B.C., Canada’s TransLink released its new Customer Experience Action Plan to better serve the changing needs of customers over the next five years. The plan outlines five key priority areas to provide customers with a more exceptional experience on transit. These priority areas include making transit more personalized, easier to use, more reliable, safer, and more climate friendly.

“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. “We’ve taken a deep look at who our customers are, how their travel patterns have changed, and how to best elevate the transit experience. These actions will make sure customers have a phenomenal experience on transit, which will help us welcome back more customers and attract new customers to the system.” 

Some initiatives identified to improve the customer experience include:

• Developing the next generation of Compass to allow for more personalization.

• Introducing contactless payment options to make using transit easier.

• Exploring options for more washrooms on the system and working towards improving customer facilities like more all-weather bus shelters.

• Installing more real-time information displays and multi-lingual signage.

• Continuing to invest in RapidBus routes, improvements to bus speed and reliability, and more comfortable SkyTrain cars.

TransLink will also create a new permanent Customer Ideas inbox and more opportunities for in-person customer service.

The plan was developed through extensive research including more than 1,200 ideas from customers, input from front-line transit workers, and a review of the best customer practices of other sectors. In the process of creating the plan, TransLink:

• Identified five unique customer “mindsets” that influence travel decisions.

• Developed a Customer Journey Map detailing the moments that matter to transit customers.

• Aggregated a list of 40 initiatives aimed at improving the customer experience.

Since the last Customer Experience Action Plan was released in 2019, TransLink has completed 51 improvements which included initiatives such as RapidBus, Tap-to-Pay, and more real-time passenger information displays.