NJ Transit ‘customer advocate’ outlines vision, roadmap for the agency

NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit’s Franck Beaumin is rolling out four areas of focus in his roadmap as the agency’s new customer advocate.

The statewide rail and bus operator, the third-largest U.S. transit agency, named Beaumin to the role of customer advocate in October, ending more than four years with the position vacant [see “NJ Transit names new customer advocate,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 11, 2024].

Beaumin, a native of western France, joins NJ Transit from Keolis, the commuter rail operator for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, where he served as passenger communications manager. Prior to working for Keolis’ Boston operations, he supported the firm’s marketing team from its Paris headquarters, tasked with evaluating and enhancing customer experience across Keolis’ international touchpoints. Before joining Keolis in 2014, he consulted on a $500 million bus rapid transit project in Bangladesh, where he coordinated a 15-person team to develop a network operating plan.

In a conversation with media this week, Beaumin says he is experiencing NJ Transit as any customer would, admitting he uses the agency’s rail system at least once a day to commute to and from the office.

He brings a mix of European and Asian transit experience to his focus on assessing NJ Transit’s operations from the customer’s perspective, across all modes of transit. He is actively interacting with customers, crew members, and familiarizing himself with how the agency communicates with customers online and through its mobile app.

With the first component to his roadmap centered on discovering the network from the customer’s perspective, the second piece is garnering knowledge how the network functions from an operational perspective, working closely with decision makers, the operational department, and others to assess the entirety of the network from those who operate it.

As part of this, he’s relying on software programs such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to gather customer feedback in real time and develop customizable reports that give him more perspective how the agency is serving its customers and addressing concerns.

“The third step of my roadmap is about dissecting the passenger journey … This is a critical step to understand what passengers experience every step of their journey,” says Beaumin.

The fourth and final piece is building connections with the community and all stakeholders who interact and rely on NJ Transit. He says he already started fostering relationships, in part because of his daily reliance on the agency for commuting, and other trips throughout the state.

Beaumin, who reports directly to the agency’s board of directors, insists he is carrying the voice of the customers to the board as he gets more familiar with its operations.

“Now with this roadmap in mind, I am trying to build what I like to call and describe as the voice of the customer service improvement cycle …,” Beaumin says.

Trains News Wire asked Beuamin how his knowledge and work experience in Europe and Asia transit systems can inspire new ideas at NJ Transit.

“First of all, it’s always hard to compare services and networks for multiple reasons. I do not think it’s always relevant to look at what Europe or Asia is doing. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence,” he says, noting there is no magic formula to addressing challenges or improving on-time performance that is applicable to all transit systems regardless of location.

“I am open to all ideas and Europe certainly has a lot of them for sure. Asia does too,” he says.

While his current priority is assessing NJ Transit’s network and understanding the agency’s systems better, he has ideas.

“I have a lot of ideas in mind that will probably work for [NJ Transit] and I’ll be happy to share with them as recommendations to the board very soon,” he tells Trains.

In the interim, Beaumin has made it clear he is focused on gathering customer sentiment about service, broadening his knowledge of the network, and building upon ways to communicate with customers, including through customer satisfaction surveys, public meetings, and listening forums, in which he hopes to host his first one before the end of the year.