A post on the weather. Depressing. As I write this (Tuesday), we’re bracing ourselves for overnight snow. In fact, it’s started early Tuesday evening. Various local bus service operators are using social media to warn customers that weather will disrupt their evening, Tuesday and their day today, Wednesday.
I’m sure the people who invented Facebook and Twitter had no idea how useful this otherwise transitory frippery might be. When it comes to getting short but important messages out quickly, there is no easier way, the more so if people have smartphones. Never before have operators been able to advise and warn directly. From the early 1970s during snow, this has traditionally been the preserve of local radio, a medium that would see an audience spike at just this sort of time. Remember radio? But, local radio cannot be anywhere near as specific as Twitter and Facebook. And, unlike social media, operators have no editorial control over radio and what the stations choose to broadcast.
Operators need to remember, though, that although passengers are now better informed, social media only sweeten what might be a difficult pill to swallow. It confirms what people think they know. It gives them the comfort that they needn’t fret about their bus. It offers no solution, only consolation. But it does communicate.
Passengers understandably get upset when their transport to work, hospital or school fails. Well, perhaps only parents when it comes to schools. My experience suggests that even in cases where it’s obvious that the bus service is subject to delay, passengers either won’t quite believe it or they won’t quite accept it or, worse, they will lash out verbally at any company employee handily in the firing line. As if it’s the company’s fault. That employee might be a manager who’s been at the sharp end trying help dig a bus out. It might be a supervisor or inspector who’s worked what amounts to a double shift. It might be a driver who’s been caught in snail-pace gridlock stop-starting his way in an ever increasing hopelessness, as he rips up the timetable, one who’s had to put up with sarcastic comments since the snow first came down.
Bluestar received a message from a father concerned about his daughter and people concerned about the exact routes buses confined to main roads were taking. Plus those looking for information on Wednesday
In these situations, social media certainly won’t make matters worse and they can do a lot to make things better. It does take time and effort from someone in the know. Some operator social media sites were being updated on the hoof last night. And here, I’d like to praise Bluestar for responding to Facebook questions late in the evening. That’s beyond the call of duty and it does *so* much for customer relations.
| Followers or Fans | On Twitter | On Facebook |
| Bluestar | 104 | 1,002 |
| Southern Vectis | 171 | N/A |
| Transdev Yellow Buses | N/A | 279 |
| Velvet | 108 | 707 |
| Wilts & Dorset | N/A | 316 |
Bad weather is good news for social media: Bluestar put on seven per cent yesterday evening, while W&D increased by 13 per cent.
27 comments:
It's at times like this it's a shame First Bath stopped their twitter experiment.
Twiiter and Facebook have the added advatage of being "local" so not that busy with internet traffic.
As I type, the Arriva, First and Stagecoach mains sites aren't working.
Wonder why Velvet Bus use French word 'salut' as their greeting on Twitter?
Well done Bluestar indeed, but I see Velvet were also responding to questions in the early hours of this morning, and others too so well done all round I say!
@realitycheck it looks to me like Velvet aren't using 'salut', the whole screen is in French so it's a screenshot of a French language version of Twitter. Weird!!!
"From the early 1970s during snow, this has traditionally been the preserve of local radio, a medium that would see an audience spike at just this sort of time."
Back in the 1970s and 1980s Independent Local Radio was local and on the spot. These days, much of it is networked centrally with very limited local input and simply isn't geared up to help in extreme weather conditions. The BBC local stations can.... but thank heavens for the internet!
First Devon & Cornwall are using Twitter - lots of updates and information, as well as website updated
Cardiff bus is also there - I have been updating remotely updating since about 04:55 this morning. I was asked why I decided to take my PDA, my own PDA and lap top to bed last night… all in preparation for the early morning phone call from the depot was the answer, which duly arrived at about 04:45.
As well as live updates I can also visit the operator version of ACIS Bus Net Live to give an overall summary of how things are running compared to schedule – even more information. How did you cope in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s (I was too young you see being a child of the 80’s)? I guess the answer was soldier on and buses were coped better in them days – there’s a thread to start!
Still tweeting away as I am still snowbound, but we have buses out there. And to join in the great biscuit debate – they are custard creams!
Gareth.
Meanwhile on the Twitter and Facebook-equipped Metrobus website, the news is that "Due to snow and adverse road conditions ALL services (including the 291) in Surrey and Sussex have now been suspended."
However, the Metrobus link to the ACIS (West Sussex CC) RTI system tells me the next 291 to Crawley will be departing here (in Kent) at 11.35.
Consistent, accurate info ....?
... and bloody knackered but very fulfilled we are here at Bluestar HQ as a result!!
The real time stop displays in part of Surrey are still showing timetabled departures, despite the fact that no services are running to them, and the fact that the technology specifically allows you to put messages up saying the service is suspended.
So not only did the displays not state that buses weren't running, they were showing times to "support" the image that they were!!
I did my best to tell people waiting at stops, but I can't hang about all day!
