Being @bathcsc And Meeting The Geeks at Custard In The Ether

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Being @bathcsc And Meeting The Geeks

By admin | March 10, 2009

Over the last couple of months I have taken on an alternate identity in the name of experimentation and (hopefully!) corporate new media evangelism.

Now, that sounds glamorous… the reality is a little more prosaic: I have become @bathcsc - the resident Twitterer at Bath Bus Station’s Customer Services Department.

As part of an experiment in proactive customer services (compared with the normal reactive customer services model) I have been using various social media to reach out and talk to bus users across Bath. The intention was to help passengers feel more informed and engaged with the bus company. This was very much a local experiment as we looked for ways to improve customer satisfaction.

This admittedly risky experiment paid dividends in the recent bad weather, when icy roads caused severe disruption to public transport. Whilst the rest of the Customer Services team battle with the deluge of telephone calls, I was frantically Twittering and blogging every development under the handle @bathcsc. The number of followers and blog hits soared and is continuing to grow, even now normal service has resumed for both the weather and the buses. The response from local customers has been really positive and we are now asking customers for their suggestions about the future of this type of communication from their local bus station so we can build on this.

What has been more interesting for me personally is how this online networking has had tangible effects in the real world. The example I have cited several times is of the Twitter follower who made the trip to our office to ask who had been doing the online updates during the snow. After tentatively admitting to this, I was delighted to receive a box of chocolates. Apparently the updates saved hours of time waiting at the bus stop for a service we had pulled due to the treacherous conditions, for which he was very grateful

We also received interest from the local traditional media. I got a text message from a friend to say “they just read your Twitter update about the fog delaying buses out on the local radio!”. Now, I can exclusively reveal the shocking truth that I had sent that update out via my iPhone whilst lying in bed in Hampshire after a quick call from my boss in Bath to let me know what was going on. I remember thinking: “This is what online communication is about!”

Last week I was very kindly invited along to a Bathcamp meeting to meet other local geeky technology people. I was introduced for the most part as @bathcsc and quite surprised by how excited many of the people were about what we had been doing. The potential for solving transport problems with social media and engaging with these skilled customers was inspiring. They liked their technology having a real world use as they moved around. It enabled them. But they also liked the personality aspect of our Twitter and blog updates - it made the service more of a human contact.

If even technology geeks can have this reaction, then it is fair to say that this will be a crucial factor for most users of such communication services. It is more about real people talking to real people, rather than about the technological medium. Over the last few days I have even seen Twitter followers joking with us:

“@bathcsc ‘Chocolate Poodle Bridge’ are you winding us up?! :)”

“@bathcsc Which is sillier: a bridge called The Chocolate Poodle or a pub called The Chocolate Poodle ;-)”

“@bathcsc Hahahaha, you said tickety-boo. Not enough people say that any more!”

Now, generally people don’t have a laugh and a joke with their local bus station. I think this is element of social media use which is in real danger of being missed when it is used for corporate purposes. This may be an overhanging symptom form the old broadcast media model, or simply the result of managers focusing on the (scary) technology, and missing the human aspect of it’s application. It may also be the result of a need for control.

Whatever the reason, I believe the next phase of the @bathcsc experiment will highlight this human/personality-based element of online communication via social media and the role resulting community can play in business, which will hopefully prove my point!

We shall see….