(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 1) Close the Facebook wall to posters outside of Office Hours, direct links to journey planner, myjourney and Nexus should be made clear.
Completely agree with this, and I've made a similar suggestion to them in the past. A timed post could be set-up in HootSuite at intervals until buses end service.
(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 2) Sunday working should not be remote, an office based individual should be available for all queries. You are a multi multi million pound business. Act like one.
Something I've also previously mentioned to them. A customer really doesn't need to know that they're not in the office on a Sunday. They should have the same level of consistent service, no matter what time of the day they're contacted. I'm not going to say they need to be in the office. Certainly not in this day and age - what's wrong with VPN?
(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 3) Hours should be extended past 6pm. The rush hour is still in force, buses remain busy until 7-8pm on some routes. There should be service.
It's certainly something they should look into, but every business should really. The traditional "9 to 5" is stuck in the past, and businesses really need to progress to meet their customer needs.
(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 4) Make it clear GNE are the only official response. Other posters (if you allow them) are expressing individual views, they are not representative of GNE. Yes it is an open forum but it is your page. Your brand and business, you control it not the users. You are there to help and support, not battle. Customer is King.
Or put their foot down with the grouping of people on there that have absolutely no input other than to antagonise people. I don't buy that they "help loads of people when GNE are offline". Upsetting one customer is damaging enough for any business.
(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 5) Make use of LiveChat and Twitter more effectively. Twitter is a lot less public and easy to navigate and minor complaints can be handled quicker without the audience. LiveChat should be promoted more for quicker first point resolution
The Openline facility they had for that was great. How many multimillion pound organisations can you think of that gave customers a direct line with the MD (or other senior managers). It should never have been withdrawn.
I agree with the twitter comments. It should be the primary social media focus for them, as it is becoming with many other organisations. East Coast being a good example of that.
LiveChat can be good, but only if done in a non-intrusive way. How annoying is it when you're browsing a website and someone keeps trying to invite you to chat with sales?
(21 Aug 2013, 7:46 pm)gtomlinson wrote 6) Policies and above minor complaints should NEVER be discussed on a Facebook wall. The customer should receive a phone call or a letter. Telling a customer 'we haven't received this or taking a smarmy attitude (as they do) is not acceptable. Contact the customer. Empathise
Whilst they may not have contact details for the customer, they have the ideal opportunity via either Facebook Message, or Direct Message on Twitter. A quick note asking for a contact number, and as you say, a quick call with empathy will do the trick!
I do find it alarming the amount of people that report missing emails. SMTP is not a complex protocol. Faults generally come down to misconfigured servers or relays. Saying that, it's even more alarming that people are completing their web form and the email isn't being received. That's completely within their control.
Why don't they put an auto-response in place? Just a quick reply to the customer to say the message has been received, along with setting the customer's expectations again on a response time frame.