Transit, Call Centers, and 511: A Guide for Decision Makers (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 70-82
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From page 70... ...
The first category provides guidance that will assist transit agencies and 511 system administrators in determining their approaches to transit information content and features on 511. The second category provides transit agencies guidance on advanced call center strategies overall.
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From page 71... ...
Further, the telephone number of the transit agency is listed and/or an option to transfer to the transit agency is provided. Exceptions are rare, such as the San Francisco Bay Area 511 system, which has many transit agencies that include submenus with several categories of prerecorded information in addition to the call transfer option.
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From page 72... ...
Few transit agencies have extensive prerecorded information or real-time vehicle arrival/departure information on 511. Agencies in San Francisco and San Diego are two exceptions.
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From page 73... ...
Now, realizing how much time and effort goes into these activities, and finding it a challenge to retrieve this information from transit agencies who do not necessarily demonstrate an interest in 511, MTC is reassessing their approach. Another significant issue in the Bay Area has to do with expanding the 511 vehicle arrival time feature from a singleagency demonstration to include many other transit agencies throughout the region.
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From page 74... ...
They may not understand or agree that in their region consolidating traffic and transit information can help facilitate mode choice decisions, that consolidating information on multiple transit agencies will eliminate the need to make multiple calls, or that 511 will be an easier number to find and remember than transit agency customer service numbers. Of course, they may be correct that the transit-511 rationale is not valid in their area.
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From page 75... ...
It also validates the 511 Deployment Coalition guidance stating that call transfers to transit agency customer service should be provided from 511, since focus group participants expressed belief that access to an operator is important. 4.1.3.2 Transit Information on 511 As noted previously, the focus group and the successful experiences of transit agencies indicate that providing transit information through an IVR is viable.
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From page 76... ...
Specifically, if voice recognition is used it should work well and any information on the system -- traffic and transit -- should be accurate and current. 4.1.4 Transit Agency Call Center Strategies A secondary objective of this study was to compare transit agency telephone customer service strategies with those employed by other types of organizations and to identify any technologies and practices that should be given increased consideration by transit agencies.
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From page 77... ...
That is because, as described earlier in this chapter, technology and other aspects of call center sophistication are not a requirement for 511 success or correlated with individual transit agencies' 511 decisions. However, these findings suggest that many transit agencies may benefit from greater utilization of technologies and more sophisticated performance metrics in their telephone customer service operations.
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From page 78... ...
The Deployment Coalition recommends including the following for each transit agency within the 511 service area: • A description of the agency's service area, • Schedule and fare information, • Information about service disruptions, and • A connection (call transfer out of 511) to the transit agency's customer service center.
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From page 79... ...
consider N11 systems as part of overall customer service strategy. 4.2.2.1 Consider Greater Utilization of Proven, Advanced Technologies and Techniques Although transit agencies utilize many of the same advanced call center technologies and techniques as do non-transit organizations, non-transit call centers tend to use more of the advanced methods than do transit call centers with comparable call volumes.
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From page 80... ...
Whether it makes more sense to meet those needs via 511 versus upgrades to their own call center will depend on the other factors as noted in this table. 511 system user interface The value of advanced transit content and features on 511 depend significantly on the ability of transit users to conveniently and reliably access that information.
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From page 81... ...
4.3 Plan for Implementing the Research Findings There are three audiences that will benefit most from the results of this report. First, individual transit agencies should find these study results useful in shaping their approaches to 511 telephone information systems and to their call centers overall.
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From page 82... ...
82 transit agency personnel include the ITS International Best Practices Workshop, Bus and Paratransit Conference, Marketing and Communications Workshop, and TransITech Conference. Recommended forums to reach 511 system administrator personnel include the ITE annual meeting, ITE technical conferences, the National Transportation Operations Coalition webinars, and the ITS America annual conference (also well attended by transit agency personnel)
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