While choosing the place where we live in the
Washington DC Metro Area one of the must-have criterions was to be on the metro
(subway) lines. Apart from being city-people Europeans who actually prefer
public transport to driving, there were some very pragmatic reasons behind our
decision.
One thing that surprised me while riding the
Washington DC Metro was that people who are using the subway system are referred
to as “Customers”. In Europe people using any type of public transportation
(e.g. subways, trains, airplanes etc.) are referred to as “passengers”.
In the beginning I was very puzzled about
calling metro-riders customers instead of passengers. Slowly I got used to it,
but then I started to wonder what the implications are.
What you call someone has an impact on how that
person thinks and behaves. We all have multiple identities in the sense of
different roles we play. We are professionals, voters, parents etc. Calling
someone a parent primes (makes it salient in the mind) the individual’s prototypical
parent identity.
The same happens when calling someone a passenger
or a customer. As I see things a passenger is primarily someone who travels by
train, metro etc. On the other hand, a customer is primarily someone who buys something
or pays for a service.
Indirectly reminding people (passengers) that
they are paying for the transport service might have some positive implications
in the sense of steering them to be a bit more demanding on the quality of the
service they receive.
In the case of the Washington DC Metro,
however, I think it is a bit unfortunate to refer travellers as customers
instead of passengers. This is because the main quality of the DC Metro System
is that it exists. Beyond that, I can’t really say that it is a good service.
Trains are a bit old, uncomfortable and noisy. The subway stops are depressingly
grey. Most importantly service interruptions, delays and incidents are not
exactly uncommon. In the two and a half months I have been occasionally using
the Metro there were one derailment, one power outage, one train malfunction
and lots of delays.
You might think that such issues are not
uncommon in a large Metro system, but Washington DC’s Metro is not all that
big. It way smaller than Metro systems in London, Paris and New York.
http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm
In conclusion, it is not necessarily a good idea
to remind me how that I am paying (quite a lot) for a service that is OK-ish.
Please call me a passenger and not a customer.
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