Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A. messages
with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and gentlemen". By Monday
it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Not only would I like to know, but I'm sure
would too!

In article , Robin Mayes
wrote:
Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A. messages
with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and gentlemen". By Monday
it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Not only would I like to know, but I'm sure
would too!


I don't travel on the underground very much, but I wonder whether
audio quality is not a more important issue. Some announcements might
as well be in Russian for all the sense I can make of them.


--
Michael

"Robin Mayes" wrote in message
...
Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A.
messages
with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and gentlemen". By
Monday
it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Not only would I like to know, but I'm sure
would too!



I would say that using somethig like "Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening" or
somesuch is a useful way of attracting people's attention so that by the
time you get to deliver the message proper they might be listening to what
your saying.

I'd agree that using a standard phrase like "Good evening, Ladies &
Gentlemen" was a good way to get passengers attention prior to the meat
of the message. But I don't see why the phraseology shouldn't be subtly
changed as long as it doesn't descend to "Oi, Plebs" or worse. :-)

Oh and ... we're *passengers* please.

*Keith*

Robin Mayes wrote:
Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A.
messages with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and
gentlemen". By Monday it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

This sort of regimentation is bad. By all means have standards, but one of
the standards should be that the format should vary. I think it's pleasant
to hear "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen" occasionally, but not every
couple of minutes.

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Both. I've never quite understood what is meant to be good or bad about the
use of these terms. Why do some people object to being called a customer by
LU, when presumably they have no objection to, say, Selfridges using that
term if they are shopping there?

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

"Richard J." wrote in message
...
Robin Mayes wrote:
Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A.
messages with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and
gentlemen". By Monday it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

This sort of regimentation is bad. By all means have standards, but one of
the standards should be that the format should vary. I think it's
pleasant
to hear "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen" occasionally, but not every
couple of minutes.

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Both. I've never quite understood what is meant to be good or bad about
the
use of these terms. Why do some people object to being called a customer
by
LU, when presumably they have no objection to, say, Selfridges using that
term if they are shopping there?

The question that arises in both cases who is a customer/passenger and who
is not? Let's say a group of people decide to travel by train, One pay the
fare for all. Clearly they are all passengers but are they all customers?

Cast_Iron wrote:
"Richard J." wrote in message
...
Robin Mayes wrote:
Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

Both. I've never quite understood what is meant to be good or bad
about the use of these terms. Why do some people object to being
called a customer by LU, when presumably they have no objection to,
say, Selfridges using that term if they are shopping there?

The question that arises in both cases who is a customer/passenger
and who is not? Let's say a group of people decide to travel by
train, One pay the fare for all. Clearly they are all passengers but
are they all customers?

Yes. They are members of a group who are recipients of a service provided
by the train operator for which the operator has been paid. The fact that
one person pays for all their tickets (or an individual may have his ticket
bought by his company, or a pensioner has his Freedom Pass paid for by his
London borough, or a Travelcard holder has paid his fare to a different
operator) makes no difference. Those people all expect to be treated as
customers.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

"Cast_Iron" wrote in message
...

I would say that using somethig like "Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening" or
somesuch is a useful way of attracting people's attention so that by the
time you get to deliver the message proper they might be listening to what
your saying.

That's what the bing-bong' was designed to do (amongst other things).

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 17:05:16 +0100, "Robin Mayes"
wrote:

Surprised this already hasn't come up.

The end of last week, we were all told that we had to precede P.A. messages
with "Good (morning / afternoon / evening) ladies and gentlemen". By Monday
it was reduced to "Ladies and gentlemen".

While I understand it was decreed from "on high" as being more polite
and appropriate than "customer information" I find having to listen to
an interminable drawl of "this line, that line, that line over there,
and the other line are all running normally and I repeat ...... " at
Kings Cross as I change trains just too bloody much. Especially at 7.30
in the morning and especially when I'm being told the Victoria Line has
delays when I've just a completely undelayed journey !

I do like the simple posters with the line listing and normal service or
delays or whatever as that gives a good snapshot and is easy to read.
However it's pretty silly to say e.g. "Normal Service" on the Northern
Line and on an adjacent whiteboard say "due to signal failure at
Stockwell there are delays on the Northern Line". I'm sure we'll get it
right eventually.

How do you feel about this? Do you think it's a tad Americanised?

Can't comment as I'll get fired if I say the wrong thing. Especially as
I met the big boss for the first time this week.

Do you consider yourself customers or passengers?

As I don't pay anything I can't be a customer.

Not only would I like to know, but I'm sure
would too!

You write in first!
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

"Cast_Iron" wrote in message
...

The question that arises in both cases who is a customer/passenger and who
is not? Let's say a group of people decide to travel by train, One pay the
fare for all. Clearly they are all passengers but are they all customers?

I agree that the two phases don't have to be mutually exclusive. Passengers
can be given good customer service.