Reporting a member of staff via Twitter - would you?

[LCC106]

Twitter is a good way of revealing the many idiots in society.

Ha ha! Twitter and certain forums! (Please note this comment does not refer to any named individual!)

 

[richw]

Ha ha! Twitter and certain forums! (Please note this comment does not refer to any named individual!)

I do enjoy reading a TOCs twitter, and laughing at the ludicrous comments made to them. I've previously quoted my favourites on the "twitter" thread

 

[Dave1987]

I have to say some of the complaints on twitter are a bit ridiculous. It ranges from sensible questions from people asking about services, ticketing and other issues that can be solved easily. To people complaining constantly about 2/3/4 minute delays, trains being overcrowded event though they have boarded the busiests trains of the day that are as long as they possibly can be etc. The guys on all the TOC's twitter accounts do very very well to stay polite all the time in their responses.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Agreed - slagging off customers in public is off limits in all circumstances.

But passengers slagging off staff in public is ok?

 

[jon0844]

Slagging staff off isn't acceptable, but sadly in any public facing role it's usually going to land you with a disciplinary if a staff member abused a member of the public.

The police can, and should, deal with abuse given by passengers to staff (or indeed anyone) but it's unlikely to have that person get in trouble with their boss, unless the passenger was perhaps in a uniform that reflected bad on the employer.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Slagging staff off isn't acceptable, but sadly in any public facing role it's usually going to land you with a disciplinary if a staff member abused a member of the public.

The police can, and should, deal with abuse given by passengers to staff (or indeed anyone) but it's unlikely to have that person get in trouble with their boss, unless the passenger was perhaps in a uniform that reflected bad on the employer.

I was not stating it was a 'correct' thing to do but judging by TOC's pages on Twitter & Facebook it seems to often be the norm for passengers to slag off staff but, if a member of staff did the same to a passenger then there would be a serious disciplinary towards the staff member. In an ideal world as soon as a passenger gets abusive, swearing and inflamatory about a staff member on a public forum then there gripe/complant/rant should be ignored and possibly action taken against the individual

 

[RJ]

But passengers slagging off staff in public is ok?

Slagging off, no. But people will share their bad experiences with a business online. Personally when I do, I take care not to mention names or name call.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Slagging off, no. But people will share their bad experiences with a business online. Personally when I do, I take care not to mention names or name call.

Thats fair enough. Its when the line is crossed and names are mentioned, expletitives are used and downright nasty and inflamatary comments are made then its unfair if that complaint/comments are actioned as the staff member cannot defend themself. If no names are mentioned and nothing to identify that staff member then its down to the Company to action their procedures. If the Compnay needs more info then I am sure they will prompt the complainant to DM them or send a letter/bang an email off to the Customer Relations department. Some postings on Twitter are bang out of order (and I'm not just on about TOC's) as its so easy for somebody to make rash comments in the heat of the moment rather than cooling down first

 

[Flamingo]

Some of the posts I have seen on twitter by TOC staff are condemning their own staff without finding any of the details. "Rudeness like that can never be justified" is one I remember seeing on a TOC site as a knee-jerk response to a complaint without any investigation, and I have posted before about the TOC apologising to the passenger about the "unprofessional manner" and promising to "deal with" a TM the passenger had described as "Jovial despite our delay". The passenger posted back that it was meant as a complement!

 

[yorkie]

... Its when the line is crossed and names are mentioned, expletitives are used and downright nasty and inflamatary comments are made then its unfair...

Indeed, and the victims can be staff or passengers, and the perpetrators can be staff or passengers. RJ is certainly a victim of that and some of the perpetrators ensured he cannot defend himself.

It's wrong, whoever is doing it. But they aren't going to stop, and in their mind they aren't doing anything wrong.

I have posted before about the TOC apologising to the passenger about the "unprofessional manner" and promising to "deal with" a TM the passenger had described as "Jovial despite our delay". The passenger posted back that it was meant as a complement!

You would expect someone who is publishing to the web to have at least a basic understanding of the English language!

 

[Panda]

I personally both put complaints and compliments of staff on Twitter. Twitter is a pretty interesting medium especially since it seems that the staff manning those accounts on behalf of TOC's seem bored most of the time and like responding to even the most mundane of comments. I really like when I compliment a staff of good service and the staff me member actually picks up on the tweet - its the best feeling ever.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

 

[RJ]

Indeed, and the victims can be staff or passengers, and the perpetrators can be staff or passengers. RJ is certainly a victim of that and some of the perpetrators ensured he cannot defend himself.

It's wrong, whoever is doing it. But they aren't going to stop, and in their mind they aren't doing anything wrong.

You would expect someone who is publishing to the web to have at least a basic understanding of the English language!

I accept that by coming out in the public eye to discuss things, people are going to have a reaction whether that be positive or negative. I think it's a sad indictment that a few individuals have chosen to see it as a "him vs staff" fight. Personally if I had colleagues that were reportedly doing things to bring the company/industry into disrepute, I would hold fire on defending them so robustly without being in possession of all the facts and assume a neutral stance.

