METRO’s expensive blogger today described how the transit organization is coping with extra customers at its RideStore, as people purchase Q cards, transfer value from other cards, and engage in other transactions related to the big switchover:
To help get our message out and ease the Q Card transition, three of our best Ask Me team members have been stationed at the RideStore, where lines have sometimes been long, as people wait to get their Q Cards.
At one point in the afternoon, the line was 45 people deep. Those at the top of the line said they had been waiting 45 minutes to an hour. The METRO staff behind the glass windows worked rapidly to process each client.
But among the bored faces, three angels draped in red vests weaved their way through the crowd, each with a bright smile and sparkling eyes. Call them the Ask Me queens. That’s what one customer today dubbed the three ladies – part of the 100-member team METRO has dispensed to the rail platforms, transit centers and RideStores to help in our transition to the Q Card.
With the lines 45 people deep, it sounds like METRO should have had fewer “queens” and more people actually helping customers. This rollout has only taken years, so it’s not like METRO should have been caught by surprise.
Too bad the “queens” were not dispensing scratch-off cards to customers whose time was being wasted. That would have been a nice touch.
