Improving Transportation—How Via Expanded Worldwide

Via works with 700+ partners across the world, from rural counties to large transit agencies. 

Via makes transit more efficient - connecting people to jobs, education, and healthcare. Cities and transit agencies around the world adopt Via’s suite of software and technology-enabled services to build modern transportation networks and deliver cost-effective, high-quality service. As a result, Via improves the passenger experience and brings more riders on board.. Via operates in many geographies, across a number of transit modes, and serves many different types of riders. As the company grew to manage hundreds of support agents across five locations from the Philippines to Barcelona, Via wanted to guarantee that any rider in need of support would receive the same, high-quality experience.

Customer Experience at Scale—When Growth Outpaces Legacy QA

Via’s early QA relied on a patchwork, basic system in Air Table—flexible but slow and error-prone. Updating scoring formulas could take days. As Via scaled and outsourced support across regions, agents handled critical tasks: from ADA bookings for wheelchair users to calls from parents and corporate employees needing timely rides.

"We hacked Airtable for QA... but every formula change was a multi-day effort, and we kept things super simple just to avoid breaking it. Honestly, it was not a fun time." —Eileen Conboy, Support Operations Principal, Via Transportation

Complexity compounded as each BPO was often operated by its own rules. Reporting and QA became harder to standardize, leading to skepticism about internal QA scores—especially when compensation was tied directly to those ratings. One example stands out: in a peak-demand moment, an agent’s urge to “make the customer happy” might lead to bending process rules, directly affecting costs and compliance. Sometimes, critical issues (like repeated late pickups for dialysis patients) became buried beneath a flood of “normal” calls, hiding trends leadership needed to see.

How could Via surface actionable trends, ensure unbiased QA, adapt rapidly to diverse services and language needs, and nudge agent behavior—all while keeping a personal, compassionate touch for riders in distress?

Conversational Intelligence for Every Voice, Every Need

Via looked for a partner who could offer more than just replacing slow manual work. They sought a solution designed to understand details quickly. Level AI distinguished itself by its ability to understand the real meaning in customer calls. During a thorough pilot, Level AI identified hundreds more genuinely "high-demand" rider calls than its competitors, leveraging conversational intelligence to uncover negative sentiment, ADA issues, and subtle pain points that other tools simply overlooked. "Competitor worked off keywords alone," Eileen recalls. "Level AI listened to the whole story," thanks to its advanced Natural Language Understanding technology.

"The tipping point was Level AI's ability to identify ‘high demand’ calls with real NLP—tagging 800 true qualifying calls in a test week versus our previous provider’s 500, which missed many valid cases."—Eileen Conboy, Support Operations Principal, Via Transportation

Via’s QA team established clear productivity goals: two operational reviews and four email or phone reviews per hour. Level AI significantly enhanced their efficiency in achieving these targets by automating checks for "helping language" and highlighting crucial call moments. This functionality allows QA agents to quickly find important parts, accelerating their review process while maintaining a sharp focus on service quality.

Increased process efficiency—Level AI flagged 60% more high-demand rider calls than the competitor that Via was considering, finding not just specific words but understanding how upset customers actually describe their problems by considering intent, emotion, and nuance. From a grandmother confused by her phone to a parent panicking over a missed school run, Level AI surfaced urgent cases with high accuracy

Contact center QA insights - When Via needed a custom evaluation form, Level AI built it in six weeks. The platform lets managers adapt QA by region while unifying results in one dashboard. Agents got transparent, objective scoring; reviewers jumped straight to moments with tags like “Did the agent use helping language?” or “Did they provide accurate ADA guidance?”. Every interaction—from quick bookings to sensitive ADA calls—was measured with consistency and empathy.

A New Standard for Service, Savings—and Humanity

The results aren’t just numbers—they are examples of better service and real improvements:

• Through sophisticated auto-assignment, the team now saves 90 hours each month—time that managers and auditors spend on coaching, not on stacks of routine reviews.
• Auditor capacity leaped, with 575+ extra evaluations processed monthly and $27,000 saved annually on salaries—not by cutting corners, but by finally freeing up human focus for what matters.
• Enhanced agent behavior, driven by the link between QA scores and compensation, led to a dramatic 20,000 monthly reduction in support calls during crucial process sprints.
• Annually, the operational gains now top $365K—a clear proof of the benefits in doing QA right.

But the transformation is felt most in customer experience and consistent processes. One Manila-based manager remarked how Level AI finally gave the team the ability to spot problems before customers complained.

These improvements brought more consistent, empathetic support for elderly riders and those relying on ADA trips. Agents are better trained and flagged in real time, which helps reduce call handling errors and ensures customers’ needs are met promptly—often on the very first call.

Regarding consistency, Eileen mentioned that even in Barcelona, specialized “white glove” teams now follow the same consistent, clear standards as larger BPO centers in El Salvador, ensuring that every customer receives the same high-level care regardless of geography or complexity.

Most crucially, agents once wary of inconsistent grading now trust the system—and seek out coaching to grow. The process is transparent and fair, creating a workplace focused on success and recognition. “For agents, it’s not just about being caught out—it’s about being seen, supported, and set up for success,” Eileen explains.

“Via is on the road to continuous improvement—with Level AI at the wheel. For any organization striving for truly inclusive, high-value customer experiences, our story is proof: the right technology partner makes all the difference.”—Eileen Conboy, Support Operations Principal, Via Transportation

The Road Ahead

Via’s story with Level AI is ultimately about growing while caring about people. As the company plans to include training in quality reviews—improving both employee development and customer experience—the partnership proves that with the right technology, even complicated transportation services can be handled with care, accuracy, and clear results.