Passenger Feedback & Sentiment Analysis

The Evolving Landscape of Passenger Feedback Solutions

Traditionally, passenger feedback on public transport was primarily captured manually. Transport operators would be required to dispatch staff armed with clipboards and forms out to vehicles to ask travellers for their thoughts; this was a cumbersome undertaking which could only ever capture data from a small percentage of a fleet, and retrospectively. 

More recently, passengers could be invited to complete feedback forms sent via email once they had completed a journey. Again, this was less than ideal, since it was not always clear which journey/vehicle their feedback related to, and issues could still take quite some time to rectify once raised. Passengers using a service regularly could be left frustrated that feedback they had flagged was taking too long to be investigated.

Thankfully, nowadays it’s possible for those travelling to submit feedback directly from their smart device while they are still on the vehicle. 

Introducing Vision: Measurable and Actionable Live Feedback

Icomera’s real-time passenger feedback solution, Vision, offers a wide range of benefits. By automatically tagging any feedback submitted with live journey information, it’s simple to measure passenger sentiment over time, and to improve services as a result. What’s more, transport operators can engage directly with those who are providing the feedback, creating an important customer service channel in the process. Vision can even be leveraged to analyse free text feedback using AI-based sentiment analysis, delivering further data-driven insights into the long term.  

Real-time feedback solutions such as Vision not only significantly simplify the feedback process for passengers, but also mean that operators are given access to invaluable real-time data regarding their fleet and onboard equipment. This enables on-vehicle faults to be identified (and rectified) more quickly, reducing the reliance for on-vehicle staff to monitor for these issues manually, and delivering important operational and safety-related benefits along the way. 

Increase Passenger Satisfaction and Drive Ridership

Gathering passenger feedback is key to improving satisfaction levels. By gauging the sentiment of someone travelling on a particular vehicle, an operator can gain accurate and timely data. Using this, issues can be resolved before they escalate, allowing operators to improve the services that they offer.

With Icomera’s Vision solution, those travelling can provide feedback in a myriad of different ways. Simple multiple-choice questions allow passengers to quickly express their views using happy face / sad face emoticons, and surveys can be created to add additional layers of information. 

All feedback provided is tagged with the specific vehicle and service that a passenger is travelling on. This enables operators to build a clearer picture of which vehicles, routes, time periods and / or staff consistently encounter the same or similar issues, so that services in need of a particular focus can be identified. Passenger satisfaction scores can be tracked via a dashboard, and an alert tool can automatically warn of any priority issues which need addressing. 

We can also assist transport operators with enhanced data about their passengers, further driving rider insight. This information can be anonymous or include personal information (subject to local data protection legislation and passenger opt-in). Taking advantage of this, bespoke services can be offered to passengers that show certain usage patterns or meet specific criteria.  

It’s possible to implement a messaging service as part of a feedback solution. This not only helps passengers feel listened to and engaged with in the moment, it can also aid operators as part of the trouble-shooting process. A passenger sat on a vehicle right now might be able to provide useful further details which make it simpler to identify the root cause of an issue they are encountering, and therefore allow the transport operator to enact a faster solution. Taking advantage of this undoubtedly delivers cost and time efficiencies for customer service personnel. Those responsible can immediately know where a passenger is located, saving time, and helping them provide the most appropriate response. 

Leverage Feedback to Improve Operational Performance

A key advantage to solutions such as Icomera’s lies in the capacity to identify issues relating to onboard assets, and the operational and safety benefits that this can deliver.   

With access to live feedback regarding their services, transport operators can notify staff situated on a vehicle of any issues which might be able to be fixed straight away, dispatch engineers to investigate a problem further, or organise an appropriate time for a vehicle to be brought back to a depot, if deemed necessary. 

One can imagine many scenarios in which feedback generated by passengers relates to onboard issues which are far more than matters of mere convenience. For example, a faulty air conditioning system during the temperature extremes of the summer or winter months can pose a health risk to travellers, and therefore warrants being known about as soon as possible. 

Feedback provided can also work in parallel with data generated by other onboard systems. For instance, a passenger might use a real-time feedback form to alert an operator to a piece of abandoned luggage; the issue could then be further investigated via live video surveillance feeds to identify exactly whom left it behind, and whether there is any cause for further concern (e.g. in the case of a potential security threat). Similarly, a passenger may flag that one of the toilet doors is malfunctioning; onboard telematics data might then help ascertain exactly when, why and/or how the problem began.

Icomera’s solution even allows the possibility for passengers to directly contact the Police in the event of an incident; this can be useful if violence were to break out, for instance. Messages sent using this functionality can automatically include details of the vehicle and its calling pattern, saving passengers manual efforts, and enabling authorities to intercept it, if required.