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.

Found this interesting blog post on how to design for customer experience
https://instrktiv.com/en/blog/usability/customer-journey/