Customer Experience in bus travel : Miles to go !

Recently , I had taken a bus to Bangalore from Chennai. It was a full-berth AC bus which definitely made my travel comfortable.

But the other aspects of the travel was not pleasing:

- in Koyambedu bus terminal where the private buses are stationed , there is no seating facility for passengers to wait

- the boarding point is such a 'chaos' with all passengers made to stand in a small platform space

- even if you find a place to stand ( which itself is a great achievement !) you have to really encounter the challenges posed by other passengers who would walk by with swinging bag and baggage testing your muscle strength ; don't ever expect someone would say 'sorry ' even if they stamp your leg in the melee

-and once the bus arrives there is a mike announcement ; there is a mad rush to know if that is the correct bus to board; remember ,bus numbers or any sort of ID's is a glaring miss in the bus ticket !

- bus ticket instructs you to be present 30 mins before departure time and its truly a testing time

-if you are seeking any information with driver about the time it would reach a particular stop , the tone of reply and the responses you get is never a point of delight (but there are some good drivers who are receptive to answer your queries)

As a passenger who pays a price to have a comfortable journey , the 'customer experience' is pathetic. I don't even have a choice but to accept the service levels and travel .

There is huge potential for process improvement in the complete system and I hope some company takes the lead and listens to the voice of the customers.

Resonance Newsletter : Issue 08

Click here to see Resonance Newsletter : Issue 08

Handshake Hypothesis !

I enjoyed reading this small hypothesis test on 'Getting introduced'.

" Arriving at a cocktail party one evening, the famed editor Maxwell Perkins, in an endeavor to test the hypothesis that no one listens to what anyone says on such occasions, greeted his hostess with a polite handshake and the following words:
"Sorry I'm late, but it took me longer to strangle my aunt than I expected."
"Yes, indeed," his hostess replied, "I'm so happy you came."
Perkins, Maxwell Evarts (1884-1947) American editor [noted for his mentorship of such writers as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe] "

I am sure it happens to all of us :-)

We never tend to pay attention to the words said while doing an handshake.

Some best practices recommended by memory experts to overcome this situation:

- Greet the person looking at their eyes

- If a person introduces himself/herself , ensure you repeat the name of the person or check the way the name is pronounced

- Try to link the person's face with some abstract figure you can recollect

Nextime when you are in a party,remember this Handshake hypothesis,

US Debt Clock !

Recently one of my friend refered this site as an example of Real time monitoring and communication.Indeed it was ;an interesting site(http://www.usdebtclock.org/) which projects US debt situation in real time.

Not sure of ,who maintains this site !

Resonance Newsletter : Issue 07

Click here to view Resonance Newsletter Issue -07

IT Dashboard on Government spending !

"Is there a dashboard where I can see the overall performance ", is the most often asked question by the senior management of organizations.
Dashboards play a critical role in summarizing and giving a birds eye info on key parameters of any project.
One of the dashboards which impressed me was the IT Dashboard by the US Government on spending.

As the website says ,''The IT Dashboard provides the public with an online window into the details of Federal information technology investments and provides users with the ability to track the progress of investments over time.The Dashboard contains a subset of data from agency Exhibits 53 and 300, and agencies will update cost, schedule, and performance figures, agency CIO ratings, and other collected investment information on a monthly basis". It looks to be a bold initiative aimed at bringing transparency on government spendings.Will other countries follow suit ? Reference :http://it.usaspending.gov/

Resonance Newsletter : Issue 06

Click to see Resonance Newsletter Edition 6