Överskattade effekter

Publicerad 8 augusti 2011 | 2 kommentarer

”It’s Melbourne, Victoria 1998. The state government continues its drive to reduce public waste. Already the bureaucracy has been slashed, utilities and public services privatized, and 16,000 public transport workers put out of their jobs. Tram conductors, affectionately referred to as ”connies,” are also out of a job, having been replaced by ticketing machines. This was an efficiency drive on a mass scale. Ticketing machines were assumed to be more efficient and were expected to save the state bucketloads in wages. But the problem was, and still remains, that the machines were not only less efficient than people, they were less effective, too.”

Sajten UXmagazine (uxmag.com) har en bra artikel om effekter och effektivitet. Den utgår från exemplet med spårvagnarna i Melbourne, Australiens näst största stad (4 miljoner invånare). Men slutsatserna och lärdomarna är allmänna:

”How can you start thinking about customer efficiency to create a customer-centric business? The expectations that customers have when they interact with you must be known. (…) The business case for improving customer efficiency is waiting to be found amongst the experiences of your front-line staff and customers. All you have to do is watch and ask them to know what and where you should be designing.”
Efficiency: The second essential of a customer centric business (4 aug 2011)

Men hur kunde då egentligen konduktörerna vara mer effektiva än maskinerna? Poängen är att konduktörerna gav mycket mer service till resenärerna – levererade fler effekter! – än bara biljettförsäljning:

”Subsequent research into the service offered by Melbourne tram conductors showed what commuters already knew: they did more than just sell tickets. They increased patronage of public transport by making people feel safer. They were far more effective as fare evasion deterrents than random checks by ticket inspectors. They helped passengers alight and they were the ”everywhere tour guides.” The people who had thought machines would be cheaper hadn’t understood that customers had a range of needs that were met simply and seamlessly by the conductors.”

Det elektroniska biljettsystem som ska ersätta konduktörerna (kallat myki) har visat sig bli ohyggligt dyrt, starkt försenat och ha flera tekniska problem. Införandet går på 6 miljarder kronor och driftskostnaden på tio år beräknas vara 4 miljarder kronor. Att återinföra konduktörerna har beräknats kosta 800 miljoner på tio år.

Bild: Phil Ostroff / Flickr under cc-licens

(Tack till Tommy på anvandbart för tips om artikeln.)mmm

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