How far should social media teams go with repetitive answers?

[RLBH]

You click on a specific service yes, but it's done for the option of Advance tickets on that particular service, so if then clicking on an off-peak return (for example), the reservation for that train is not taken forward through the booking process as seat reservations are not required for an off-peak ticket.

You know that, and I know that - but I'm willing to bet that a significant number of prospective passengers don't. There might be some mileage in a booking engine that indicated which trains still had seats available to reserve at the stage where services are being selected, as well as an obvious warning if the selected service is fully booked.

 

[Parallel]

The GWR website makes it very clear when the ‘reservation is not possible’ - It’s put in bright red text next to where you click to pay. I don’t use the LNER website so can’t comment. But there should be something noticeable saying a reservation is not possible.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Having worked in Customer Relations for a former TOC myself, I always tried to tailor my reply whether by email or letter, to address the customer's specific point. Unfortunately this meant that the number of letters and emails I was sending out was much lower than my colleagues who just cut and pasted standard responses, which as you'd expect, my manager wasn't happy about. In the end of course, I just ended up using standard responses myself, only being more specific if the workload was lighter (it rarely was!).

I don't use twitter but I would imagine the vast majority of twits (or whatever they're called) that get sent are from people with nothing better to do just having a whinge, so I can fully understand why the overstressed rail staff sometimes resort to generic repetitive responses.