The Little Things That Matter!

I went to buy a printer earlier this week. The usual bewildering choice.
Sadly, the "customer service" was as I expected. No one in "multi-national A" (as we'll call them) was remotely bothered. So I bought one eventually.
Equally as predictable, it had a fault.
I took it back. Equally as predictable, no one was remotely bothered. Except when I wanted a refund. I got one, in the end. But a bitter taste in the mouth was what I was left with. I won't be shopping there again. And I suspect "multi-national A" won't give two hoots either.
I took my business elsewhere, to an award-winner retailer. Much better service, product worked, I'm happy. I'll go there again.
But what has all this got to do with public transport?
Tonight was a prime example of how the little things really matter.
In the example of the printer, there were 2 retailers. One was, frankly, rubbish. The other went the extra bit. Not far, but enough to make me feel like I was happy with the service, and I'd be happy to shop there again.
In many examples of public transport, there is a monopoly provider. This isn't a "political" attempt to promote commercial competition in transport, nor to sing the praises of a monopoly public service provider. It is a simple, yet telling tale of how public transport has to understand the service it provides in the eyes of its users.
This evening, I have caught a late night bus home. In fact, mine was the last one. The great British weather has cast its spell again, and it was freezing at the bus stop.
As is the usual case, I can see my bus parked 100m down the road. Driver slumped half way down the vehicle, lights off. My bus is due at 2320. At 2321, there is some movement, and the bus shuffles onto stand, eventually departing 2 minutes late.
What's my beef, I hear you cry?
The bus left well within Traffic Commissioner standards. It got me home.
But to me, it says everything about why this particular bus operator - and the industry in general - need to understand customer service a lot more.
Like when I had my printer experience, the "service" was eventually provided, but I was left disappointed by "multi-national A".
Here, myself and 4 other passengers were left to shiver in a cold, dark bus shelter until the driver decided - 1 minute late - to saunter up to the stand and pick us up.
Imagine if he'd come up to the stand 5 minutes earlier and let us escape the cold? Imagine how much we'd all have felt - maybe even subconsciously - about public transport?
As it is, you get the impression that it reinforces stereo-typical attitudes about the industry. "If only I had use of a car".....
I board the bus, ask for a £1.70 fare back home, and am greeted with......well, actually nothing.
The whole experience is a sterile, love-less one.
And yet, by the simple acts of allowing us on 5 minutes earlier, and a "thank you" with eye contact when I pay my fare, just think about how my experience of public transport could have been transformed.
Public transport needs to learn these skills universally.
On my travels, I come across excellent examples of good practice, many of which I post on here. When I work on the railcar, I'm acutely aware - always - of public perception of the service I'm providing. Public transport, often as monopoly provider, needs to delight passengers whenever it can. This isn't always possible or easy, especially when there are problems, but it IS possible to do this much of the time.
Out of the 2 retailers I dealt with with my printer experience, 1 will get my custom next time, the other will not.
In the world of public transport, many won't even have the option of an alternative supplier. The danger is that, should they have an option of ditching the bus/train/tram or coach in favour of the car, some of them seriously would do so.
This is the great challenge for the public transport industry.
Giles Fearnley, MD of First (UK) Bus said recently "the challenge is to make the price of a bus ticket as valued as the price of a cappuccino"! He's got it in a nutshell.
Huge numbers of Brits pay well over the odds for overpriced coffee, yet value what they have in their cups. Yet huge numbers of Brits resent paying for their travel costs, as shown in endless surveys. Why is that?
The answer, of course, isn't simple. Maybe we'll never get to the point where we're happy to hand over our hard-earned to transport operators, in the same way that we get excited over skinny mocha-latte. (Or whatever it is).
But we really have to grasp the idea that, often, it's the little things that matter.
And when you're shivering at a bus stop at twenty past eleven at night awaiting a bus you can see with the driver not willing to relieve you of that feeling until he absolutely has to, you realise that public transport still has a way to go.