I’m just back from a useful #RTIG seminar on the role of data in bus franchising, which got me thinking what we measure.
Bus franchising in the UK is dominated by phrases like ‘taking buses back into public control’ but current decisions to franchise are largely political. The objective rationale that might have led a Local Transport Authority to franchise has changed little in the last few decades. What has changed more recently is devolution and more powerful Mayors, and bus operators – post Covid – being more willing to embrace a lower but stable profit margin rather than none at all.
The RTIG seminar had many interesting insights including Tim Rivett sharing the US experience from the Eno Center of Transportation studies. It is crucial to measure the performance of franchised services using accurate data based on agreed definitions if you are running a performance regime, especially if it might result in financial penalties.
Meanwhile, the customers who have persuaded Mayors to crack on with franchising, have their own views on what they are asking for. Does ‘punctual’ mean ‘95% of buses leave my stop within 5 minutes of their scheduled timetable’? Sounds reasonable, but it depends which are the 5% that don’t leave on time. If the unpunctual bus is the first one in the morning that gets me to work, the one that connects me to an hourly rail service, or an infrequent rural service, I might be less generous.
And what about comfort? Does that mean thick bouncy seats? Fast Wi-Fi? CCTV? A smile from the driver? Space for two bags of shopping? So I’m not sure we are clear how we measure happy customers, but – in 2035 – when we look back on ten years of franchising, I suspect that happy customers is the only metric our Mayors will be looking at.
The RTIG seminar was clear – ‘get your data strategy right at the start’ because this forms the basis of understanding how it’s all going and where you may need to change. LTAs will be taking literally millions of data points for punctuality – every bus, passing every bus stop, every day. But often the views of customers are represented by an annual survey of maybe 1000 people. Now’s the time, therefore, to capture not just the nice objective metrics of time and location but the much messier and subjective feedback that customers might share with us.
You don’t necessarily need to use this in your performance regime, but it can help a myriad of other things – support network reviews and vehicle specifications, identify people and communities most likely to switch from private transport, understand opportunities and barriers around digital payments, to name a few.
Thanks then to RTIG for the discussions and the prompting of thoughts around this. Maybe a future seminar can discuss what might accurately capture a great customer experience.
Innovatious has significant experience of customer research so give us a shout if we can help.