Inside 2024 APTA Transform and the Power of Customer Experience

Stop Requested.

Welcome to Stop Requested, a podcast where we discuss everything transit. I’m your co-host, Christian Londono, Senior Customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

And I’m your co-host, Levi McCollum, product manager at ETA Transit. So Christian, I’m really excited to talk to you today about the Apta Transform conference. I know you went recently and unfortunately I didn’t get to go.

I’m a little jealous, but since you got to go along with Jose and a couple other folks from ETA Transit, I really want to know what that experience was like.

Well, Levi, you should be jealous, for sure, because it was a great conference. As you know, the APTA Transform conference is the main national conference transit professionals attend.

It took place at Anaheim, California from September 29 to October 2nd, and it was very well attended.

I think that that was a record in attendance. I believe I heard, you know, making some comments related to that, and I was at the opening session, and the room was packed. It was there at the Anaheim Convention Center, which has different buildings with several rooms. I mean, it has to be a large place to accommodate the amount of transit professionals and vendors that come to this conference.

But overall, it was a great conference. A lot of networking opportunities are sponsored by different vendors, you know, attendance from agencies, from small agencies, mid-sized, large agencies from all over the country.

So it was definitely a great event. And, you know, one of the highlights for me was the Expo. Being now on the vendor side with ETA Transit, the Expo becomes one of your most important sessions of the conference, and it was a well attended Expo. I think that in comparison to some of the other trade shows and conferences around the country, the Expo sometimes is during lunch, and it’s just a short amount of time for the interaction. But at the APTA Transform is actually a big piece of the conference where there’s a lot of sessions that are taking place at the Expo. You know, there’s interviews to CEOs, there’s micro-sessions, there’s demonstrations, and, you know, of course, the interactions are the boots.

So overall, for me, I just think was one of the best conferences I attended this year.

Oh, that’s really cool. And yeah, I’m even more jealous now, but you know what I’m especially jealous of when I’m going through LinkedIn and I see all you guys, you know, posting your nice photos and you’ve got another one with Nuria Fernandez. So how does this keep happening?

Why do you keep running into her? And how do you keep getting photos with this incredible person?

Yes, that’s funny, but, you know, as a Hispanic, I have a lot of admiration for her. You know, I think that might be mistaken, but I believe she’s one of the few or the first Hispanic FDA administrator. So she held just, you know, until recently a very important position in transit.

So every time that I have an opportunity to snap a picture with her, I always ask politely if I can. And you know, so far I’ve been lucky to always get a yes and shake a hand and ask, you know, a few questions. So I understand now she’s in the consultant side, still in transit, still active in GSA face. There will be a scene, you know, in all these national conferences, but that was a great experience.

And you should be jealous.

Oh, well, I definitely am. And, you know, I took one of those photos in the past two of you and Nuria in Jacksonville, so I feel like I played my part, but, uh, next time I’m going to get one. That’s, that’s what I say.

Uh, you know, I know Christian that ETA also sponsored a session. Uh, can you share with me a little bit about the session that we sponsored? And you know, what were some of the highlights? Who were the speakers?

What were the topics?

I think that we sponsor one of the best sessions of the conference, and of course, I’m a little biased because I’m with ETA Transit, but I think that our listeners will agree that customer experience is something that is very important in transit. We’re dealing with people, and the way they interact with our systems around the country is pivotal for making sure more people are choosing transit as their mode of mobility in their community. So the session that we sponsor was titled the Rapid Ascent of Customer Experience Programs, and the moderator was Aaron Weinstein, Executive Consultant with Transit CX, and the panelists, for the panelists, we had Ross Arnold, Deputy CEO, Service Delivery Sound Transit. We also had Patricia Lucy, Director, Brand Marketing and Ridership Division, South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, TransLink, and we had Jennifer Vides, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

So we have folks from large transit agencies in different places around the country, and you can hear it on the titles. I mean, they’re titles, they have very fancy titles related to customer experience, and that speaks to the importance of customer experience, and there’s a lot of new programs, and this was part of what they discussed, that have been started around the country.

Many agencies decided, you know what, we need a higher up in our agency that is going to make sure that we’re including the customer in every decision that we make, and that we’re enhancing that customer experience, that we’re paying attention to every touchpoint, every interaction that a customer has with our systems, and, you know, we’re working on making it the best experience, the most seamless experience for them,

so more people get acclimated into transit, and part of that conversation for the most part was included into everything we do in transit, the voice of the customer. You know, what would the customer say if they were in the room, and they were part of this discussion that we’re having about, you know, changing this route, or maybe buying this type of bus shelters? What would they say?

What’s important to them, and how can we enhance that customer experience?

