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Ulster Bus service initiative begins to make a difference

Ulster Bus service initiative begins to make a difference

Three months in to the ‘You are the Difference’ initiative with drivers and inspectors at Ulster Bus the campaign is beginning to deliver some impressive results.

Within the parameters set by Ulster Bus before the initiative began, there has already been an increase of over 35 per cent in the number of compliments recorded from passengers about the company’s bus drivers. Moreover, customer care-related complaints from passengers have fallen by some 36 per cent over the same period.

According to Billy Gilpin, Ulster Bus’s Operation Manager: “This initiative is not merely a training exercise. It’s creating sustainable development for the business by getting our people to identify where changes might benefit the service we offer and then implementing those changes that are feasible.

“The project aims not only to help Ulster Bus staff improve their customer care techniques but also to educate passengers how they can help us to help them.”

So far, some 400 of Ulster Bus’ 700 drivers and all of the company’s bus inspectors have experienced the training element of the ‘You are the Difference’ initiative.

The training features a series of role plays, in which Ulster Bus staff interact with professional actors. The actors present scenarios experienced during the programme’s initial research and then present these scenarios again but, this time, improvising their roles under the direction of the audience of trainees.

“This allows the learners to explore the likely outcome from a number of actions and reactions to some basic issues identified through pre course research* with Belfast passengers,” explained Gilpin. “All of this is done within the confines of the training room rather than ‘for real’ – and then reviewed – enabling Ulster Bus staff to be better prepared for customer care eventualities in ‘real life’.”

The initiative’s logo - and the main focus of the training - is around the three colours of a set of traffic lights. Each colour signifies a choice of behaviours that can be selected:

“The key message is that there’s no one particularly ‘bad’ behaviour. There are merely fewer appropriate choices of behaviour if people don’t reflect, pause and then act,” explained Gilpin.

”We are keen to ensure that the improvements in our service to our passengers are sustained,” he said. ”With this in mind we shall be continuing to implement some of the good ideas** identified by our staff.

“We will also be appealing to our passengers to follow a set of guidelines which help us to make their travel experience a more positive one. We are in the process of publishing these guidelines, which include such suggestions on ensuring passengers use a Smartcard or have the right money to hand when boarding, clearly signal with their arms when they want the bus to stop at a bus stop, and avoid dropping their litter in the bus.

“With the goodwill of our passengers and the focus of our staff, we intend to ensure Ulster Bus is the best bus service in the British Isles,” he added.

* In developing ‘You Make the Difference’ – which began to be delivered to Ulster Bus staff in August – Echelon Learning, the initiative’s designers, took over 70 bus trips in Belfast, interviewed more than 100 passengers and also spoke, at length, to Ulster Bus staff.

** To date, during the training sessions, staff have identified nearly 500 ideas for service improvement and the target is to reach 1,000 by the end of the year.