Customer Service Week: recognizing the people who help you ride Metro 

Need help planning a trip, applying for reduced fares or finding something you left on a bus? Metro’s Customer Care teams are here to help — over the phone, at our Customer Centers and out in the community. 

Oct. 5–9 is Customer Service Week, an opportunity to recognize those employees and the many colleagues throughout Metro who help you get where you need to go. 

Here’s a look at their work — and a few improvements underway. 

Answering your questions and listening to your feedback 

Our Customer Information Call Center can be reached at 323.GO.METRO and handles about 900,000 calls annually. Staff help with trip planning, Metro Micro bookings and Lost & Found telephone support — and also serve riders at the Information Booth in historic Union Station. 

The call center is open weekdays from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Our Customer Relations team handles another 2,200 to 2,500 calls each month — and manages customer comments and complaints received through email and online comment forms. Your complaints, commendations and service concerns help us understand what’s working and where we need to improve. 

Helping you pay your fare 

The TAP Information team supports riders across 26 transit agencies. Over the past year, staff answered more than 180,000 calls and resolved more than 46,000 customer emails, assisting with balance transfers, reloads, refunds and other TAP questions. 

The team also adopted new phone and customer-management systems and has been helping riders understand how to tap and pay with contactless bank cards and mobile wallets as part of the Open Payment transition. 

Our Reduced Fare team processes approximately 30,000 applications annually for seniors, people with disabilities, K–12 students and college/vocational students. Staff also answer questions and research returned mail to keep rider records accurate. 

Providing help in person 

Metro’s six Customer Centers serve approximately 200,000 customers annually. More than 30 Customer Service Agents help with TAP cards, fare purchases, reduced-fare programs, LIFE and general Metro questions, with service available seven days a week across the centers. 

Beginning Monday, Oct. 5, a new pilot collaboration with the TAP Information Call Center will bring in-person TAP card assistance to the East Portal Customer Center at Union Station.  

Our Mobile Customer Center also brings assistance into neighborhoods, particularly to senior centers. It hosts approximately nine events a month, helping about 70 customers per event with reduced-fare applications and loading fare on plastic and digital TAP cards. 

Reuniting riders with their belongings 

Metro’s Lost & Found office receives approximately 1,000 articles each month that are left on our buses, trains, stations and facilities. We reunite about 200 to 250 items each month with their owners. 

Those belongings include everyday essentials — and some surprising finds, from stuffed animals and bikes to ironing boards and even a surfboard! 

The office is at 3571 Pasadena Avenue and is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s easy to reach on our system — take the A Line to Heritage Square Station and the center is next door.  

Keeping things moving behind the scenes 

Our four-person Stockroom team manages TAP card inventory and distributes cards, GoPass orders and marketing materials to Customer Centers, schools and third-party vendors. For this year’s FIFA World Cup, the team handled about 430,000 commemorative TAP cards. 

The three-person Metro Mail team also fulfills bulk customer orders, helping get fare products into customers’ hands. 

Improving the tools our teams use 

Customer Relations now has improved call routing and callback capabilities. Additional work is underway to bring calls, service alerts and customer interaction history into a more connected workspace, beginning with Customer Information. 

These improvements support the people at the heart of customer service, including employees who have helped Metro riders for decades. 

This week, we thank our teams for their knowledge, patience and daily work on your behalf. And we thank you for sharing your experiences and helping us improve. 

Thanks for riding Metro!