Customer Service – Response Times : How Well do Rail Lines Conduct Themselves?

When it comes to customer service, there is often nothing worse than receiving a product or communication that you’re unhappy with.

When it comes to customer service, there is often nothing worse than receiving a product or communication that you’re unhappy with. Having to contact a company to try to resolve the issue and come up with a solution seems like an impossible task. How many times have you had to deal with 30+ minute waiting queues whilst on your lunch break or had to deal with a lack of professionalism and transparency? 

Internet & Social Media Complaints

With internet usage growing immensely over the last decade, it has provided users with new platforms to interact with their service provider. People are now spending more time online, with an average of 135 minutes a day spent surfing the net. It is predicted that there will be over 2.77 billion active social network users by the end of 2019.

Social media platforms now provide the tools needed for users to be able to voice their opinions to a mass audience. These developments have pressured businesses into engaging with their consumers and audiences in unprecedented ways. It is now the norm for many businesses to have their own social media account to interact with their customer, deal with enquiries, complaints and general discussions about the brand.

Unavoidable Train Delays & Faults

Delays and faults are unavoidable when it comes to travel, sometimes these incidents can’t be helped. However, a company may be able to aid customers by providing information about delay time, additional services that are available or refunds that can be claimed. When it comes to train and tramlines, customers need a speedy response from the customer service team. This may actually be the difference between catching your new service just in time or missing it and having to wait an hour or so for the next one.

Twitter provides the perfect platform for users to interact with a service due to the ability to send and receive SMS tweets instantaneously. As the platform is very public, it is in a business’ best interest to respond in a timely manner to avoid upsetting passengers and to be perceived in a good light in the public eye. 

We wanted to find out how long it took customer service accounts in the UK for train and tram companies to respond to tweets from customers. By looking at their Twitter feeds, we found an average of how long each company took to respond. There are definitely some surprising stats due to the fast paced nature of the industry. Maybe some of these response times match up to a previous experience that you’ve had with one of these providers before?

Posted by Gemma Harding

As Head of Client Services, Gemma is an expert in the customer service industry. With over 20 years of experience in the call handling process she will guide your organisation to an improved customer service strategy. Hobbies include all thing equestrian.

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