital expenditures and workforce increases,” the report also notes, though, it continues, “the result will be worth the considerable effort and investment of resources.”
Giambrone seems to agree. “We will report back in detail at the September Commission meeting on how to implement the remaining recommendations,” he told Torontoist. Though he cautioned, as the report does, that “some of the recommendations can be implemented quickly, some will take time to fully implement.”