When the Bath Bus Station Customer service blog and Twitter account hit the scene it made a big impact pretty quickly. For a company like First, so besieged by negativity and bad press (on the whole justified) it was a breath of fresh air to see them engaging with the customer at such a level that showed personality, empathy and above all, a desire to make things better.
The blog launched on October 13th 2008 and introduced itself in a polite and engaging manner. By the second day of blogging, they were answering the questions that the humble early adopters of the blog were all asking, ‘Why does a bus station need a blog for its customer services? Buses go from A to B, they breakdown halfway and are usually late, a blog isnt going to help me with that is it?’
The blog’s line was:
“In the Customer Services Department at Bath Bus Station, we are always looking for new ways to keep in contact with our customers… providing updates about local issues, events etc, and discussing the problems that matter to you so we can work to improve the quality of service you enjoy.”
Over the nine month duration, of what is termed as a social media experiment, the blog and Twitter account brought us such delights as Diversion – Service 5, numerous service updates as and when they happened and my favourite blog post, ‘Lost Property‘. Perhaps the greatest success story was the provision of detailed and honest updates throughout the disruption caused by the snow chaos in February.
Bath, as a destination has been richer for its pioneering use of social media when relating public transport to those that use it and for First, it was a true feather in their cap to put funding and resources behind the venture, it is just a shame that when cuts need to be made, the customer service element is what goes out the door, especially when their profits are up!
Of course these cut backs are common place in larger organisations. First will be streamlining their customer service workforce and decamping the overall operation to a regional arm in Exeter, another common practice in itself.
It is a great loss that this service is being axed. I can not think of a customer service presence across any social media platform that I have found more engaging and informative-even as a non-Bath bus user. Perhaps it is too late to instigate a Twitter petition and I dont envisage the 605 followers of the @bathcsc Twitter account turning their pictures First Bus blue in solidarity but First have let themselves down once again.
The experiment comes to an end as of Friday 26th June. I for one have taken great pleasure and learned a great deal about how to be the voice behind a company presence online in my own employment. I hope that the online media savvy operators of the service are not facing unemployment as a result of First culling their activities and hope that First reconsider their position.
Cool!