How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey
Although customer satisfaction surveys are widely utilized by transit agencies, there are limited analyses in the literature on the perception of passengers as a result of service improvements. A before-after study can help to evaluate the effect of changes from customers points of view and thus gua...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Archives of Transport |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://aot.publisherspanel.com/gicid/01.3001.0016.2477 |
| _version_ | 1828000141751091200 |
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| author | Mina Sahraei Mahmoud Mesbah Meeghat Habibian Tara Saeidi Amirali Soltanpour |
| author_facet | Mina Sahraei Mahmoud Mesbah Meeghat Habibian Tara Saeidi Amirali Soltanpour |
| author_sort | Mina Sahraei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although customer satisfaction surveys are widely utilized by transit agencies, there are limited analyses in the literature on the perception of passengers as a result of service improvements. A before-after study can help to evaluate the effect of changes from customers points of view and thus guarantee a continuous improvement in the service. In this paper, customer satisfaction was directly observed through a Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) before and after certain changes. Furthermore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is utilized to evaluate pas-sengers perception of the service attribute importance. Finally, an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is adapted to analyze the changes in satisfaction and importance from the passengers perspective on each service attribute. In both before and after cases, a consistent SEM structure is used. The follow-up IPA provides transit agencies with priorities to improve service attributes and helps managers to devote their resources to key attrib-utes that matter to the riders. Metro line 3 in Tehran was selected as the case study which is 33.7 km long with 25 stations. Two surveys were performed one before (with the sample size of 300), and one after (with the sample size of 384) a set of changes the most important of which was a headway reduction. The SEM was developed with five latent variables of main service, comfort, information, protection, and physical appearance. This structure was assessed on both the before and after data collections and showed to be valid. Security at the station and security on board were the most important service attributes in both waves according to their factor loadings, while ethics and behavioral messages had the smallest factor loading and the least importance. Comparing the attributes in both surveys suggested that reducing the headway was effective, although it did not seem to be sufficient for en-hancing the overall customer satisfaction and improvements need to be continued. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T06:10:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-30dd78f1ba0b4fe48c6bbc405a830cf8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0866-9546 2300-8830 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T06:10:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Archives of Transport |
| spelling | doaj.art-30dd78f1ba0b4fe48c6bbc405a830cf82023-03-02T18:00:45ZengFaculty of Transport, Warsaw University of TechnologyArchives of Transport0866-95462300-88302023-03-01651536610.5604/01.3001.0016.247701.3001.0016.2477How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction surveyMina Sahraei0Mahmoud Mesbah1Meeghat Habibian2Tara Saeidi3Amirali Soltanpour4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranAlthough customer satisfaction surveys are widely utilized by transit agencies, there are limited analyses in the literature on the perception of passengers as a result of service improvements. A before-after study can help to evaluate the effect of changes from customers points of view and thus guarantee a continuous improvement in the service. In this paper, customer satisfaction was directly observed through a Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) before and after certain changes. Furthermore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is utilized to evaluate pas-sengers perception of the service attribute importance. Finally, an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is adapted to analyze the changes in satisfaction and importance from the passengers perspective on each service attribute. In both before and after cases, a consistent SEM structure is used. The follow-up IPA provides transit agencies with priorities to improve service attributes and helps managers to devote their resources to key attrib-utes that matter to the riders. Metro line 3 in Tehran was selected as the case study which is 33.7 km long with 25 stations. Two surveys were performed one before (with the sample size of 300), and one after (with the sample size of 384) a set of changes the most important of which was a headway reduction. The SEM was developed with five latent variables of main service, comfort, information, protection, and physical appearance. This structure was assessed on both the before and after data collections and showed to be valid. Security at the station and security on board were the most important service attributes in both waves according to their factor loadings, while ethics and behavioral messages had the smallest factor loading and the least importance. Comparing the attributes in both surveys suggested that reducing the headway was effective, although it did not seem to be sufficient for en-hancing the overall customer satisfaction and improvements need to be continued.http://aot.publisherspanel.com/gicid/01.3001.0016.2477customer satisfactionstructural equation modelling (SEM)importance-performance analysis (IPA)before-after study |
| spellingShingle | Mina Sahraei Mahmoud Mesbah Meeghat Habibian Tara Saeidi Amirali Soltanpour How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey Archives of Transport customer satisfaction structural equation modelling (SEM) importance-performance analysis (IPA) before-after study |
| title | How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey |
| title_full | How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey |
| title_fullStr | How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey |
| title_full_unstemmed | How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey |
| title_short | How transit improvements are perceived by passengers? Results of a before-after customer satisfaction survey |
| title_sort | how transit improvements are perceived by passengers results of a before after customer satisfaction survey |
| topic | customer satisfaction structural equation modelling (SEM) importance-performance analysis (IPA) before-after study |
| url | http://aot.publisherspanel.com/gicid/01.3001.0016.2477 |
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