For transit agencies that want to go the extra mile to provide a great customer experience, consider the "Hire for Heart" program at Long Beach Transit.

What employee attitudes and behaviors do you want to nurture when hiring, training, coaching, and recognizing employee excellence? Prized characteristics could include: Employees being helpful to customers and treating them with compassion and respect. Reliable employees – so that your organization can provide consistently reliable service. Employees being flexible and adaptable to meet customer needs in any moment. Employees who are communicative. Employees who listen to und

When building a CX Program, don't forget to also focus on the experiences of your own employees, because the quality of the service they...

Enemy #1 to any CX Program is the notion that "It's not my job." Even though job descriptions sometimes say "other duties as assigned," many employees feel they need to limit their duties to maintain control over work scope creep, or to avoid stepping on the toes of fellow employees. Moreover, labor contracts will often reserve certain kinds of work for only certain positions, and this is often for good reason - such as to protect jobs. For example, customer service agents ma

Today's consumers have a healthy dose of skepticism. They look warily at claims made by private and public institutions. They question what they hear. In that context, if transit agencies gloss over their customer experience challenges, and engage in "happy talk" about their systems, it rings untrue and fuels mistrust and suspicion. Given this reality, the best way to talk about transit customer experience is honestly and openly. When riders tweet out sincere complaints, for

To improve experiences for transit customers often requires that transit agencies undergo change. Previous assumptions and practices may need to be reconsidered. Priorities may need to be adjusted. The agency may need to broach difficult issues. The problem is that few people like being told they need to change, especially if they are comfortable doing things the way they've always done them. And those with experience will know there is risk in change, especially if it impact

A CX Plan cannot script customer-centric behaviors for every scenario. The situations are simply too numerous. As such, CX needs to become part of the organizational culture at every level to be successful. Every day, transit employees at all levels have opportunities to impact the customer experience. When employees are committed to serving the community and providing good experiences to riders, they are more likely to go the extra mile to make a difference. For example, an