Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting - 50

2010 Annual Meeting

Social Media: An Opportunity for Transit Agencies
customer who stated to all of his followers that our bus stop information for a large suburban mall was unclear. By communicating with him ocial media offers a great opporthrough Twitter’s direct tunity for public transit agencies message feature, we were to listen to and engage with able to clear up the conBridget M. Moss customers and stakeholders where fusion and then provide they are already active online. The Kanbetter information for all customers sas City Area Transportation Authority about the stop. (KCATA or The Metro) entered the social Through Twitter, the customer subsemedia arena last year, setting up profiles quently told his friends about successful on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. trips on The Metro. We have been using the services to On Facebook, we frequently respond improve our customer satisfaction and to complaints about service or questions public image while gaining valuable about lost items. Just being open to insights into the mindset of our customdiscuss how we operate and make deciers. We are able to hear their problems sions helps to improve our image with and offer solutions. Our customers and customers. stakeholders are responding by carryKCATA is also able to share some of ing our message to their friends and the good things we do and our customcontacts. ers respond. When a series of severe By meeting our customers where winter storms hit Kansas City in Januthey are—particularly on the immensely ary, we publicized the “Warming Bus” popular Facebook—we are able to offer set up at our downtown transit center them better customer service. While we for riders waiting for transfer connecprovide information about contacting tions. Even though most customers KCATA on our web site and in our print would never use this bus, we received materials, we have encountered quesmany thanks and compliments for protions and complaints about service that viding more comfort. we would traditionally expect to be subA very popular subject among our mitted through e-mail or phone. Cusfollowers is the soon-to-be-launched bus tomers may not see value in contacting rapid transit line, Troost MAX. We reguThe Metro directly or may be confused larly post photos and videos of the conabout how to reach us, but that doesn’t struction progress, which garner plenty stop them from airing their challenges of “likes” and comments on Facebook and problems with their friends in a and retweets (or repeated posting by public forum. others) on Twitter. While the preparaFor example, on Twitter we found a tion for Troost MAX has been a multi-

BY BRIDGET M. MOSS Marketing Supervisor Kansas City Area Transportation Authority Kansas City, MO

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year process, local residents are excited to see it coming together. We don’t limit our communication to Metro service. When a group of bus operators raised more than $1,500 for Haitian earthquake relief efforts, we made sure to thank them publicly for their efforts. In another instance, KCATA employees took part in a commuter challenge this summer, trying to ride transit, walk, carpool or bike for work trips. We encouraged other community members to join the challenge, creating a video that showed how easy it was to participate. The video was then shared by the sponsoring organization, a local hospital that was featured in the video, and others. We also share interesting links about public transit, such as the national public transportation online petition urging Congress to pass a long-term surface transportation authorization bill, along with bus-accessible local exhibits, festivals, and destinations.

We are often surprised by what KCATA information people share with one another. For example, we were not surprised to learn that people on Facebook “like” and share information about taking The Metro to area festivals—but we found it interesting that even more people have shared that they liked our page about our current Comprehensive Service Analysis. Engaging customers through social media is helping KCATA improve our customer service, maintain buses better, communicate more clearly, refine our messages, and learn about and correct our mistakes in a timely manner. KCATA continues refining and expanding its strategy to reach out to more customers and let them share the story of transit. For agencies that are not yet engaging customers in these online venues, jump in, grow at your own pace, and see what you can learn from your customers.

SMARTHOP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39
with the development of the smarthop sub-brand, with a unique logo and three distinct icons that represent the areas of passenger information, trip planning, and automated phone system. A minor redesign of the rabbittransit web site incorporated the new sub-brand and information to highlight the technology benefits for passengers. Other planned marketing efforts include interior vehicle promotion, seat drops, transfer center signage, and e-mail newsletter promotion. On the technology horizon, rabbittransit is currently preparing to deploy Google Transit, the search engine feature that navigates riders through web-based trip planning. A smart phone application for the Android platform will be available in October 2010 and a BlackBerry application is currently under development. Also, rabbittransit is pursuing technology to enable web-based trip reservations for paratransit.

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46 | Passenger Transport
Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting
