The Social Media MBA in Practice: An Essential Collection of Inspirational Case Studies to Influence your Social Media Strategy

17

Go-Ahead – Customer Service

Business Gets Social at the Go-Ahead Group

Go-Ahead organized an internal social media summit, which brought together representatives from across its businesses who were keen advocates of the use of social media, together they redefined how the business provide customer service.

Executive summary

Overview

UK bus and rail operator Go-Ahead has embraced new and developing social media platforms, which are adding to the established methods of communicating with passengers and stakeholders.

Key findings

• Go-Ahead's bus and rail companies have pioneered the application of social media in the passenger transport sector, using Twitter and Facebook to keep passengers updated with service-running information.
• Go-Ahead achieved 250,000 social followers in one year.
• Go-Ahead rail company London Midland improved its passenger satisfaction scores around communicating with passengers by 17 per cent after the company started using Twitter to update people about delays.
• Go-Ahead bus company Oxford Bus doubled the number of Facebook “likes” overnight while providing service updates during bad weather in early 2012.

Recommendations

1. Start small, build confidence and get your back office in order.

2. Get the right team of people for the job and provide training if required.

3. Keep the messages simple and professional.

What you need to know

Go-Ahead responded ...