So overall, it was a great session. It was interesting also to hear from them, their professional career path, how they got there, you know, some of them were not in transit, some of them were in other capacities in transit, not necessarily in customer experience, and they eventually got there, and they talk about all these different partnerships.

I think that one of them alluded to Taylor Swift in, you know, the partnership with, you know, bringing people to the concerts using transit, and branding vehicles, and doing all these things to, you know, enhance the experience for those folks that a lot of the times were trying to transit for the first time. So overall, just incredible session, a lot of learning, a lot of takeaways.

The room was packed. There were people standing at the back of the room against the wall. So it was a great session overall.

but it sounds amazing.

I really wish I were there to listen to it and hear what those speakers had to say. I think the way that you described it just then, it reminded me a lot of you in your experience because you’ve worked in so many different areas of the public transit industry. You’re all for Palm Tran, but you’ve really been able to navigate your way around and build a more complete picture of public transportation, which I believe is absolutely necessary if you want to work in customer experience and to get customer participation in projects and in your services. Would you agree with that or do you think that there am I missing something here?

No, you’re right. I mean, that that previous experience definitely helped you have a better understanding and, you know, what the customers are saying, what is important, what pieces are important in their transit journey, you know, and that we have to incorporate into everything we do, you know, it’s really that customer experience, or a customer experience program is really that, listening to what customers are saying about you and acting on the insights you gain from what they’re saying, you know, in designing an effective customer experience program is really that first step to creating a world-class customer experience. So those, that experience that I previously had a palm trend in as it relates to this specific session, you know, under Clinton Forbes, we put in place something that we call write days.

And that was a way to get the voice of the customer and to describe write days. That was a day that the executive team selected on the calendar, I think we were doing it once a month. And all the administrative employees were directed to write transit for that day. And the other thing that was part of that write day was making sure that all routes were covered. So routes were distributed, you know, among all the different departments, you know, operations, planning, HR, marketing, everybody has a designation of routes they have to write for the day. And as they’re completing the routes, they’re supposed to complete a survey that talks about on-time performance, cleanliness, you know, bus stop conditions, if the infotainment is working, if the Wi-Fi and the bus is working. I mean, just really capture everything that the customers are experiencing out there, as well as talking to customers, asking questions.

Hey, you know, how are you?

My name is this and that. You know, let me ask you a question.

Where are you going?

What do you use transit for? And just hearing from customers, oh, I use this route every day because I work at Dunkin Donuts or I work at this place or I go to the mall or I go to the library every day. And this is the route that I use.

So have that understanding firsthand from the customers is critical to actually bring all that information. So what will happen is that after everybody completed their trips during the route, the right day, a report would be put together that highlights, let’s say that, you know, 50 trips were completed, survey trips, right in the buses that they were completed. How many of those buses were on time, according to the schedule?

80% of the trips, 90%, 50% in which routes were not, which buses were clean or dirty, or was the Wi-Fi working on all the buses we got on or there were some that were not working.

And what that was also resulting in was a punch list where everything that was identified as deficient was addressed. And by the next month, when the right day was coming up, there was a report made on all the things that were addressed, you know, any issues that were reported by customers.

So I think that’s a very important initiative to get that voice of the customer, to make sure that we are putting the customer experience and the customer voice first. And then farther along, and I think that this is also very bold from Executive Director Forbes when he put this program in place, was to include in the interview process a question related to the right day, asking candidates if the executive director was to direct employees to ride the bus,

if they would ride the bus. And if the person would answer no to that question, no, I don’t like riding the bus, no, I don’t want to ride the bus, then that person would not be hired because, you know, every person that works for a transit agency should have that connection to the customers and to the service and be willing to ride the service. So overall, you know, that experience, I think that, you know, it’s very important in terms of tying into customer experience.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. And there’s so many, there are so many takeaways there based on your experience at Palm Tran and the program that Clinton Forbes put into place. I had something similar at Lee Tran that I started, but it was not nearly as formal and you know, frankly, some folks didn’t take the bus or hadn’t ever taken the bus before.

So I wanted to get a group of us when I was a maybe a planner, a senior planner, I got a group of us together to do a bus to lunch. So every couple months we would do a bus to lunch using one of the routes that were nearby to our headquarters. And, you know, we, we took a two hour lunch, but it was, you know, half an hour, 45 minutes to, you know, try out a new lunch spot and then eat lunch and head back. We didn’t write any reports about the experience, but you know, it did allow us to become closer as colleagues and to also see the environment in which we’re operating.

We did get to talk to customers and we, we talked to quite a few, but formalizing it a bit, I think would have been nice. So it’s really glad, I’m really glad to hear that there are other people that are thinking about this end to end experience for a transit passenger. You know, this also reminds me that this is your first APTA conference, the APTA transform conference that you’ve experienced as an ETA employee on the private side. Previously you were on the public side.

