World Class Customer Service Awards 2007: GCRTA, A Good Ride
By Klein, Dustin S
When Joe Calabrese joined the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in 2000, his goal was to re-engineer public transportation for the commuters of Northeast Ohio by improving customer service.
GCRTA operates 108 rail cars on 34 miles of track and 654 buses on 1,666 route miles. On average, 180,000 people fide GCRTA daily.
When Calabrese assumed control, GCRTA was a large system riddled with a record of poor reliability, safety concerns and low customer satisfaction.
He went right to work.
Through the purchase of 13 hundreds of clean-air buses, he went from having one of the oldest fleets in the nation to one of the newest. He simplified the riders commute by expanding GCRTA’s network of transit centers and Park-N-Rides. And by investing nearly $2 million into a state-of-the-art communications center using global positioning technology, the transit authority can now pinpoint the exact location of every bus and train, information that is relayed to riders at stops and stations through electronic monitors.
As a result of these changes and an expansive advertising campaign in 2005, ridership steadily increased. Helping fill the seats was GCRTA’s expanded participation in its Commuter Advantage program, which allows people to purchase passes through a work sponsored, pre-tax option.
Every quarter, Calabrese and his team speak with customers and generate a report card to see how they’re doing. Based on the results, GCRTA offers incentives to employees for meeting performance criteria including on-time performance, safety, customer service and reliability.
As a result, GCRTA has experienced four consecutive years of ridership gains, with nearly 5 million riders added. And over the past five years, customer satisfaction surveys have consistently risen by double-digit percentages year-over-year. HOW TO REACH: Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, (216) 566-5100 or www.gcrta.org
Copyright Smart Business Network Jun 01, 2007
(c) 2007 Smart Business Akron/Canton. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.