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TOC twitter feeds...

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Sammy h

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I follow a few of these on twitter and often have a mooch around at them. Just had a quick look at the Virgin one whilst sitting in the sun on my afternoon off and the amount of abuse is appalling! Can't believe some of the stuff I am reading. Some people just have no manners or respect. I can understand delays can be frustrating, but come on....

Does anyone know any of the staff that do this job, bet they find it hard work, anyone else noticed this before?
 
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monty9120

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alot of people are the same. the trouble is no matter what the toc tries to do. train companies are the enemies of the world
 

bluenoxid

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Unfortunately abuse comes with the social media territory. At the moment, there appears to be no interest in taking action against abuse, which is a shame.

I think the benefits of a proactive social media account far outway the abuse. Like some abusive .... in the street you try to rise above it

It is not just TOCs that receive this abuse. Check out some big brands
 

142094

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I know a few people that do the Twitter and Facebook feeds for a company - agree that some of the abuse and comments get out of hand. Last time we had this discussion I made the point that the accounts can be accessed very quickly, whereas people before may not have been bothered to make a complaint by e-mail or post. Many people also seem to complain for no good reason, and obviously some have no idea how a railway is operated.
 

iphone76

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Funny enough I sent a compliment to the GA twitter team today as some people were being particularly mean. Someone even complained they had to get off a train at Wivenhoe en route to London as the seats were too uncomfortable on the refurb'd 321s. Talk about not being able to please some of the people all of the time.
 

ChiefPlanner

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The LM one is excellent - look at the polite and helpful responses , they do an excellent job IMHO.
 

CC 72100

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I think TOCs on social networking sites can very helpful indeed. People may not check NRE specifically before they go on their journey, but they may check facebook or twitter. It also allows instant passanger-TOC communication as opposed to waiting 7 days for an e-mail back. Yes you get the moaners, but on the whole it's a good idea which can be quite useful. For example, Jo + Ollie at FGW seem to provide excellent service.

Also funnily enough I wrote a compliment on FGWs timeline/wall on facebook the other day about an excellent TM on a train over the weekend. Had it have been 'send an email, wait days for a response' I'm honestly not sure whether I'd have bothered.

The use of social media makes it easier for the passanger to get in contact and the TOC provde info - two things people complain about frequently!
 

AlterEgo

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The LM one is excellent - look at the polite and helpful responses , they do an excellent job IMHO.

Heh.

There's a chap called Carl who tweets for them who has an incredibly dry sense of humour - always a highlight when he's on shift.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The use of social media makes it easier for the passanger to get in contact and the TOC provde info - two things people complain about frequently!

Another benefit to social media is that quite often the TOC is alerted to customer service issues immediately - and that the issue can often be resolved, or the customer satisfied without the need for a complaint on the books.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Shame you were too busy playing in control today and not at the desk... Oh wait, the entire network crumbled today, as you were!

I wasn't in the real control office - and I was stuck on a failed train on my way home! :(

(washes hands of responsibility)
 

tsr

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As I type, SWT are tweeting into the night, helping passengers find out about disruptions and reassuring them (optimistically and hopefully, shall we say) that all should be well tomorrow.

NRE also frequently help via social media, and generally during all TOCs' running hours at that.

Talk about a commitment to serving the customer!

It's a shame some TOCs' call centres and email staff are not always quite this dedicated and helpful, in my experience.

The Southern Twitter account is also quite good (although the software they use seems to limit the flow of conversations, which I can see is frustrating for them - an example would be that they have to ask too many repetitive questions because they can't see all the tweets in a conversation, for some reason).

Finally, the BBC's various Twitter accounts are surprisingly accurate - even pretty witty and suitably colloquial at times.

:)
 

AlterEgo

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It's a shame some TOCs' call centres and email staff are not always quite this dedicated and helpful, in my experience.

In many cases the people who man Twitter accounts are actually the call centre and email staff.

I'm sure that whoever tweets well into the night for a TOC doesn't do it for free!
 

DownSouth

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I think TOCs on social networking sites can very helpful indeed. People may not check NRE specifically before they go on their journey, but they may check facebook or twitter.
More importantly, a Twitter feed can be checked in a couple of seconds from just about any smartphone while on route.

Unless NR develops their own update app available on iOS, Android and as a traditional RSS feed, standard social networking platforms will still be important.
 

scotsman

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SWT's twitter feed is run by control and NRE. NRE run the basic disruption info, all the more detailed info, advice and customer service is run by SWT Control.
 

transmanche

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In my previous job, I was responsible for being the 'face of the company' on social media (Twitter, Facebook and other online forums). And as others have said, it's an incredibly useful tool for customers to make their point quickly and directly.

Twitter's the tough one though. With other social media, you can usually provide a detailed response to a ranter - and I was surprised how many would actually apologise after an explanation or (where appropriate) an apology. With Twitter though, as you've only got the 140 characters, it really concentrates the mind!

For companies that use Net Promoter to gauge customer loyalty (and many businesses do these days) it's a fantastically effective tool to turn a detractor into a promoter.
 

Sammy h

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Just to make it clear, I was not saying that the Twitter accounts aren't helpful, I was just wanting to discuss what was said in the OP.

IMO I think they are great for customer interaction.
 

whhistle

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With the internet it's all too easy to hide behind a keypad.
I also find so many people, including myself many times, moan without knowing the full circumstances. It reminds me of that episode of The Tube where the guy said people literally step over a dead body just to catch their train. How disgusting! And people think they should be treated "right"?

Granted, not everyone is like this and you must remember though, for every one person who moans there will be at least 10 who are content.
 
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