Russian public transport system: the customers’ feedback on the service provision

Andrey Sergeevich Mikhaylov (), Ivan Sergeevich Gumenuk and Anna Alekseevna Mikhaylova
Additional contact information
Andrey Sergeevich Mikhaylov: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Ivan Sergeevich Gumenuk: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Anna Alekseevna Mikhaylova: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

Public Transport, 2016, vol. 8, issue 1, No 7, 125-141

Abstract: Abstract A considerable demand on gaining an inside knowledge on customers’ perceptions of the service quality and subsequent complaint behavior in case of failure has defined the aim of this research paper. In this paper we analyse the pattern of customer complaint behavior in a widely used and widespread type of service—public transportation. Given the fact that the city of Kaliningrad is about to undergo a series of extensive qualitative improvements, driven by the federal investments allocated for major sporting and cultural events, this empirical research will have a considerable practical value. Research results suggest that customers tend to set the quality bar for the public transportation based on the personal best service performance experienced, generally received in large touristic centres and capital cities in Europe, hence inadvertently placing the provincial city of Kaliningrad at a disadvantage. There are three types of causes for the negative critical incidents identified, largely affecting the subsequent reaction of a dissatisfied customer. The passenger’s intention to engage in complaint behavior is greatly influenced by the amount of effort required, the costs associated with filing a complaint, and a perceived probability of ‘success’. Though, a considerable discrepancy is found between the probable reaction of a respondent and the actual steps taken in case of a real incident. A negative word-of-mouth remains one of the widely used modes of complaint behavior, whereas employees resist customers’ complaints, since complaints are perceived as personal insult.

Keywords: Public transportation in Russia; Service quality; Kaliningrad region; Customer complaint behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12469-015-0111-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:pubtra:v:8:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s12469-015-0111-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... search/journal/12469

DOI: 10.1007/s12469-015-0111-x

Access Statistics for this article

Public Transport is currently edited by Stefan Voß

More articles in Public Transport from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().