Addressing Difficult Customer Situations (2017)

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68 Addressing difficult customer situAtions Questionnaire/Interview Questions for TCRP Synthesis Report “Addressing Difficult Customer Situations” Please answer these questions to the best of your ability, even if the information might be anecdotal versus highly researched and reported: 1. Please describe the size of your transit agency in terms of passengers served per year, size of your fleet, and the approximate population of your service area. 2. Do you keep track of the number and type of difficult customer situations you experience in your system on a regular basis? Do you have an example of your records that you keep that you are willing to share that show what types of difficult customer situations you track? If so, please attach. Yes ____ No ____ 3. Based on your records and/or knowledge, have the incidents of difficult customer situations increased over the past five years? If so, please provide numbers if available. Are there any “new social norms” or a different clientele among customers that is proving challenging? Does it seem people are more quick to anger or have more agendas that impact other customers? 4. Do you think difficult customer situations affect transit ridership? Do you have evidence of any kind to support that? 5. Would you be able to address whether there have been increasing cases of workers compensation, depression, and self-medication among vehicle operators due to difficult passenger situations? Yes ____ No ____ Please explain: 6. Do you provide stress/anger management training for your operators, supervisors, and customer service personnel? Please describe it and whether there is evidence it has helped defuse difficult customer situations. 7. Are you aware of vehicle operators taking matters into their own hands by passing up passengers who they believe are a problem? If so, how do you address that? Appendix A survey Questionnaire

69 8. What have been the most challenging difficult customer situations to deal with? What have been the most frequent? 9. What technology have you used that either captures or discourages inappropriate behavior on your vehicles or in your facilities and how effective has it been? Has it helped to either prevent difficult customer situations or assisted your agency in being able to take effective action against problem- atic people using your system? (Such technology might include, but not be limited to, cameras or microphones, or cell phone applications that allow passengers to directly report incidents to the transit agency or police while such incidents are happening.) Please don’t only list what technology you have, but tell us how effective they have been based on whatever evidence you have. 10. Could you please describe in enough detail, for other transit agencies to understand, the preventive measures you have taken to minimize difficult customer situations and how effective you think they have been and how they might be made more effective? Examples include, but are not limited to: •  Passenger Warrants to keep difficult passengers off your vehicles or out of your facilities •   Public education programs (for example, in public schools or at transit centers) to help people  understand their responsibilities as transit customers •   Implementing a Code of Conduct that guides and governs customer behavior, letting them know  of their rights and responsibilities •   Vehicle Operator Training programs directed toward how to deal with difficult customer situations  that teach them how to help defuse tense or troublesome situations and help them recognize passengers that “might be having a bad day” or might have a disability that contributes to them acting out •   Establishing coordination with local law enforcement agencies. How well do they know transit  agencies policies and practices, and are the lines of responsibilities between transit agency personnel and law enforcement officers well understood? 11.   The major objective of this survey is to find out what policies and procedures work and what don’t  work when transit personnel are faced with difficult customer situations. Explain the procedures your personnel follow when a difficult passenger situation occurs, differentiating by the type of situation that exists (for example, someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol, disruptive passengers, passengers talking too loudly on their phones, passengers eating on transit vehicles, unhygienic passengers, passengers who are using the transit system as shelter rather than transporta- tion, customers who make threats, customers who assault transit personnel or other passengers, etc.). Please describe or attach the different policies and procedures you have and how effective you think they have been. Do you have plans to improve them? 12. Does your agency work with human service agencies that assist people in a way that can help mini- mize difficult passenger situations and what actions have they taken that you think help minimize such events (e.g., passengers who are homeless or cannot pay the fare)? 13.   Does your agency have a relationship with the local judicial system in which judges truly under- stand the challenges public transit agencies face with difficult customers and rule accordingly? If so, did you do anything to get this kind of cooperative assistance that might help other transit agencies?

70 14. Have any local or state laws been passed that address the issues associated with difficult customer situations? If so, please describe them, why they were passed, were there difficulties in getting them passed, and how well do you think they work? 15. Are you aware of legal issues that limit your ability to take actions that you believe are necessary to minimize inappropriate behavior on your transit system? What are those issues and do you have any plans to overcome them? 16. Have you received any feedback that any actions you have taken to address difficult customer situations have been too drastic, intimidating, or discriminatory? Please cite examples and what you have done in response. 17. Please describe the type of involvement you have had with your local union to discuss the best ways to address difficult customer situations. What has been implemented as a result and has it been successful? 18. Please describe the type of feedback you have received from the public, if any, on their feelings about difficult customer situations and have they suggested anything you might do to deal with difficult customer situations? 19. Does your agency utilize barriers or enclosures that help protect bus operators from assaults? What has been your experience with these barriers in terms of minimizing danger to the bus operator, and what feedback have you received from operators and passengers? 20. Has your agency produced any reports or white papers on the general issue of dealing with difficult customer situations that have been shared with your policy board that you can provide? If so, please attach a copy. Thank you. 21. What are the types of difficult customer situations do your customer service personnel experience, and what do you do to address them? 22. What is the relationship between your customer incident management practices and current safety programs (SMS)?