This handbook focuses on how to measure customer satisfaction and how to develop transit agency performance measures. This handbook will be of interest to transit managers, market research and customer service personnel, transit planners, and others who need to know about measuring customer satisfaction and developing transit agency performance measures.

Under TCRP Project B-11, MORPACE International, Inc., was responsible for developing a handbook to assist transit agencies in identifying, implementing, and evaluating customer-defined quality service and in defining performance indicators that include customer-defined quality service measures for fixed-route transit. The research includes rural, suburban, and urban markets.

The researchers for TCRP Report No. 47, "A Handbook for Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality " began by developing a comprehensive list of transit performance indicators that are currently used by transit agencies as a means to monitor the level of transit service. A survey was administered to customers to arrive at a ranking of service-quality measures, in order of their impact on overall customer satisfaction. The survey instrument was developed and refined based on the results of pretests. Alternative methods for ranking service-quality were explored and evaluated, and a new approach was introduced. Finally, the list of service-quality measures was compared with the list of agency performance indicators, and the performance measures were revised to reflect customer-defined service. Using the research findings from the field test, the methodology was refined and a preliminary method for assessing transit operations was developed. Methods for benchmarks and tracking information are also identified.

The final report has been published as TCRP Report 47, "A Handbook for Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality," and is available in portable document format (PDF). Double-click on the files below to access the report. (A free copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at https://www.adobe.com.) PLEASE NOTE: Because of the very large size of these files, it may take a long time--possibly more than 1 hour collectively--to download. We regret the inconvenience.

Front Matter, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7 (245 KB)

Chapter 8 (1MB)

Chapter 8 (continued), Chapter 9 (1MB)

Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Appendix A, Appendix B (794 KB)

Appendix C, Appendix D, Appendix E, Appendix F, Appendix G, References, References--Appendix (962 KB)