I just read an article about Via Rail that says trains were late 46 per cent of the time so far in 2008. The article went on to say that the management of Via Rail believed they had poor service because of old equipment, and until they got new engines and other new stuff they could not improve customer service.
 
I use Via Rail between Toronto and my beloved Stratford a great deal. Like so many others I have come to expect delays. I can honestly say that no one I have talked to on the train really minds being late. Everyone knows they probably won’t be on time. Customer service, however, is a real concern.
 
Via Rail provides poor service quite nicely without any equipment at all, thank you.

At any given moment at Union Station in Toronto, there are several trains pending arrival and departure. There is rarely anyone and mostly no one from Via Rail letting passengers (customers) know where to wait to get on the train or where passengers are getting off.
 
Regardless of whether someone is traveling to Ottawa or Montreal or Stratford, they have to guess where to stand to get a good seat on the train. Even then they must jostle for position in a line they are herded to like cattle at the last minute, before someone from Via Rail tells everyone which way to scramble for a seat.
 
Once you do get a seat on the train, Via Rail offers its own magazine chuck full of ads that others pay for. But they are rarely replaced with new copies, so the ones that are in front of you are well thumbed and have several unattractive food and coffee stains from previous customers.
 
I could go on but the point is none of this “poor service” has anything to do with old equipment. It is just plain poor service. It doesn’t take much for someone to help folks get organized in a fair manner to get on the train. It doesn’t take a minute to tuck fresh copies of a magazine you have sold ads in for customers to read rather than be repulsed from picking up an old coffee-stained version.
 
Via Rail crams its customers into every rail car when it could easily add another ‘old’ car or two at very little cost to give everyone a little more room. They have extra cars.
 
The irony is that the number of Via Rail passengers is up over 50 per cent, and some say it is up 90 per cent. I say it could be triple that and a lot more with good customer service. 
 
I heard an item on the news about a retail store at the busy Eaton Centre. The owners were lamenting about how business was down in their store these days even though they pay such a high rent for their location. I went into that store the other day and I waited 15 minutes while the only clerk in the store was on the phone. I left. I was astounded that the folks who owned the store could not figure out basic customer service. You want people in the store? Tell them you have great service and then deliver it.
 
I was on the phone to Bell Canada the other day. I wanted to move my service. I was dealing with an automated telephone customer assistance system. The system said it could stop my service. It also said it could start a new service. I did not want to stop it or start a new one, I wanted to move it. After some frustration and pushing buttons I finally got a real person on the line. The customer representative was clipped and sarcastic. The woman talked to me like I was a child and she was a burnt-out parent. I thought about changing my service to another provider but all I hear are horror stories from customers of these other providers too. If just one of them could figure out that all they have to do is tell people, this is the place where a real person talks to you and delivers great service, they would run away with all the business.
 
I would like to tell all these companies, for crying out loud, call people, advertise, send out flyers, ask everyone to spread the word and tell everybody you can; you’re the one that will give great customer service and then make sure you deliver it! You’ll get customers!
 
I was talking to a Realtor the other day. He was telling me about how the market is slowing down these days. “People just aren’t calling me like they used to” he said, “I can’t figure out why my business is down. I’m not doing anything different than before.”
 
Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected].