Treating trains like planes would revolutionise our railways

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Ahh of course, the retail approach. The individual wants...…... no, demands choice. Everybody only wants to use trains to go long distance is also the assumption here. The sooner we leave the US business school, retail thinking transport management behind the better. I'm not a customer on a bus or train, I'm a passenger and I don't mind being one. I will never get why the U.K believe so strongly in consumer choice and try to apply these rules to everything.

There was a period in my career where we had to refer to those claiming benefits as customers. I dealt with the shoplifters.

[TonyK]

Unfortunately he is my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) and lives fairly close to us. 

Hey, he might enjoy joining this forum with his new found interest!   

In which case, sorry Sir, I was a bit on edge. Could you double the line through Weston, re-instate the fourth line through Bedminster and re-model the layout around Stoke Gifford so the local trains can get into Parkway without upsetting the fast IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train)? Maybe move Parson Street station slightly to the left...

Keep it up, Sir, you're doing a grand job, and cheap at half the price.

[eXPassenger]

Unfortunately he is my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) and lives fairly close to us. 

Hey, he might enjoy joining this forum with his new found interest!   

In other circumstances I would have been able to suggest this when he opens a local fete and then circulates, but it has been cancelled.

[TonyK]

In other circumstances I would have been able to suggest this when he opens a local fete and then circulates, but it has been cancelled.

Often viewed as a fete worse than death.

[eXPassenger]

In other circumstances I would have been able to suggest this when he opens a local fete and then circulates, but it has been cancelled.

Often viewed as a fete worse than death.

That is how my mother always used to refer to them.

[TaplowGreen]

Forgive me while I try to bite my tongue....

Don't these {expletive deleted} {insulting plural noun deleted} realise that the railway service providers have all the competition they need - airlines, long distance bus/coach operators, those who sell/hire private motor cars, hitch-hiking.

You could make equally fatuous comments such as "its about time the airline industry took a leaf out of the rail industry's book, and had a network of suburban and rural airports with branch routes connecting to main hub airports, the ability to turn up just a minute or two before departure and catch a plane, and built airports in convenient city centre locations so you can walk out into the main town and city centre shopping centres and business districts............"

Next week - how Britain's canal system can be run so as to provide competition for motorways for long distance commuters and Amazon deliveries!

I think he's referring to direct competition.

There's a huge amount the rail industry could learn from the airline industry, and vice versa, so don't dismiss this out of hand.

For example, the rail industry could learn an awful lot from airlines about customer service, as the latter (at least in the case of flag carriers) give it far higher priority and do it far better.

Then again, airlines have to - they face direct competition - I wonder if there's a connection? 

[Reading General]

I'm not sure. I think customer service on the railway only comes into play when things go wrong and this happens all too often. Because of so many different organisations to deal with, communication among the whole industry is poor. If the railway always worked as expected, there probably wouldn't be as much customer service required and staff could concentrate on the passengers that need it. Now I'm not suggesting here that TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s are blameless here, but every time I use the railway I rarely require any interaction with staff when things go wrong. I understand where the communication breakdown is and I'm not sure that this would get any better with several different companies running the same services. I'm sure the experience will be different for those that do the same journey everyday.

[ellendune]

There's a huge amount the rail industry could learn from the airline industry, and vice versa, so don't dismiss this out of hand.

For example, the rail industry could learn an awful lot from airlines about customer service, as the latter (at least in the case of flag carriers) give it far higher priority and do it far better.

Then again, airlines have to - they face direct competition - I wonder if there's a connection?

I am sure that the airlines did once do customer service extremely well. However, the advent of low cost airlines, one in particular seems to treat customers as dirt, the drive from competition has been on price and the customer service aspect of even the flag carriers has declined in recent years to the extent that in my experience it is on a par with rail in many cases.  

So my answer to the question as to whether direct competition on rail would improve customer service, that from the example of the airline industry, is in short NO.

[TaplowGreen]

I'm not sure. I think customer service on the railway only comes into play when things go wrong and this happens all too often. Because of so many different organisations to deal with, communication among the whole industry is poor. If the railway always worked as expected, there probably wouldn't be as much customer service required and staff could concentrate on the passengers that need it. Now I'm not suggesting here that TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s are blameless here, but every time I use the railway I rarely require any interaction with staff when things go wrong. I understand where the communication breakdown is and I'm not sure that this would get any better with several different companies running the same services. I'm sure the experience will be different for those that do the same journey everyday.

Good customer service is not just about what happens when things go wrong (which as you say is all too often), it's about the all round customer experience. The attitude, accessibility, helpfulness, courtesy and availability of staff, accuracy and timeliness of services and information, transparent pricing, comfort, cleanliness, environment ownership of problems amongst others.

These experiences influence customers when it comes to choosing a supplier. If the supplier knows that the customer has no other realistic choice but themselves, it generally follows that commercially they will place less influence on these factors and become complacent, taking their customers for granted. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is an excellent example of this.

I'm not saying sectors like the airlines are perfect, far from it, but the best businesses are prepared to learn from others and evolve - take a look at Singapore Airlines, Emirates or Cathay Pacific and their customer offering and satisfaction ratings, they speak for themselves.

