Credit: Southeastern
On Monday 9 February Southeastern ran their second “Tweet The Manager” event. We took part, and we have been looking at the results as a whole.
We were glad to see that some of our suggestions for improvement had been taken on board. Although the managers were not identified by name, they did distinguish themselves by initials and published a photo of the team at work.
More importantly, there was clearly an attempt to ensure that all questions received an answer, and there was some follow-up action later in the afternoon to answer questions which had been missed in the busy periods. In addition to answers to initial questions, Southeastern’s managers also entered into some online discussions and answered supplementary questions. This was good. In total, we counted about 139 responses from Southeastern, a 69% increase on the first event.
There was also some tantalising content, such as the fact that ticketing for part-time commuters is under discussion. Southeastern should do more to communicate that it is working on things like this and engage its customers in getting them right; and if these sorts of innovations need DFT approval then it would surely help for Ministers to hear the customer voice too.
However we were disappointed that it was announced that the scope of questions would be limited to London Bridge matters. It’s important that they do not forget the “day job” of grubby trains, toilets not working, insufficient or faulty ticket machines and shelter lights not working. Naturally some customers craftily worked some of these issues into London Bridge-related questions.
We curated all the questions and responses into separate web pages – covering
- Timetable issues
- Overcrowding issues
- How feedback is being collected, and what is being done with it
- Alternative routes and ticket acceptance issues
- Compensation and Delay-Repay
- Trains issues
- Stations issues
- Fares issues
- Improving communications about London Bridge and passenger information generally
- Weekend Engineering Work
- The recent Passenger Satisfaction Survey
- the Tweet The Manager format itself and how it could be improved
- some light-hearted asides.
We also conducted a short survey of participants. This found (full results here):
- over half the participants took part for more than 30 minutes
- 45% found the answers helpful to some degree, while only 25% found the answers evasive.
- 55% found the event worthwhile, and 90% would take part again
- 85% would have liked to be able to ask about other subjects than London Bridge
- 1400-1600 was not a popular time – timing future events at 1600-1900 or 1200-1400 was supported by 70% and 55% of participants respectively.
In summary this is a good initiative from Southeastern, and they have learnt from the first event. There’s room for further improvement, particularly in the timing and in further improving the openness and engagement in the discussion.
What do you think? Please let us know by using the comment box below – or by contacting us on Twitter @sevenoaksrailta of course!