North East Buses

No tweets since 26th may...

That's probs a sign of a good service.

Your optimistic

More a sign of posting all these breakdowns looks bad let’s hide them in another page so there’s no real trace of them.

Or they’ve made the person that primarily does it redundant or part time.  Same with the short
Notice cancellations, very rarely gets updated until the next day now, and sometimes not at all at weekends or on bank holidays.

Lolol at least I'm not the only one that's noticed

On a positive note they've started replying to Customers and being vaguely helpful on Twitter again which is nice to see.

Still only in regular business hours and still far too much 'PM/DM us please'. It sort of reads like the Metro account with the apologies.

The whole customer experience is an area they are woefully lacking in mind

I see on GNE’s Twitter there’s a lovely troll who basically just abuses people asking mostly genuine questions, charming individual!!

(05 Jun 2023, 2:05 pm)Drifter60 wrote [ -> ]I see on GNE’s Twitter there’s a lovely troll who basically just abuses people asking mostly genuine questions, charming individual!!

I always defend them and give the troll s**t

They're replying to folk but not posting disruption. I guess they've got other channels of doing that, e.g. through the website or app.

Who checks their website, social media is the easiest way to get the info out, really they should post on Facebook a lot more often.

(05 Jun 2023, 4:33 pm)Unber43 wrote [ -> ]Who checks their website, social media is the easiest way to get the info out, really they should post on Facebook a lot more often.

I unfollowed them because I was sick of seeing all the delays and cancellations

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Yeah I actually feel constant social media disruption posts, particular on platforms like Facebook, aren’t particularly good ways to market your product. Not to mention the constant posting doesn’t necessarily suit the algorithm of these platforms either, which means key information gets buried away.

There’s arguments that Twitter is different beast, but still you have the issue which Streetdeckfan alludes to that the perception is buses are constantly late, services cancelled etc - and even for those using buses daily, who may need to check for updates, it is rather tiresome as someone in Shotley Bridge doesn’t need to know about the cancelled 206 around Hutton Henry.

That been said the disruptions need to be available for passengers, so as long as the app and website have those details available in an easy to digest format, then it’s job done. If there was a major disruption, then perhaps a social media maybe warranted on a case by case basis. If you look at the social media feeds now, there’s posts that actually look positive about the product, ticketing deals, summer services and tourism and leisure opportunities. That’s got a better perception that X isn’t running, X is late by 10 minutes etc. I also think the recent posts remaining customers about the 65 & 8 increased to half hourly again is a good move too. For too long, marketing at GNE has been stifled.

(05 Jun 2023, 6:06 pm)Drifter60 wrote [ -> ]Yeah I actually feel constant social media disruption posts, particular on platforms like Facebook, aren’t particularly good ways to market your product. Not to mention the constant posting doesn’t necessarily suit the algorithm of these platforms either, which means key information gets buried away.

There’s arguments that Twitter is different beast, but still you have the issue which Streetdeckfan alludes to that the perception is buses are constantly late, services cancelled etc - and even for those using buses daily, who may need to check for updates, it is rather tiresome as someone in Shotley Bridge doesn’t need to know about the cancelled 206 around Hutton Henry.

That been said the disruptions need to be available for passengers, so as long as the app and website have those details available in an easy to digest format, then it’s job done. If there was a major disruption, then perhaps a social media maybe warranted on a case by case basis. If you look at the social media feeds now, there’s posts that actually look positive about the product, ticketing deals, summer services and tourism and leisure opportunities. That’s got a better perception that X isn’t running, X is late by 10 minutes etc. I also think the recent posts remaining customers about the 65 & 8 increased to half hourly again is a good move too. For too long, marketing at GNE has been stifled.

I've made the point before and will make it again. 

Operators push for passengers to use the app. 
They offer discounts for tickets bought on the app. 
They extol the virtues of these apps.

They don't use all of the data in it to allow for push messages though. 
That personalised, individualised approach that makes a customer feel valued. 
Discounts, reminders of a service, promotional messaging... 

If the fast food places can do it, then an operator can do it. Plus they can throw in the odd tailored message about service disruption.

(05 Jun 2023, 8:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]I've made the point before and will make it again. 

Operators push for passengers to use the app. 
They offer discounts for tickets bought on the app. 
They extol the virtues of these apps.

They don't use all of the data in it to allow for push messages though. 
That personalised, individualised approach that makes a customer feel valued. 
Discounts, reminders of a service, promotional messaging... 