Can you give some insights there as to the differences? What was the experience like this time versus what you’ve done previously? Which one did you like more or which one did you like less?

Interesting question. The last thing I want to tie to the previous topic we were discussing is that customer service week is celebrated from October 7 to October 11, so we pretty much just celebrated the national customer experience day just a few days ago. But as it relates to your question, it is completely different to be on the vendor side versus being on the agency side, the way that you experience the conference.

Now the pieces that I think are very similar is the networking. You have the same opportunities to be part of the networking events as if you are with an agency, and it is almost as important that you take advantage of those opportunities. Because of the agency side, you want to meet counterparts at other agencies that are working on the same and maybe area that you work on, marketing, planning, operations, and then discuss challenges.

Because the beauty in transit is that transit agencies are willing to share. You find a counterpart and you maybe talk to them about a problem you’re having at your agency, and then maybe they just overcame that challenge the year before, and they can tell you how.

Maybe they can share documents and give you some insight about their experience. Also, when you’re at the vendor side, it’s similar.

You’re trying to have conversations with other vendors, find partnership opportunities. Today, more than ever in transit, with the acclimation of technology and the amount of technology that is being added to the different systems around the country, we are finding ourselves in a place where there’s not one vendor that provides all the technology that is needed. It’s really a collaboration of different vendors, bringing different solutions that fit the needs of the specific transit agencies. That opportunity of networking is very important as well.

The sessions during this conference are phenomenal.

When you read the panelists on the sessions, are just best practitioners around the country. It’s just a whole collection of best practices.

The learning is incredible. I think that’s also the same on the vendor side that if you are in the agency side, there’s so much learning in terms of transit and what the transit agencies or the transit industry is heading to. It’s definitely a lot of learning.

There’s not enough notes or things that you can try to remember because there’s so many of them.

It’s also really good to connect to people that you already know in the industry. Find those colleagues, say hi to them, shake hands, people you haven’t seen in a long time, or maybe people you work with at a given agency or employer, and then they moved on into better and greater and other places.

Then you get to catch up with them about where they are at today. Overall, it was amazing. I think one of the main highlights for me was at the expo having different ETA transit customers stopping by and saying, oh, we have your technology and meeting people that I didn’t know about on those agencies and telling me their experience with our solution that was phenomenal. We spoke at length, we shook hands, we took pictures, we gave them some swag, and also meeting new people.

People asking, who are you?

What do you guys provide? Then be able to elaborate and tell them all the great things that we’re innovative with or that we’re doing around the country.

It was awesome. It’s definitely a change from being in the agency side to the vendor, but it’s still as fulfilling as an experience that it is in either side.

Yeah, I concur with that. It is a different experience, having been on the private side now for a couple years, I can say it is unique in the sense that you feel much more active, or at least I do anyway, I feel more active, like I need to seek out and talk to people. Maybe on the agency side, I will kind of sit back and let people come to me, but it does feel much more proactive on the vendor side. And, you know, unfortunately, you don’t get to do all of the activities that come with, you know, being at the conference, because you’re on the, you know, expo floor, you’re talking to people trying to set up meetings.

But I really find that there’s a lot of value in just putting yourself out there and being on the expo floor and talking through the ETA products or hearing about what those pain points are. So I concur with a lot of what you’re saying there, Christian.

So what’s your next transit conference that you’re attending?

Yes, I think that we have at least a couple before the year is over that will be attending ETA Transit and particularly myself. The very next one, it’s going to be in Ohio. It’s called Ohio Needs Transit Conference and Opta Expo 2024. It’s taking place from November 18th to the 20th in Columbus, Ohio.

And ETA Transit is already registered, ready to go.

If I’m not mistaken, our booth, actually I had it right in front of me and I missed it.

Our booth number I believe is 144 and we’ll be right at the entrance of the Expo. And I look forward to connecting with a lot of our customers in Ohio. I mean, we have great agencies that we work with like Tarda, Toledo Area Regional Transit. And I’m hoping that they’ll be in attendance and stopping by our booth and we’ll discuss all the different projects we’re working on.

But yeah, that’s the very next conference. I look forward to meet a lot of our listeners up there and tell them about all the great things that we’re doing at ETA Transit.

Excellent, Christian. Well, you know, I’ve got to go with you next time.

So whatever you do to be able to get on the list to go. I need to go to one of these next conferences with you. We’ll go and check out the public transit system nearby and, you know, maybe do one of these things on the road. What do you say?

I think that would be a lot of fun to be able to do one live on the road right at the show and then potentially even include one or two of the attendees or agencies into our conversation. So I 100% look forward to that opportunity.

Excellent. Well, enjoy that next conference in Columbus. Thank you all for listening to Stop Requested today, and we’ll see you next week.