Q. How do you sift through
that feedback?
You’re going to always get
somebody who will give you the
sky-is-falling kind of input. Then
you’ll have somebody on this
other parameter that makes it
sound as if this is the greatest
thing since canned soup.
You have to read between the
lines and really get at what is
the burning issue or the item
that customers are really
pleased with. If you start here
and see similar concerns with
multiple customers, then that
becomes obviously a much
higher concern and issue for
you that you need to address
quicker than one where somebody’s complaining about not
enough legroom on the bus, and
the gentleman’s 6 feet 5 inches.
Q. What is the benefit of
face-to-face interaction with
your customer base?
You really get the opportunity to hear from the customers
firsthand.
When the rest of my staff,
everything from a driver to a
dispatcher who’s out on the
street to even the next level
middle-management, when they
see and know I’m out and about
and I’m doing that, they look at
it and step back and go, ‘It’s
important enough for him to
take his time to come out and
visit with these customers personally, then it must be important enough for us to do it.’
Q. What should executives
know before engaging their
customer bases?
In my opinion, we’re all pretty much customer service representatives. Without the customer, we don’t have a job. I’ll
just go to them, I’ll give them
my name, and I’ll say who I’m
with so they know I’m affiliated with the company, but I
don’t really tell the customers
who I am from a position
standpoint.
I never have a problem if
anybody ever says anything
[about it.] I’ll hand them a
business card just for the purpose of allowing them to
either phone me or e-mail me
direct. I don’t just go and hand
out every card I have. I would-n’t recommend that.
The other thing I do to certain
passengers, I will say, ‘Please e-mail me. I’d love to hear how
your experience was.’
That’s the true key to making
sure that you really know
what you need to do. You hear
it from your employees, and I
take a lot of input from them
on recommendations and suggestions, but you also need to
make sure that you get a balance of what the customers
think, too.
HOW TO REACH: megabus.com, (877) 462-6342 or www.megabus.com
