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The CTA is looking for "mystery shoppers" to help keep tabs on all the grody, awful stuff that goes down on the buses and trains. Everybody's got his or her go-to CTA story, but now you can use your powers of observation not just for good but for awesome, too. The CTA wants help evaluating its service on five "core values:" safety, cleanliness, punctuality, courteousness and efficiency. Wait, pee smell isn't a core value?
Anyway, to become a mystery rider, send an email to mysteryshopper@transitchicago.com. We did, and so far...nada. The CTA says it'll "use this information as a tool that fosters change. The information gathered through Mystery Shopping will be integrated into the CTA decision making process and used to track accountability and performance."
Click the image for a full-size version of the flier we got on the El this morning.
Update: We heard back! This is the survey card mystery shoppers will fill out.
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margaret...if we all know you're a mystery shopper then it sorta defeats the purpose...doesn't it?
do any of us know who Margaret is though? It's like me saying i'm a mystery shopper...who am I? No one really knows. And if I was I'd probably fudge my findings to make sure they knew about all the fucking crazy homeless people who sleep on the trains, piss on the trains, harass paying customers etc....
i appreciate the CTA's interest in customer feedback but this program seems unnecessary. everyone knows in what ways the CTA is unpleasant and unreliable. people have been complaining about for them for years. they should skip this step and get on with the improvements.
also, their incentive (a CTA pass worth 1 full fare) is a joke.
I'm torn on this. On the one hand, the people who volunteer to be mystery shoppers are probably the same people who voluntarily call or email the CTA, and they clearly don't have the desire or ability (or either, really) to look into those complaints and stop people from pissing in the hobo car. Plus, it doesn't take a mystery shopper to know that the Red Line is disgusting, the Blue Line is marginally better, and the lesser trafficked lines are mediocre, for the most part.
On the other hand, they clearly don't really listen to the calls/emails, and their employees don't seem to be invested in making sure trains aren't toilets on wheels (though certainly there may be institutional factors affecting their performance...i kinda doubt it, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt), and maybe this will improve things.
I really don't think it will, though, and it'll end up being a big waste of time and money.
this is nothing more than a glorified comment card.
I don't even think it's very glorified. It appears to be simply a comment card.
The times I'd want to notify the CTA of something, it's over more specific incidents than are covered by that flyer.
(Like this morning when some bum snuck onto a #148 bus on Michigan Ave by the back door without paying. The driver called the bum out over the P.A. system, but the bum of course wouldn't budge, saying it was too crowded to get on in front and he'd "pay later when he got off." I felt bad for the driver, trying to do the right thing but obviously if he'd prolonged it he would've delayed the already slow crowded bus and annoyed the rest of us even more, so he just drove on.)
i'm just going to start carrying those cards with me everywhere i go.
you could fill them out in advance, and then just jot in the bus/train number before you board.
to the potential mystery shoppers -
if you ride the "wet dog aromatic line" aka blue line, please make sure to wear a complete toxic waste protection suit, boots, googles and gloves. you should be fine...