[Reading General]

Good customer service is not just about what happens when things go wrong (which as you say is all too often), it's about the all round customer experience. The attitude, accessibility, helpfulness, courtesy and availability of staff, accuracy and timeliness of services and information, transparent pricing, comfort, cleanliness, environment ownership of problems amongst others.

These experiences influence customers when it comes to choosing a supplier. If the supplier knows that the customer has no other realistic choice but themselves, it generally follows that commercially they will place less influence on these factors and become complacent, taking their customers for granted. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is an excellent example of this.

An this is what occurs when you apply a retail approach rather than a service approach. If operators of transport are expected to turn a profit, every part of the business is scrutinised economically, much like a supermarket chain would. The areas mentioned above suffer as too much time is wasted with things not going to plan. As far as I'm concerned, the management style is to blame. Highlighting how good you are at 'delivering' customer service, rather than getting on and trying to fix the problems of the service you are providing leads to the poor image. The best public transport will always have the least amount of interaction with staff for the majority. Like I said, if the railway worked as it should more often, those areas mentioned in your post would be much better.

[TaplowGreen]

Good customer service is not just about what happens when things go wrong (which as you say is all too often), it's about the all round customer experience. The attitude, accessibility, helpfulness, courtesy and availability of staff, accuracy and timeliness of services and information, transparent pricing, comfort, cleanliness, environment ownership of problems amongst others.

These experiences influence customers when it comes to choosing a supplier. If the supplier knows that the customer has no other realistic choice but themselves, it generally follows that commercially they will place less influence on these factors and become complacent, taking their customers for granted. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is an excellent example of this.

An this is what occurs when you apply a retail approach rather than a service approach. If operators of transport are expected to turn a profit, every part of the business is scrutinised economically, much like a supermarket chain would. The areas mentioned above suffer as too much time is wasted with things not going to plan. As far as I'm concerned, the management style is to blame. Highlighting how good you are at 'delivering' customer service, rather than getting on and trying to fix the problems of the service you are providing leads to the poor image. The best public transport will always have the least amount of interaction with staff for the majority. Like I said, if the railway worked as it should more often, those areas mentioned in your post would be much better.

It's possible for an organisation to successfully combine a retail approach with a service approach, it doesn't need to be one or the other. You've mentioned supermarkets and Waitrose are an excellent example of this.

Organisational culture comes into it too of course. Leadership and management (two very different things) play a huge part as you suggest. Hiring the right people is just as important as getting rid of the wrong 'uns!

[WSW Frome]

Only a few airlines (in the modern world) are really good at customer service, and usually when the service is working correctly/smoothly.
We have seen plenty of media reports about complete chaos when there is some disruption to service and this applies to larger airlines (full service) and others (low cost).
It must also not be forgotten that away from home base, there a few, if any, staff working for the respective airline. Most of the customer-facing staff are employed by the handling agents (or local national airline) who have lesser interest in providing super service.

I got marooned in the old Tehran Airport around 2004, due to an engine failure on a KLM^▸ (English name: Royal Dutch Airlines ) aircraft. This was also in the middle of a snowy night. The sole KLM representative, the station manager, was quite young and struggling to handle a plane load of passengers. The locals were simply told to go home. Other expats rebooked with other airlines. But eventually he did come up with solutions which involved taking the few spare seats on Iran Air flights to Paris or London. I went to London and then onto Amsterdam, on an aging 747-200. Lived to tell the tale but it illustrates the paucity of "interested" staff at distant locations.

[TonyK]

We are hardly comparing like with like. Most of the ground functions of an airline in a foreign airport are done by local contractors, even if they do wear the airline's uniform front-of-house. That goes for maintenance, baggage handling, security, check-in and catering. Even then, the airline's agent is likely to be a local lad or lass, whose first loyalty might not be to a company based thousands of miles away in a decadent capitalist hotbed of iniquity. Taking WSW Frome's very interesting experience as the setting, Teheran is hardly going to be a plum posting for a disco-loving lager-swilling young Dutch person. At least at a railway station in UK^▸ (United Kingdom), if it is manned at all then someone will know what the options are. Any pretence of a privatised competitive railway goes out of the window at the first sign of trouble, as anyone stuck at Paddington who has been told to leg it to Waterloo, jump on a South West train and change at Reading will know. At an airport, you won't hear "If you run, you might just make the Moscow plane, change there for Paris and ask again" very often.

[brcw2]

I think it's also worth noting that the airlines and supermarket being held up as examples of good customer service (which they are) are all companies that are well-known for being far from the cheapest in their respective markets - in fact, one of the top suggested questions Google comes up with for all three airlines is "Why is X so expensive?"!

[stuving]

I think it's also worth noting that the airlines and supermarket being held up as examples of good customer service (which they are) are all companies that are well-known for being far from the cheapest in their respective markets - in fact, one of the top suggested questions Google comes up with for all three airlines is "Why is X so expensive?"!

Of course - that's why they make such an effort, and are prepared to spend money on it: good service has a cash value. Retail and service businesses also have a strong self-image and a kind of class consciousness; they do like to be seen as "classy joints" - I'm not sure what the current jargon for that mysterious factor is.