Way To Go! Delhi Metro Ranks 2nd Best In The World In Customer Satisfaction

Started in the year 2002, Delhi Metro attracts 25 lakh passengers every day via its 139 stations spread across the sprawling city. Annually, more than 7 crore passengers use Delhi Metro, which is slowly converting into a life-line for India’s capital.

Delhi Metro is certainly popular, and to justify it’s popularity, here is the evidence: In a survey of metro commuters all over the world conducted by Global Metro Benchmarking Groups ‘NOVA’ and ‘CoMET’, Delhi Metro has secured 2^nd position after London Metro in terms of customer satisfaction in the ‘Net Promoters Score’ (NPS) category.

Between April 28^th to May 25^th, more than 41,000 respondents answered to various questions posted by this research group via social media channels. Apart from Delhi Metro, the following metros were part of the survey: Hong Kong MTR, London Underground, Metro De Madrid, Paris RATP, Metro De Sandiago, Singapore SMRT, Barcelona TMB, Brussels STIB, Bangkok BMCL, London DLR, Istanbul Ulasim, Kualalumpur Rapid PL, Metropolitano De Lisboa, Montreal STM, Newcastle Nexus, Metro Rio and Toronto TTC.

This survey was part of the ‘European Norm 13816’ which seeks inputs from Metro users all over the world in reference to the following criteria: availability, accessibility, ease of use, information prior to travel, information during travel, reliability, customer care, comfort, crowding, and security.

The NPS category is the one under which respondents were asked whether they will recommend their favorite metro to their friends and families on the basis of their satisfaction. London Metro was ranked #1, Delhi Metro was at #2 position and Bangkok Metro took the #3 position under this category.

Under the mentorship of Rail Transport Strategic Centre (RTSC) of Imperial College, London, metro travel experience is benchmarked and evaluated by NOVA group of Metros which comprises of 18 biggest metro networks of the world. Delhi Metro is part of this group, and regularly conducts surveys and research to get insight into customer experience.

Recently, Delhi Metro took part in the NOVA Phase-17 Management Meeting held in Delhi this week. The results of the survey were announced during this meeting itself. Right now, Delhi Metro is trying to enter the exclusive CoMET (Community of Metros) Group of Metros, which is an elite group of metro networks of the biggest 16 metros all over the world. Only those metros who have ridership of more than 2 million every day are allowed to be part of this group. Additionally, the specific metro should be the primary city of that country.

The Grey Areas of the Survey

Although the survey had been designed and conceptualized after research into the customer behavior, there remains some grey areas as well. Such as availability: users of Delhi Metro have responded positively to the availability factor but have downvoted on the space available for each person inside the metro during peak traffic.

Other factor is punctuality. Delhi Metro no doubt works better compared to Indian Railways, hence a delay of 5 minutes won’t matter much for the consumers. But a delay of 5 minutes in London Metro causes huge uproar and protests. Additionally, considering that Delhites have no other option when it comes to Metro, the survey becomes a bit biased. When there is no other option, how can a service benchmarked?

None the less, Delhi Metro is doing a good job, and we hope that the services keep up their reputation. What is your biggest problem with Delhi Metro? Do share your views by commenting right here!

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