Hire For Heart - Hiring Customer-Centric Bus Operators to Improve CX

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 (LBT). “Hire for Heart, Train for Excellence” is the brainchild of LBT’s President and CEO, Kenneth A. McDonald, who was named APTA’s Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in 2025.

What is Hire for Heart? It is a program for hiring customer-centric bus operators to improve the Customer Experience (CX). This program prioritizes candidates dedicated to providing exceptional customer service. Previously, like many transit agencies, LBT instead focused on recruiting individuals with technical driving skills.

The philosophy behind Hire for Heart is that driving skills are trainable whereas a genuine inclination towards customer service may not be so easily learned. LBT believes that a customer service mindset is a fundamental, non-negotiable quality for successful bus operators.

To make the Hire for Heart shift, LBT redefined job descriptions, targeted new recruitment pools, and provided support to job candidates and new hires. New job descriptions emphasize interacting and working with people. Recruitment shifted to candidates with customer service experience including those affected by layoffs in retail establishments due to the pandemic. Interviews were modified to focus more on customer service aptitude and skills.

Support for bus operator candidates and new hires was also important. The “Train for Excellence" component involves an 8-week operator training class and includes Commercial Driver's License acquisition. LBT also trains bus operators in de-escalation tactics. De-escalation refers to the range of verbal and nonverbal skills used to slow down the sequence of events, enhance situational awareness, and facilitate better decision-making to reduce the likelihood of a confrontation.

In addition, LBT leverages trainers and supervisors to have empathy for new bus operators and support them in their new role. LBT has found that post-hiring support is important for retention, with the first three years being the most crucial. This support has resulted in better retention.

Finally, LBT executives actively participate in operator graduation classes, reinforcing the company's expectations and commitment to customer service. They greet new operators and convey "You are running a franchise of LBT and we are depending on you to grow this organization."

Some outcomes:

• Before Hire for Heart and the pandemic, LBT, like other agencies, struggled with hiring, experiencing 10-11% vacancy. With Hire for Heart, the current vacancy rate is down to 1-2%.

• LBT's 2024 annual customer survey, the first to measure Net Promoter Score (NPS), reported an NPS of 50, with 64% promoters and 14% detractors. This is dramatically higher than the national average among 80 surveyed transit agencies (which had an average NPS of -21). Moreover, in this benchmarking survey LBT was ranked #1 in driver courtesy, with a remarkable 83% positive rating vs the 62% national average.

• LBT has been able to hire more operators via Hire for Heart, increasing from 27 operators in FY2019 to 41 operators in FY2024, a 34% increase.

• Fortunately, even as operator customer service has improved, accidents have decreased, with Accidents per 100k Platform Miles dropping from 9.95 in FY2019 to 8.69 in FY2024. This shows that the Hire for Heart approach does not appear to come at the expense of safety.

In summary, transit agencies that are striving to improve the customer experience may want to consider Hire for Heart as a model. Transforming the bus operator role to emphasize customer service is a great way for transit agencies to build satisfaction, ridership, and community support.

For further information about Hire for Heart, contact:

• Kenneth McDonald: Kmcdonald@lbtransit.com

• Fabiola Robles: Frobles@lbtransit.com

Transit CX Tip: Before you launch your own Hire for Heart program, create a robust evaluation plan and collect baseline data so that you can confirm that it delivers a better customer experience, improves recruitment and retention, and maintains safety.