Melbourne’s suburban train operator Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) has copped a lot of flack in recent days over its decision to drop sending service updates on Twitter for anything other than “major delays” – which they are defining as “20 or more minutes”.
They are telling customers to “regularly check their website” for details of other less significant delays.
Just to rub it in, they have just tweeted this:
Frankly, it seems to me that nobody at MTM has travelled on a peak hour train in Melbourne of late, or if they have, they are not paying attention to what people do during their commute.
Ask yourself how many people are staring into their Twitter feeds, updating themselves on news, sport, weather, their friends, and up until recently, how long they can be expected to be jammed inside the overcrowded train they are on.
Getting timely updates, delivered straight to the device you are already staring at, was actually useful.
But MTM want us to “periodically” check their website just in case there is a problem – (reasonably likely anyway) – because they don’t want to send out tweets, unless it’s a major delay?
What is a major delay anyway?
A five minute delay to one service can cause someone to miss a connecting train somewhere else, creating a much longer delay for the customer. If they miss an evening connection to a V/Line train, that may cost their customer a delay of an hour or more.
Such an instance really late at night might make the next available train equate to the next morning.
This is customer service is it, Metro?
“No, no, wait – we have a website you can get information from, it’s really useful!”
Genuine 1995 technology. Welcome to the past!
People want information about their service delivered to them when it matters – they don’t want to have to go find the information in case it exists.
Take a look at the Yarra Trams Twitter feed Metro – that’s how it SHOULD be done.
They used to do nothing, and you guys did an okay job. They’ve started doing it far better than you ever did, and now you don’t do it at all.
Wake up and smell the future, Metro.
We’re in it – how about you?