To address the impasse that often occurs in customer satisfaction measurement within the transit
industry, MORPACE International, Inc. has developed a non-proprietary method for deriving customer
satisfaction measures. The approach has an implicit logic that is easily understood and applied.
Variations of this method have been used by MORPACE in major customer satisfaction studies within
the automotive and health care industries.12 Within the automotive industry this approach is known as
the "Things Gone Wrong" approach.
The Impact Score approach determines the relative impact of attributes on overall satisfaction, by
measuring customers' relative decreases in overall satisfaction, when a recent problem with an attribute
is reported. This makes sense because, within the delivery of quality service framework, the primary
way transit agencies can improve customers' overall satisfaction with service is to reduce customers'
problematic experience with those attributes which have the greatest negative impact on overall
satisfaction. These driver attributes can be identified and prioritized in a three-step process.