Twitter in Transport

I hate Tweets from people who are travelling. Really, why does that interest me? Your plane is delayed? Train is late? Lady is snoring next to you? I really don’t care...but the transport companies should.

Perhaps more than any other medium right now, people are criticising transport companies on Twitter. Almost none stop. I wonder how hard it would be to get two people from customer complaints to monitor Twitter mentions and begin responding to these complaints? Make the situation right. Someone’s train is late? Comp their journey. They will mention it to hundreds maybe thousands of followers.

Even better, monitor your competitors. Do you see a disgruntled customer? Invite them to trial your service for free just one time. I’d bet my house that it would get mentioned on their Twitter stream

Simple, maybe. Effective, Probably.

Comments

[Matthew Watson]

Slightly less annoying that those "Hello? I'm on the train..." phone calls though.

I think you are right, transport companies should be monitoring and reacting to their customer's complaints and equally their praise online. Perhaps not all companies though, I doubt a small local taxi firm for example would gain much from web monitoring, but certainly large companies such as British Airways and National Express should keep their eye on the Internet.

Seth Godin blogged about customer service a few days ago. See http://tiny.cc/Qfzbn He suggests that businesses should concentrate on their service before they work on their reputation. Provide great service or a great product, and the great reputation will follow. That said I think reputations can be improved by reacting to comments.

[Richard Millington]

Well it's more of a feedback loop and having the right conversations. You can use the complaints to improve your service, make it right to the customer and improve the reputation.

I think the large/small firm debate is the opposite.

I think the small local taxi firm would benefit the most from web monitoring, especially if their competitors don't do it. Turning ten unhappy customers on the internet to delighted customers per month would change the entire eco-system in which they operate.

[Sally Whittle]

Hi Richard

I'm about to get on a plane to Milan (cor, get me, I'm such a jet-setter!) but it's been delayed (tsk) so am checking blogs in the executive lounge (yes, I'm posh!) while I wait.

Oh, and in case you miss this, I've Twittered/Tweeted it as well.

Ciao!

(yes, you're right. It even feels annoying to me.)

[Richard Millington]

Thanks Sally.

Please keep the Twitter updates coming on that breaking story :-)

[Matthew Watson]

I agree that pleasing ten customers of a small company would have more impact than ten belonging to a larger one. But I'm not sure how many customers would actually twitter about a local taxi service. That said I don't actually use Twitter so perhaps I'm not seeing the big picture.

[Richard Millington]

Good point. But it depends on the savvy-ness of the local company. If they use Twitter local and monitor "taxi". They can then spot whenever anyone in the area talks about taxis.

I've seen a few "cab is late...grrr!" tweets in my time. I doubt "Taxi is late" tweets aren't far away. As soon as one pops up, ca-ching, you've got a potential customer for life there.

Send him a message saying your service will collect him instead (great dig at competitors) and maybe only charge him half-price.

Yay, you've got a fan for life.

[Matthew Watson]

That's a great idea, unless of course that person is complaining about your taxi service in the first place. You could end up pretty red-faced then. It's hard to tell what company they are disgruntled with unless they write "My cab from A2B Taxi's is late...grrr!"

It would be pretty cool to order a taxi via Twitter. Not sure if it's possible though.

An example:

"@A2B Taxi's - I'd like a taxi from 10 New Road, W21 9BA"

"@Customer - Your taxi will arrive in 10 mins"

"@Customer - Your taxi has arrived. Thanks for using A2B Taxi's"

[Richard Millington]

IF the person is complaining about your taxi service, all the better.

1) You've just sent a taxi to fix the problem (damage limitation)
2) The driver can talk to the customer and offer him a discount, or comp the ride.

Not sure ordering taxis would work on Twitter. Giving your address out to all your followers sounds a little dubious to me. But a Taxi company can easily reply offering to pick you up straight away from a normal tweet.

[Abraham]

I work for a taxi company in Suburban Chicago...we are now giving the people the ability to order a taxi using twitter.