How bus companies can use social for customer service

Social media for
customer service
And what the future may hold

About Us
Social You are a digital marketing
agency based in Andover,
Hampshire.
We offer web design, web
development, user experience and
social media strategy. We put a
large focus on analytics across all
channels to ensure they are working
together as effectively as possible.
www.socialyou.co.uk 118/07/2017

Coming up
• Expectations
• Grumbles
• How do you include social?
• How should you use your channels?
• Integration, personalisation and time
• The future

With social media well and truly embedded in our
culture, there are high expectations of companies on the
quality and speed of responses from brands.
The public nature of social media means that everyone
can see the customer service you are offering - good and
bad.

Grumbles

‘There’s a large queue of people standing outside in the
middle of a bad storm. We deserve more explanation
than “operational reasons”
‘What do you mean by all the “technical difficulties” you
say your buses suffer from? Seems to always be the same
excuse.’

‘What operational issues cause a bus to fail to operate?
These updates border on the farcical.’
‘No explanation here as to the “no show” of the bus,
again! Was it operational reasons like all the other
cancellations today? A proper explanation I think is in
order instead of keep hiding behind that excuse.’

How can you include
social media?

As a 7 day a week service, the most useful way to
engage with your passengers is to provide service
updates and information.

Long- term, how can you tap into tech
developments, personalise the information and build
trust in customer service?

1. Communication
2. Response

Determine Channel
Purpose

Real, live-time information feeds
Quick responses

• Direct and helpful – Short, sharp information providing
useful alternatives
• Timely – Accurate facts in real time
• Synchronised – The same message across all channels
• Informative – Talk to them as passengers, not politicians or
technicians!
• Set expectations – Response times, scripted, operating
hours

• Complaints – Rank the type. Rant, mention or
direct question?
• Compliments – Feed back to staff if they’ve done a
good job
• Improvements – Take on board feedback and
comments

Non-service, promotional information
Longer responses with more copy space

• Ticket promotions
• Competitions
• Local events
• Long-term work plans

• Attracting people
• Advertising costs
• Unofficial Pages

Channel Mix

Once you’ve determined your channel purpose,
create some scenarios.
How does social media integrate with your
traditional customer service channels and
marketing?

Scenario
Overnight storms cause road closure on major routes
• Twitter – alternative routes, stops affected, delays likely, retweet passengers
giving info
• Website – update on status, sign post to Twitter live updates
• Facebook – share updates on issue directly or share local publication posts
• Display boards – ensure all communication is the same
• Staff – are they trained in channel use? Are they in the know?

Personalisation

Who are your customers?
• Students - Timetables, bus passes, fresher week
transport, wifi
• Commuters -Timetables, wifi, traffic updates,
connections
• Shoppers - New routes, offers, promotions

Time

• Resource allocation
• Work with traditional channels – not instead of
• Trusted sources – user accounts, publications
• Live vs automation of posts

Summary

• Don’t automate too much
• Set expectations
• Build foundations
• Share useful and relevant information
• Be consistent and coordinated
• Train staff
• Get feedback

FUTURE
The future?

WhatsApp
“Starting this year, we will test tools
that allow you to use WhatsApp to
communicate with
businesses…that could mean
communicating with your bank
about whether a recent transaction
was fraudulent, or with an airline
about a delayed flight. ”

Future
• Messaging to multiple
customers
• Analytics
• Automated messages
• Inbound messages from
passengers

Messenger

Future
• Toolkit for devs to build
bots
• Send text messages
• Automated responses
• Payment systems
• No additional apps to
build or download

Contactless – Apple pay, watch, smartphone

Reward systems – NFC, check-in, social connect, loyalty

Cheaper tech – “Where are you?” “Just around the
corner, estimated 3 minutes away”

User crowd data to feed into drivers / HQ – Waze app, use people’s
social information to provide update to customers waiting.

Thank You
@hellosocialyou
www.socialyou.co.uk

How bus companies can use social for customer service

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