If the fast food places can do it, then an operator can do it. Plus they can throw in the odd tailored message about service disruption.

An operator can only do it if the supplier of the app that they use allows them to do this…

I’d imagine operators are kicking and screaming to have the ability to do this, but are confined by the limitations of the app they have (which is often a Group contract rather than one agreed locally).

This applies to all three of the major operators in our region.


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(05 Jun 2023, 9:07 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]An operator can only do it if the supplier of the app that they use allows them to do this…

I’d imagine operators are kicking and screaming to have the ability to do this, but are confined by the limitations of the app they have (which is often a Group contract rather than one agreed locally). 

This applies to all three of the major operators in our region.


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I'd hope they were kicking and screaming. It's beyond obvious that it would be of huge benefit. 

But it beggars belief that each of the local big three (and at group level), didn't look at this sort of feature before signing a contract or in times of austerity, looked at developing their own app that does allow for push messages.

They could do so much more with the app and I’m sure they will once the current contract ends

Selfishly speaking I’d love to see live capacity data, would be hugely beneficial on a match day to work out if I need to walk to Harlow Green to have a hope on getting a bus not sailing past the Cannon!

On a serious note, there’s such an opportunity with social media, lner do it quite well and GNE do have a personality of sorts but the tone of voice and response style just isn’t there, they need help and a bit of expertise but I’m not sure leadership at a regional level would consider it a priority at the moment.

(05 Jun 2023, 9:20 pm)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]I'd hope they were kicking and screaming. It's beyond obvious that it would be of huge benefit. 

But it beggars belief that each of the local big three (and at group level), didn't look at this sort of feature before signing a contract or in times of austerity, looked at developing their own app that does allow for push messages.

Realistically, that would still require paying someone to develop it for them, though and it's most cost effective to pay someone who already has the required functionality in their portfolio. So they might give the contract to company X who have experience in taking the appropriate freely available data and making it pretty and understandable (maps, real time timetables, route planning etc) but to add in functionality like push notifications, which isn't a part of their regular portfolio would involve a lot more developer time which, of course, costs extra money that they may not recoup.

(07 Jun 2023, 2:28 pm)BusLoverMum wrote [ -> ]Realistically, that would still require paying someone to develop it for them, though and it's most cost effective to pay someone who already has the required functionality in their portfolio. So they might give the contract to company X who have experience in taking the appropriate freely available data and making it pretty and understandable (maps, real time timetables, route planning etc) but to add in functionality like push notifications, which isn't a part of their regular portfolio would involve a lot more developer time which, of course, costs extra money that they may not recoup.

If fairness, all API's are all the same pretty much so if you can use one, you can use them all. If you can't do that plus push notifications then you probably shouldn't be an app developer. It's more all the bus companies just follow each other like sheep and use that nasty website system which they use which is bulky and all over the place which no doubt do the app aswell.

Edit: https://passenger.tech - These.

(07 Jun 2023, 2:28 pm)BusLoverMum wrote [ -> ]Realistically, that would still require paying someone to develop it for them, though and it's most cost effective to pay someone who already has the required functionality in their portfolio. So they might give the contract to company X who have experience in taking the appropriate freely available data and making it pretty and understandable (maps, real time timetables, route planning etc) but to add in functionality like push notifications, which isn't a part of their regular portfolio would involve a lot more developer time which, of course, costs extra money that they may not recoup.

If they've got an IT team and have a budget allocated, then all of a sudden it becomes a lot more viable.
Particularly with the number off divisions that exist and the money they're paying for the websites and apps.

(07 Jun 2023, 2:28 pm)BusLoverMum wrote [ -> ]Realistically, that would still require paying someone to develop it for them, though and it's most cost effective to pay someone who already has the required functionality in their portfolio. So they might give the contract to company X who have experience in taking the appropriate freely available data and making it pretty and understandable (maps, real time timetables, route planning etc) but to add in functionality like push notifications, which isn't a part of their regular portfolio would involve a lot more developer time which, of course, costs extra money that they may not recoup.

Totally agree. It's also not too long ago when operators were trying to develop individual apps, which really resulted in them all being a bit hit and miss. I think Arriva still go down this route now with theirs, and look at all the problems they seem to have.

A lot of operators (including GNE) now use an app developed by Passenger. The look and feel of the app is pretty much consistent across the different operators that use it, and I'd say it's one of the best bus operator apps I've used, even if it's not perfect. But my point is that having an app that has a big market share of bus operators, should allow them the resources to continue to improve it and bring out new features.