Improving Customer Satisfaction of Smartcard System: Integration of Human Factors and Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

Octopus card is an electronic travel ticket with built-in microchip jointly issued by five major public transportation companies in Hong Kong. It can be used for riding on six kinds of transportation vehicles, viz. Mass Transit Railway (MTR), Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR) East Rail, KCR Light Rail, Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB), Citybus, and Hong Kong & Yaumati Ferry (HYF). The system has been launched in Hong Kong since September 1997. At the launching phase of this system, some operational problems like wrong fare deduction, card damage, inaccurate display of remaining balance on buses with the use of Octopus card were observed and brought up in the public. This study aimed at finding out the ways of satisfying the customer needs with the use of the system with consideration of changing technology development. The work in this study included identification of the quality dimensions of using Octopus card, conducting questionnaires survey on the users, applying usability testing to evaluate the overall performance of Octopus card and employing Quality Function Deployment to translate the customer voices into technical specifications. With the results of this study, strategies for improving the performance of Octopus card were finally recommended.