Traveline South East are providing a constantly updated bulletin about as much information as they can collect, with information from operators (and trains), from all over the place. The people covered by Traveline South East are lucky to be covered by one of the best ones.
Neighbouring Traveline South West, on the other hand, has absolutely no information whatsoever about service disruptions.
And here, I’d like to praise Bluestar for responding to Facebook questions late in the evening. That’s beyond the call of duty and it does *so* much for customer relations.
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It's good, but I don't think it is beyond the call of duty. It's what operators should aim to do in these circumstances. One of the (numerous) things that appals me about First locally, and other operators as well, is that their customer services closes at 5pm. Given the huge number of passengers that will be travelling after 5pm, that shows a disgusting disregard for customer service.
Yes, providing that kind of out-of-hours service takes time, but as you say, it is extremely helpful for passengers in times of disruption. It's times like this where operators need to pull out all the stops, get people working overtime - this kind of thing can be done by someone working at home, they don't need to physically be in the office - and it really will pay dividends in terms of customer satisfaction.
... totally agree with Stevie D. Surely that's the standard?! Many of us (Bluestar included) have an ambition but remain some way to go still to really act like true customer focussed - dare I say customer obsessed - retailers. Isn't that what we keep on telling ourselves as an industry?
Metrobus, meanwhile, have getting on for 4,000 Facebook fans (a large number of whom seem to want to know if the 291, for example, will be running in the morning).
First Hampshire has recently been trialling Facebook, we've had an active page for a couple of weeks testing various elements but after our fan base doubled overnight as a result of the snow we've been sending regular service updates over the past 24 hours, last post gone 11pm last night, first post 5am this morning. I hope this snow ends soon because I could do with some sleep!
Websites aren't for everyone, thats why we opened our phone lines at 6:30am this morning, experience showed most demand from customers phoning is first thing in the morning, we're planning to do the same until the weather disruption reduces. Ideally our own staff would continue to be available to answer phones until the end of service but staff were struggling to get home themselves last night in horrendous conditions.
The advantage of the internet for us is our website and Facebook can be updated from home as I was doing last night and will continue to do tonight.
I agree with Alex and Stevie D's comments. Yet another night of PDA's and laptops and the early morning call from the depot - but at least I am not the only one....
This information can be invaluable in helping customers and really doesn't go beyond the call of duty, does it?
Gareth.
I joined and have been using the new Cardiff Bus Twitter page today; it's been excellent.
The service has only been available for two days and already has nearly 200 "followers"!
Plymouth Citybus has also joined the Twits and Facebookers. Because of the issues with the weather our friends leapt from 200 to 600+ today and our followers on Twitter have broken the 300 mark! Amazing considering the short time the accounts have been running. Trouble is I have been updating them both since 0600 this morning and on days like this it is certainly a full time job! Mind customers have been utterly positive and appreciative. We withdrew all buses this morning for a short time and not one complaint via Twitter or Facebook.
If operators are honest about disruption and don't pretend everything is tickety boo when it patently is not then passengers really appreciate Tweets and Facebooking.
However.. many employers dont allow access to these web sites through their firewalls. Operators who solely post on Twitter and Facebook cause unnecessary frustration to potential customers because of this.
Good point anon@2125. We were faced with that complaint today. We are waiting for remote editing to be installed on our Best Impressions-controlled website, so to solve the problem we created a quick "unofficial" mailing list and sent emails out with updates on instead. This matured into a quick and easy method of capturing around 200 email addresses to add to our other contacts of people who want to talk to us (or be talked at!)... Great!
Valid point anon at 21:25, as Alex has pointed out.
We have regularly updated the web site as well as twitter - but until we sort out web updating to be done remotely rather than me at my desk, out of hours this has been the best way to do it.
Hopefully my 'out of hours' coincide with most other office workers…… but that doesn't help the shift workers etc who have PC access.
More work to be done for us, but we are in a better position than before for keeping most people up to date.
Is this hype? The numbers are still low compared with local radio listeners surely?
Or one way of looking at it is like this - we're at 1600 fans at last count. How much turnover per head is that, multiply that by total number of fans - how much revenue are you potentially playing with there? It's nearly approching £0.8M a year... Plus it's targeted, easy to update quickly, perceived as "with it" so makes us look modern by association to the often-difficult-to-reach u25 demographic, and you even control it. You are being seen to willingly make the effort to be open and have direct communication with your customers - what's so bad with that?!
Plus the fact that most operator Facebook pages are "open to the public".
So for example, while Bluestar had 1,600 fans, any huge number of people could actually be looking at the information as well, without becoming friends.
I see that Yellow Buses are Tweeting now too!
Apologies for this late comment but Stagecoach Bluebird and Highlands have reverted to generic advice that services may be delayed or cancelled due to the weather and for potential passengers to contact their local depot for information. Unfortunately the link to the details of the nearest depot takes you to a blank screen. Tis a pity.
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