Thinking about your customer...

The above illistrations are the posters we made as a part of the weekly work we put in our Service Design class.

An efficient bus service is essentially about timely service, with comfort and at the hands of responsible staff members.

In order to make a people-oriented and user-friendly service, it is important to consider what the consumer expects out of the service.

1. The consumer must have the desire to use the service.

2. The service must make itself be chosen by him, over other services.

3. The consumer should not remember the service for a bad experience he had to   face.

4.He must feel like using it again.

The first physical interaction of the service with the passenger takes place at the bus stop.

Hence, the bus stop is an integral part of rendering the service, to give the passenger a positive experience.

Components that make a bus stop not only a touchpoint, but also an "information desk":

1. Proper information about

i. the bus routes

ii. timings of the bus

iii. destination of the bus

iv. time due for arrival to the bus stop

v. Bus number of the approaching bus.

vi. A ticket vending or a coupon punching machine.

vii. Ample space to sit.

Speaking of a smooth bus journey experience, it is important to ensure three things:

1. Crowd flow

2. Fare flow

A general observation in Bus travel in a city like Bangalore is:  The movement of the conductor is resisted due to a large crowd which makes it inconvenient for both him and the passengers to sell and buy tickets respectively.

Hence, we thought about making the ticketing system efficient by installing a coupon punching machine at the bus stop.

Coupons and passes basically replace actual money, hence avoiding any cheating   on part of the staff or conductor.

This is an extremely effective way, according to us, that would avoid bad experiences for the passenger and avoid incidents of misusing of the customers money.

Things that we are working on:

A case study of the transportation system of Curitiba, Brazil.

Tools we have used:

Constructive interaction

Customer journey map

issue cards

mind maps

context panorama

offering map

The Bridging Tool:

A member of our group, Rohit Dasgupta, came up with a new tool called the BRIDGING TOOL.

This tool basically considers two ends of the service- Ideal and existing.

looking at these 2 ends of the service, we formulate a practical service. That takes the best possible from both services.