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During his New Year's Day 2002 remarks, Christopher Zimmerman, Arlington County Board and WMATA Board Chair, said “Arlingtonians need more transportation choices. We must improve access to Metrorail and make it easier to get around Arlington without relying on a car. With better local transit we can reduce traffic on our streets, lower demand for parking in our commercial areas, and improve the quality of life for everyone.”
And one way of providing choices, Arlington County has found, is by providing practical information – through a variety of outreach programs – to help weary commuters and confused tourists understand how they can best utilize the myriad transportation alternatives the metropolitan D.C. area offers.
The Commuter Stores™ – “bricks and mortar” retail stores that provide one-stop shopping for those interested in riding mass transit, participating in ride-matching and Guaranteed Ride Home programs, or simply picking up merchandise including bike maps, Metrorail maps and taxicab ticket booklets – is perhaps one of the best examples of how Arlington has made choice available to people from all walks of life.
The first store, opened in Ballston in 1989, was followed by additional stores in Crystal City (opened in 1992), Rosslyn (opened in 1994) and on Columbia Pike, opened just last year in December 2001. In 1997, CommuterDirect.com™ also came online, allowing commuters a secure Internet site that offered the same ticket, token and pass sales as those offered in the retail stores – the first such site in the country.
The result has been stunning: since 1993, when sales reached almost $1.3 million, overall sales at The Commuter Stores and CommuterDirect.com increased 338 percent by the end of Fiscal Year 2001. In January alone, the program took in nearly $700,000 – breaking the record for sales in a single month by a full six percent. And so far this fiscal year, all the stores combined have sold nearly $4 million in fare media and merchandise. Compare that to the entire FY2001, when the stores and Internet site sold $5.7 million, and it becomes clear that they’re on pace to shatter records. Projections, based upon the first seven months of this year, show sales topping $7 million.
According to Michael McMonigle, Arlington County contract manager, The Commuter Stores have taken off primarily because of customer service: “We’re giving the customer something they can’t get anywhere else, and that is choice. Anyone who calls, walks in to one of our stores or visits the CommuterDirect.com Web site can get information about virtually every transit option available in this area … not just Metrorail. If someone has never ridden mass transit before or is just looking for different options, our commuter specialists can walk them through the process, show them the best options for their commute, and spend time to inform them. They’re friendly and informative, and if a customer is looking for something we’re not aware of, we have the resources to track it down and get it to them. We’re second to none.”
Chris Hamilton, Commuter Assistance Program Manager at Arlington County, agrees that customer service is the Commuter Stores’ most valuable asset: “It’s interesting to note,” Hamilton said, “that even as we plan for the day when fare media sales will play a far reduced role at the stores [as SmarTrip cards increasingly replace traditional tickets, tokens and passes for the various systems], people are still coming to the stores in greater and greater numbers for service. It speaks volumes about the excellent service that the commuter specialists provide to their customers.”
Convenience, not surprisingly, is also a huge component of The Commuter Store retail outlet’s popularity. Three stores are within walking distance of Metro stations, and the new Columbia Pike store is directly off of two different bus lines. CommuterDirect.com, of course, is the 24/7 ultimate convenience.
“Convenience is key to our customers,” McMonigle said, “since they’re spending so much time sitting in traffic. They want something that won’t make them wait any further, and this service allows that.”
The Metrochek program, which increased the tax-free amount an employer can provide its employees from $65 to $100 a month on January 1, was also a big factor in increasing sales, McMonigle surmised.
While all four stores and the online store are all highly utilized, the Crystal City store is nearly always the top seller; in January, they had more than half of the total sales, followed by Rosslyn, CommuterDirect.com, Ballston and the new Columbia Pike store. McMonigle explained, however, that looking solely at dollar figures can be misleading since a huge number of transactions at the Crystal City store are for VRE tickets, which are among the more expensive transit options. Alternatively, Columbia Pike serves a different transit base since it’s off a bus line rather than Metrorail, and bus fares are generally less expensive. It’s important to note, McMonigle pointed out, that Columbia Pike’s sales have doubled in the one month it’s been open.
“The big thing to recognize,” he concluded, “is that there is an enormous need for people to understand the different modes of transit, and we offer more than just fares … we offer instruction, convenience and customer service that gets people where they need to go.”
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