I wasn’t entirely positive about Transport for London the other day – although it was a little tongue-in-cheek – when I realised it would cost them more to process my ‘late’ bus fare than the bus fare I was paying.  I was then a little cheeky on Twitter suggesting their positive feedback form was ‘dropdownboxtastic’ (and more than a little clunky).

However, credit where credit is due.  I filled in the form, giving the necessary detail and reasons and asking for my comments and congratulations to be passed on.  I did it half-expecting to hear no more.  But less than 24 hours later they’d emailed back, thanking me for my comments and letting me know what would be happening with them and the member of staff in question.

They made the good point that frontline staff are rarely thanked for their work (and often bear the brunt of criticism for the actions of management or drivers).  From the purely selfish point of view it’s good for the soul to take a few moments to say thank-you.  If you feel motivated to do the same, pop along to the TfL contact page and click ‘say thank-you’

2 thoughts on “…being nice to TfL

  1. This is all too true. My partner works for TfL, so I know firsthand (a) how much work staff do, (b) how knowledgeable and helpful they are if asked and (c) how rarely thanked the (especially frontline) staff are. He also used to work in the customer services team, and says it was always a rare pleasure to receive praise for his and other staff’s work.

    Also applies to other customer service roles we take for granted, eg checkout staff in supermarkets!

  2. Very true. I’m not sure if it’s a London thing or not, people certainly seem ‘nicer’ out of London when it comes to saying thank-you.

    I’ve always felt well qualified to complain about TfL, I’m a Londoner, so use them, but also interact with them as a councillor and have worked for them (I was an LU employee and contracted with TfL and DLR).

    Having said that, I’ve (usually) found station staff excellent and always been annoyed when they are the ones getting the strife for things totally beyond their control, like management decisions about engineering closures or drivers deciding to strike.

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