Mark Aesch

One of the key moments that Mark Aesch identifies in his turnaround of the RGRTA is when he announced that riders would no longer be referred to as “passengers” but instead as “customers.” This, he believes, helped create an environment that was more open to change and more focused on the value and experience that customers were getting from the Authority. Aesch explains how these organizational and attitudinal changes led to cleaner buses, better service, and, ultimately, more riders and more revenue and how other organizations can take his core ideas and apply them to their own businesses.