Travel in London Travel in London

7. The Customer Experience
previous year, and our website remains the most common source of real-time
travel information in London, used by 61 per cent of internet users.
7.3 Understanding where improvement was required
Despite touching millions of people’s lives every day, feedback during the middle
part of the last decade suggested that customers had little understanding about
TfL, did not feel the organisation had strong values, and felt that we acted like a
monopoly. The customer experience was mixed: people saw transport as one of
the best and worst things about living in London.
Although services were improving they were still unreliable (particularly on the
roads), and often inconsistent and overcrowded. There was a feeling that TfL was
failing to get the basics right, which suggested a lack of care for customers.
Examples of shortcomings on public transport included poor reliability on some
Tube lines, a website that did not respond to modern mobile phones and a Journey
Planner that needed upgrading to improve accuracy and ease of use. More than half
of Londoners (52 per cent) thought we would not manage transport very well during
the 2012 Games, and this assumed increasing importance in the public eye as a high
profile ‘test’ of TfL’s ability to organise and manage transport effectively.
In the event, as was comprehensively reviewed in Travel in London report 5,
transport played a key role in the very successful Games. This reflected a
combination of prior investment and preparation, as well as operational excellence
during the Games themselves. Some 95 per cent of customers thought that TfL
managed transport during the Games ‘very’ or ‘quite well’ – a remarkable
turnaround from the pre-Games pessimism. This success, in turn, has provided a
springboard for further improvement since the Games.
It would be incorrect to imply, however, that post-Games all is perfect, or that the
improvement in the customer experience over the period of the MTS solely reflects
preparation for the Games. Previous Travel in London reports have highlighted a
range of non-Games-specific improvements and innovations. Customer feedback
continues to provide TfL with pointers for further improvement, sometimes
reflecting deep-seated problems such as congestion on the road network, or
emerging new issues, for example the need to stay one step ahead of the rapid
evolution of mobile technologies and customer expectations in this regard. TfL’s
Customer Model helps us understand these issues and assign relative priorities for
improvement.
7.4 TfL’s Customer Model
TfL’s Customer Model sets out the five aspects of what customers want from us,
covering both public transport and roads, including walking and cycling (figure 7.1).
These five aspects are:
• That TfL is the one-stop shop for all types of transport. We listen to our
customers, see things from their point of view, and understand that every
journey matters.
• That the experience consistently meets customer needs. TfL gets the basics
right and supports them when things go wrong.
• TfL continuously innovates and improves.
• That customers feel they are getting good value for money.
122 Travel in London, Report 8