Rachel Kurzius
Photo by Mark Andre.
Tagging your commuter experiences #unsuckDCmetro? You’re not the only one. Metro is experiencing a large drop in customer satisfaction among people who use the rail service.
WMATA’s quarterly survey of riders finds that customer satisfaction has fallen to 67 percent from 82 percent in the first three quarters of this year. The decrease comes after two years of relative stability in the survey, in the range of 81 percent satisfaction.
Why so dissatisfied? Metro attributes it to the “impact less reliable service is having on customer experience,” and notes that 30 percent of dissatisfaction comes from this lack of reliability.
Customers are now reporting two problems per trip on average. That’s a whopping 300 percent increase from two years ago, when the average rider reported less than one issue per journey.
Metro writes that, “the only way to substantially improve satisfaction is through sustained and consistent service delivery.”
Today is new Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld’s first day on the job, and there’s nothing like a damning survey to get you going right out of the gate.
The survey, and options for improving customer satisfaction, will be on the docket for discussion at WMATA’s December 3 Board of Directors meeting. And you can talk to Wiedefeld directly about your issues when he hosts an open forum with riders on December 14.
The silver lining? Satisfaction about buses increased to 82 percent from 78 percent at the start of the year.
