Survey Shows High Marks in Customer Satisfaction for HART!

Voice of the Customer Surveys have taken place since 2015.

HART is touting a huge jump in its score on a customer satisfaction survey -- an increase of 128% since August 2015.

These numbers were captured as part of the agency's fourth wave of Voice of the Customer Scorecard, an initiative designed to gather data which will be used to better understand the customers' opinions of existing service and areas of priority that need improvement.

According to the latest quarterly survey of about 500 HART riders, the public transit system has drastically improved its customer service since conducting its first survey last year. Results of the survey, which was conducted at different times of day, and days of the week on all HART routes to measure customer impressions, indicate that HART is outperforming the national transit industry in customer satisfaction by 28%.

Back in 2015, HART hired TransPro Consulting to conduct surveys gauging rider satisfaction, asking riders whether they would recommend HART service to friends or family.

TransPro has conducted four waves of surveys since 2015, taking place in August and December, speaking to a total of 2,082 customers.

According to TransPro staff, who presented survey results to the HART Board of Directors during its February 6 meeting, HART scored notably high marks for service frequency, bus routes location convenience, and service improvements over the course of the past year.

TransPro also pointed out that HART achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 48%, a full 36% higher than the transit industry average NPS of 12% for customer satisfaction. Net Promoter Score is a widely used in both the private and public sectors as a customer satisfaction index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer's overall satisfaction with a company's service and the customer's loyalty to the brand.

Roughly 95% of customers expressed overall satisfaction with HART service, meanwhile the percentage of customers who felt that the agency's service had improved over the past year increased by 50% in wave four of the surveys. Regarding customer loyalty,

approximately 71% of the riders surveyed in wave four identified themselves as riding five days a week, which is higher than the industry standard. In addition, over 65% of customers in Waves 2, 3 and 4 use HART buses most frequently for work. 

HART will continue to conduct these surveys on a regular, ongoing basis to target specific improvements needed to boost customer satisfaction.