STM paratransit services - A strong level of appreciation and ideas for improvement already rolled out

Eager to assess the satisfaction level of its customers, hear their opinions and identify solutions leading to tangible improvements, STM regularly conducts surveys among people who use its different services. 

While the most recent assessment of paratransit service, performed last November, revealed an excellent level of overall satisfaction among customers, it also brought to light a few aspects of service that STM could further improve, some of which it has already undertaken to do.

A telephone survey was conducted in November 2016 among 500 respondents who had to have taken at least two trips per month, from May to October 2016. The services and other variables being evaluated included:

• Overall satisfaction
• Call centres (usage and satisfaction)
• Online reservations system (use, satisfaction and ideas for improvement)
• Taxi/minibus service (use, satisfaction and ideas for improvement)
• Frequency of use of STM’s city bus network

Overall satisfaction level reaches 93%, a very good result that follows the trend observed for several years now. It validates all the effort and hard work done by STM staff and employees, in collaboration with our partners in the taxi industry.

Ideas for improvement already implemented
The comments gleaned from customers during that exercise also revealed three major areas where they would like to see improvement: wait times for call centres, punctuality of service and staff courtesy. STM acknowledged these issues and has already implemented measures to address them.

Thanks to the EXTRA project, more efficient tools for communicating with customers will lessen telephone line congestion at given times by sending out information to customers at the right time. Among these tools, the roll-out of reminders for next day travel has already been successfully achieved. The next step, which is expected to be introduced in the coming year, will consist of notifying customers of their vehicle’s imminent arrival. Continuous improvements to the online reservation system (that customers appreciate very much and one that saw a 50% increase in number of users in only three years) will make it possible for customers to cut down on their calls to the reservations centre, by giving them the ability to handle all of their travel arrangements online.

With this project, STM is also aiming for geolocating vehicles, optimizing minibus and taxi resources, as well as dispatching service in real time. Managing our fleet of vehicles in real time will, in the end, help to prevent and lessen service delays.

Lastly, our various ways of measuring quality (undercover customers using taxis and call centres, observations made by operations supervisors on the road, follow-ups of complaints lodged by our customers) allow us to constantly adjust the training provided to our employees, so that their conduct in terms of courtesy matches customer expectations.