{"id":1641,"date":"2016-04-14T19:12:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2016-05-13T23:53:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T22:53:01","slug":"southeasterns-community-panel-how-not-to-engage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/1641","title":{"rendered":"Southeastern\u2019s Community Panel: how (not) to engage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1642\" src=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-300x174.png\" alt=\"20160405-community-panel\" width=\"300\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-768x446.png 768w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-1024x594.png 1024w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-500x290.png 500w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel.png 1165w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In October 2015 Southeastern launched a Community Panel and invited customers to join it. It has been used to recruit testers for the <a href=\"http:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/1632\">Problem Reporting Application<\/a>, but a principal part of the Panel was an online, members-only, discussion group.<\/p>\n<p>The reasons for establishing this discussion group was not clear \u2013 a cynic might think that perhaps it was to intended to take some of the more public and strident criticism of Southeastern on Twitter, Facebook and blogs into a less visible private space?<\/p>\n<p>On its website the purpose of the panel is explained as:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Southeastern have set up this community panel, in partnership with Verve (members of the Market Research Society), in order to obtain their customers\u2019 opinions. Southeastern will use your feedback to ensure that the services they provide continue to meet your expectations. Verve will communicate directly with you through the use of a range of activities including surveys, quick polls, interviews and online discussion groups.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A careful reading of this statement shows an odd distinction between Southeastern (\u201cwill use your feedback\u201d) and Verve (\u201cwill communicate directly with you\u201d). It may be that in Southeastern\u2019s view it can hand off communication with its customers to Verve. That\u2019s not how customer-service businesses normally think, and we certainly do not consider\u00a0that that&#8217;s what people taking part in the forum would expect.<\/p>\n<p>However, and whoever\u2019s job it is, the Community Panel is not working well by the normal standards of community engagement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Southeastern have initiated just one discussion in nearly six months: \u201cWe\u2019re interested in your recent experience of Southeastern\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>83 members have posted to the Community website in response to this.<\/li>\n<li>Some members posted thoughtfully and at length \u2013 some posts are 400-500 words long.<\/li>\n<li>Southeastern <em>have not responded on the forum to a single comment<\/em>. That\u2019s a discourtesy to those who have been <em>asked<\/em> to contribute their views. It seems to show that Southeastern are not prepared to engage in a conversation with their customers <em>even in a more private space.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Only 9 members have posted <em>on more than one day.<\/em> That\u2019s unsurprising given that none of them received a\u00a0response to their first posts.<\/li>\n<li>Only one comment has been posted since the start of 2016. That\u2019s also unsurprising given the lack of response and discussion on the site.<\/li>\n<li>There was also two polls \u2013 but again no response from Southeastern about the results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In principle all feedback and discussion is good, and so the Community Panel could have been a sound idea <strong>if<\/strong> it was intended to engage <strong>new<\/strong> segments of their customers and so <strong>add<\/strong> to the feedback already provided through social media, through direct complaints, and through rail user groups such as the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association (which you can join <a href=\"http:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/srta-membership\">here<\/a>!).<\/p>\n<p>However Southeastern do not appear to have made the resource or cultural commitment to engage with members of the Panel and to draw them into a dialogue to improve their train service. It\u2019s a pity that Southeastern have not bothered to make better use of people who are actively prepared to help. But at the moment the Panel is not serving any useful purpose.<\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"afurtherconcern\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1643\" src=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-verve-misuse-235x300.png\" alt=\"20160405-verve-misuse\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-verve-misuse-235x300.png 235w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-verve-misuse.png 694w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/>A further concern<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Incidentally we have a record of at least two instances where Verve appear to have used personal details registered as part of the Southeastern Customer Panel for non-Southeastern research &#8211; in one case into mobile phones. We do not regard this as acceptable use of personal data by Verve \u2013 people enrolling in the Southeastern panel would not have expected their email addresses and other personal data to be used more generally by Southeastern\u2019s sub-contractors. Unfortunately several emails to Southeastern have failed to get a response from them on this important point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your views<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d be very interested to hear from other members of the Community Panel on what they thought about the idea, and how valued they feel that their contributions have been. Please let us know <a href=\"#respond\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 13 May 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Southeastern have <a href=\"http:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/1720\">axed the Community Panel with immediate effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1642\" src=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-300x174.png\" alt=\"20160405-community-panel\" width=\"300\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-768x446.png 768w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-1024x594.png 1024w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel-500x290.png 500w, https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/20160405-community-panel.png 1165w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In October 2015 Southeastern launched a Community Panel and invited customers to join it. It has been used to recruit testers for the <a href=\"http:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/1632\">Problem Reporting Application<\/a>, but a principal part of the Panel was an online, members-only, discussion group.<\/p>\n<p>However Southeastern do not appear to have made the resource or cultural commitment to engage with members of the Panel and to draw them into a dialogue to improve their train service. So at the moment the Panel is not serving a useful purpose.<\/p>\n <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/1641\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":". @se_railway\u2019s Community Panel: how (not) to engage","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,23,8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-customer-relations","category-passenger-information","category-stations","category-trains"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Secretary","author_link":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/author\/secretary"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/category\/customer-relations\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Customer Relations<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/category\/passenger-information\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Passenger Information<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/category\/stations\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Stations<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/posts\/category\/trains\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Trains<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Customer Relations<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Passenger Information<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Stations<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Trains<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"13","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 14 April 2016","modified":"Updated on 13 May 2016"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 14 April 2016 19:12","modified":"Updated on 13 May 2016 23:53"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QBJ4-qt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 11:53:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srta.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}