How Important Is High Quality Service & Customer Loyalty When Your Customer Has NO CHOICE?

Assume any Bus Route and while there may be many bus companies plying the route, one bus company has the lion's share of the volume as it has the most number of units and they are the only bus company that operates as much as 23 hours a day, to wit:

1.  When they started, the bus company fielded an all-brand-new fleet of buses, airconditioning was the coldest among any of the buses plying the route and their bus crew were in freshly-pressed uniforms.

Is Quality Customer Service dead?

2.  Service was very good as their buses are a big improvement over the very much older and dank smelling then-existing buses and since they have many buses, the waiting time between buses was short.  During rush hour, it was not a problem getting a ride as you could see their buses all lined-up spanking-new at the many bus stops dotting the route.

3. The buses seem well-kept as one driver told me that the bus management are very strict in the physical appearance of the buses and any bumps or dents attributed to driver fault shall be charged to the driver. And so, the drivers were careful while driving on the road.

4.  Commuter would rather wait for the new buses rather than ride the old buses.  They did a great service to the riding public to end a rather tiring and stressful day with a comfortable ride home.

5.  Unfortunately, this High Level of Customer Service did not last.  They are no longer the way they used to be-- delightful and worth it.

6.  The bus seats are with dirt spots and the bus curtains are rumpled and appear to not have been washed for ages.

7.  The bus interior smells of human sweat.  Because the bus crew ends their day at 3am but they have to be in line at 5am to meet the coveted Rush Hour in the morning, the crew sleeps inside the bus.

8.  The crew says they only sleep 2-3hours a day as they have to be in line early.  You see, because the bus company has so many buses, the lines of buses trying to catch the Rush Hour Traffic can be long.  If the driver is late in line, he will be dispatched after the Rush Hour when bus passengers are by then much fewer.

9.  The buses of this company are often speeding at breakneck speed when on the open road but take so long at every bus stop (in the Makati bus stop, the wait can be as long as 45 minutes) as the driver always wants to fill-up the bus before proceeding.

The reason is this:  The crew have no salary but instead earn a commission which is a percentage of sales.  If they do not reach the Target revenue per day, the bus company pays them a lower percentage of sales. Hence, the driver speeds up on the open road but takes a long time at each bus stop along the route.

10.  One time, we left the Makati bus stop on the way home with only a few passengers.  The bus driver stopped the bus on the side of the highway and asked all of us passengers to transfer to another bus going the same route.  Afterwards he turned the bus around to get passengers on the other direction of the road where maybe there are more passengers!!!

11.  Sometimes, you see two buses from the same bus company trying to out-race each other on the way to the Makati bus stop during rush hour-- scaring all passengers!!!

12.  Their buses now bare the evidences of these racing as they have dents and scratches all over.


Of course, passengers can always take another bus and some do but for the majority, passengers still take their bus because they have the most number of buses and everybody wants to go home.  In short, the passengers have NO CHOICE.

My questions:

1. Is Quality Service garbage in this instance?

2.  Is Customer Loyalty a useless concept and who cares?

The above is a hypothetical situation but one am sure passengers have experienced several times over.

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