(12 Nov 2014, 6:45 pm)Andreos1 wrote One thing which surprised me, in that it wasn't brought up in more detail by either yourselves, or someone else in this specific thread - was the increased awareness that passengers have of a service or provider.

Whether it is via bus or rail,  we have touched on or read about the perceived staffing issues that Northern Rail face, the problems on the metro and now all know about the 'problem' services or staff, that our bus operators have.

Although we may have personal experience - the social media pages have made each and everyone of us aware of these issues and possibly whether the operator actually does something about those problems.
Whilst an operator may not be able to inform us passengers of the outcome, we can easily identify a driver or repeated problem with a service in the future.

Some interesting points.

It is of course quite right, and it's something that's been discussed on here at length, that we have much more visibility of what is happening nowadays. Social Media, the Internet, and smart-phones, gives us live information at our fingertips. We certainly wouldn't have had this in the past, and probably wouldn't have been any the wiser that about traffic delays etc.

The funny thing is, that a lot of the repeat incidents, such as stops not being observed, doors being shut on people, are incidents we're all aware of. They aren't new, and have been happening for as long as I can remember. I don't imagine that it's new that people complain about these incidents, but perhaps the volume has increased due to the ease of making a complaint nowadays. 20 years ago, you'd have had to pick up the phone, or write an actual letter (and even post it!). Seems a million miles away from the options we have these days, such as Live Chat, Social Media, E-Mail, and the web form.

(12 Nov 2014, 6:45 pm)Andreos1 wrote Indeed, a quick look on three social media pages, brought the following up.

Of course, when utilised fully and passengers are told about delays - then ANE and SNE stand out way and beyond GNE, in that depots have control of the social media field. However, if I was a CEO, MD or majority shareholder, I would be disgusted and disappointed to see those three comments on MY page.

What an operator (and Nexus) don't do, is make each and every member of the public aware of an issue - either with a particular service or a series of services in a particular area.
Whilst there will be an initial cost in setting up that outward flow of communication, those who have an Android or Iphone, shouldn't have the monopoly, as some operators seem to believe the case.
Of course, passengers can log on and chase the operator via their social media page - not very proactive...

Dan has mentioned on here about GNE's AVL, that should be in by the end of the year. From what's being said on here, I'm quite keen to see it in operation, and I do think it'll bring GNE both up to and beyond the standard given by Stagecoach and Arriva. It of course requires a human element too, and a proactive approach, but I'm sure that'll happen too.

I don't think it's the case of operators believing that Android or iOS have a monopoly in the smart-phone market, but they do have the greatest market share - approx 90% between them (2014 stats). Unfortunately a lot of companies, not just bus operators, see the big two as being enough to cover everyone. We shouldn't overlook that the next biggest share is Windows Phone, with about 9% (iirc). If you can port an app to the Windows Phone platform in addition to Android and iOS, with the achievement of almost 100% coverage of smart-phone market share, then surely it's got to be worth doing.

(12 Nov 2014, 6:45 pm)Andreos1 wrote My own thoughts relating to social media, involve the passenger (or customer), gaining a perceived power or misguided sense of authority.
I say perceived or misguided, as not all of the organisations in charge of these accounts actually want to change the way they operate and are often very stuck in their ways - seeing a social media account as a 'must have' and not necessarily fully au-fait in the modern ways of the world.

Until operators (and other multi-national organisations), actually realise:-
* That it takes more than just a suit behind a keyboard to operate a social media account;
* That whoever is placed behind that keyboard - is essentially the 'personality' of the company;
* That the theme/personality designed by the company, needs to be utilised, fulfilled and met 24/7 by each and every member of staff in a customer facing role. This needs to be done on their website, their social media pages, their radio/TV advertisements and anything put into the print media. It can't just be a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

If you ring the 'Shreddies Nana Helpline', you get the idea that the helpline is operated by a bank of kind old ladies. Whilst their colleagues work on the shop floor creating freshly knitted shreddies.
That image is reinforced throughout a range of advertising and media platforms. Not just the social media page.

I dread to think of the impression people get of some companies, including bus operators - based on their social media page.

I do think companies could learn a lot here. The approach many take to social media is too rigid, can come across ignorant, and is a tad on the scripted side. People want to deal with people, not people acting as robots. It's funny you should mention 'personality', because I feel that it comes across as lacking in a lot of social media presences. It goes back to the point of being rigid. Maybe we should start looking more at what customers actually want from social media, and not what companies want to offer customers with social media.