Opinion
In the passenger seat The public gets
hat do complaints tell you about an industry? Passenger Focus takes on around 3,000 cases a year where passengers are unhappy with how the train company has handled their complaint. The complaints we receive are a tiny subset of all those made to train companies. Complaints are more often from leisure passengers, who take less frequent journeys – usually with higher one-off ticket prices, than from commuters. East Coast, by no means the largest train company, has again topped the league with over 770 complaints to us in 2011-12. We are now working with it and other train companies to reduce these figures. Virgin and First Great Western followed with over 279 and nearly 240 respectively. The main issues complained about? Fares and ticketing, complaints handling, performance, and staff conduct and availability.
what the public wants? W
Some companies take the view that it is best to take the heat out of situations, say sorry and make a relatively generous offer up front. Others view the whole exercise as a chance to generate more revenue – the notion that someone might be a loyal customer who has made an honest mistake seems alien. Some have trouble in even replying.
That so many complaints are about the complaints process
some train companies, detailed in our recent Ticket to Ride report, is still feeding through to the complaints reaching us. Even in the total absence of intent passengers are being hounded to pay absurdly high fines, often with the threat of prosecution thrown in. However, discussions are taking place with Atoc about
anthony Smith considers the one-sided nature of the customer complaints process, which leaves passengers feeling powerless
itself is depressing. Familiar themes emerge: failure to read or address the issues raised seems a common complaint. By spending a lot of time and effort we are managing to get nearly nine of our 10 passengers satisfied with the way we have dealt with their complaint, if not the final outcome. The attitude of
‘The train company can run trains late, short, with no catering, no information and no staff - you have little comeback’
drawing up an industry code of practice for how unpaid fares notices are dealt with. Customer service seems to have gone out the window, thanks to the toxic mixture of high ‘fines’, guards incentivised to collect the fines and the outsourcing (and consequent loss of oversight) of revenue protection work. Train companies need to urgently re-establish their grip on this most delicate aspect of the passenger relationship.
It is easy to see how passengers become frustrated with the one-sided nature of the relationship. When you buy a ticket, you enter into a contract designed for very different times. The train company can run trains late, short, with no catering, no information and no staff – you have little comeback. If you dare to forget to bring your railcard with you they are on you like a ton of bricks. This is unfair and unbalanced and leads to feelings of powerlessness and frustration.
Most of the railway network is now operated by private companies. Perhaps it is time to rip up some of the conditions of carriage and byelaws and let train companies and passengers have a normal consumer relationship?
Is it also right that the taxpayer has to fund the effort to sort out train companies’ messes? There could be an argument for moving to a ‘polluter pays’ model. Sad to say, often threatening the bottom line forces change faster than more reasoned intervention.
Anthony Smith is the chief executive of Passenger Focus. SEPTEMBER 2012 PAGE 19
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