This handbook focuses on how to measure customer satisfaction and how to develop transit agency performance measures. It will be of interest to transit managers, market research and customer service personnel, transit planners, and others who need to know about measuring customer satisfaction and developing transit agency performance measures. The handbook provides methods on how to identify, implement, and evaluate customer satisfaction and customer-defined quality service. Transit agencies are concerned with delivering quality service to customers, which is often defined by on-time performance, comfort, safety, and convenience. Transit agencies continually strive to define quality service, yet a problem exists — definitions of such service often evolve from management's perceptions of what constitutes quality. These management definitions may vary significantly from what current and potential customers perceive to be quality service. Consumer definitions of quality service could prove helpful to the transit industry. Under TCRP Project B-11, Customer-Defined Transit Service Quality, research was undertaken by MORPACE International, Inc., to develop a methodology to assist transit agencies in identifying, implementing, and evaluating customer-defined service quality and in defining performance indicators that include customer-defined quality service measures for fixed-route transit. This research includes rural, suburban, and urban markets. To achieve the project objective of producing a handbook, the researchers conducted a review of current literature related to customer-defined transit service quality measures, customer satisfaction measurement techniques within transit and other industries, and transit performance measures and indicators. Next, the research team developed a comprehensive list of service-quality measures from the customer's perspective, ensuring that each measure was specific and clearly defined. A survey was administered to customers to arrive at a ranking of service-quality measures, in order of their impact on overall customer satisfaction. The survey instrument was developed and refined based on the results of pretests. Alternative methods for ranking service quality measures were explored and evaluated, and a new approach was introduced. Finally, the list of service-quality measures was compared with the list of agency performance indicators, and the performance measures were revised to reflect customer-defined service. Using the research findings from the field test, the methodology was refined and a preliminary method for assessing transit operations was developed. Methods for benchmarking and tracking information are also identified. (A)
Abstract