People should be smart enough to realise that in the adult world, if they wish to go down the road of spreading false information about others, it's not likely to pass without some form of consequence. As I always do, I'll go by the book in dealing with it. Enough said about that anyway!

 

[bluenoxid]

The main thing is to be professional. Social Media has many benefits and I encourage passengers to report their issues through it.

There can be a benefit of getting the emotion in the heat of the moment. Other people may not report it and may not use the service again because of the emotion that they felt at the time.

I understand why staff do not enjoy it. However, I have watched operators review CCTV images of passengers failing to signal buses. Social Media allows operators to be direct as well. I have seen operators get blunt with their passengers and make it clear about their attitude.

 

[Dr.iver]

Trouble with twitter is that it's open season for idiots, one troll has copied two tweets from a colleague recently to our company account.
His first crime was to say he was having a glass of sherry after a long day so this troll starts asking the company why he needs to drink, couldn't he sleep with out drink etc
The second crime was to say that as he had been taken of by a manager assessing someone he was gonna have a power nap on the train.

The job of a driver is hard enough without trolls like this seizing every opportunity to cause problems, IMHO twitter should be used to post info about delays, service updates etc but never to invite questions from the public, it's a very limited way to do customer enquiries due to the 140 letter restriction and can lead to trouble for all, so as I say as a tool to pass on updates it is perfect but as a place for complaints it is sadly not upto the task

I've also seen people tweet about smoke coming from under the train and cos they feel they have reported it they didn't alert the driver straight away, a truly dangerous situation to be in ( thankfully it was dust from new brake pads so no damage done )

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I have posted before about the TOC apologising to the passenger about the "unprofessional manner" and promising to "deal with" a TM the passenger had described as "Jovial despite our delay". The passenger posted back that it was meant as a complement!

You would expect someone who is publishing to the web to have at least a basic understanding of the English language!

In which case, us readers might expect to have read 'compliment', and not 'complement'.

But we don't, and my spelling and grammar is as unreliable as that of may others, despite any good intentions. Let's not be disproportionately critical of how others express themselves; we would do better to consider what people have to say rather than how it's said.

[This post is a complement to Flamingo's. It is not a compliment.]

 

[rebmcr]

People need to realise that Twitter (and Facebook) is pretty much the same thing as going out in a busy street and yelling indiscriminately.

Once they get it into their heads that that's how public it is, they can make better decisions about what belongs on there.

 

[TG]

Trouble with twitter is that it's open season for idiots, one troll has copied two tweets from a colleague recently to our company account.
His first crime was to say he was having a glass of sherry after a long day so this troll starts asking the company why he needs to drink, couldn't he sleep with out drink etc
The second crime was to say that as he had been taken of by a manager assessing someone he was gonna have a power nap on the train.

The job of a driver is hard enough without trolls like this seizing every opportunity to cause problems, IMHO twitter should be used to post info about delays, service updates etc but never to invite questions from the public, it's a very limited way to do customer enquiries due to the 140 letter restriction and can lead to trouble for all, so as I say as a tool to pass on updates it is perfect but as a place for complaints it is sadly not upto the task

I've also seen people tweet about smoke coming from under the train and cos they feel they have reported it they didn't alert the driver straight away, a truly dangerous situation to be in ( thankfully it was dust from new brake pads so no damage done )

i guess some people just have nothing better to do with their lives that tell tales on others... shame they seem unable to concentrate more on what THEY are doing THEMSELVES than troll someone's twitter account and try and cause trouble for them...

 

[GNER 373]

For me complaining on Twitter/Facebook seems more like instant moaning and groaning and kind of 'unprofessional' for sake of a better word. IMO the TOC's set these Twitter accounts up as instant info points, reporting of delays or cancellations and the sorts.

A lot of the time a TOC will post 'Delays between A & B due to trespass incident' or something along those lines and then come replies such as 'The Guard on my train this morning was a disgrace' or 'Your first class service is poor'.

The post was announcing information to communicate better with the travelling public who jump on it like a tramp on chips with complaints that have no relevance to it.

The TOCs then can only really deal with that by giving the complaint departments details or a link to their website to fill out a complaint form there.

You can't really expect to have complaints dealt with this way.

Yes they do leave themselves open due to the fact they choose to use a social network as a platform to engage with their customers and people have free speech to voice their concerns as they see fit but surely it's better to complain via the normal channels where you will deal with people that are trained to deal with a professional response?!

And yes I know sometimes that's time consuming and not all TOC staff will deal with the complaints perfectly everytime as mentioned previously but at least give them a chance to deal with complaints with more than 140 characters!

They do leave themselves open to complaints on FB however, especially when holding Manager Forums!

 

[plymothian]

Not twitter but facebook, there have been lots of staff identified by complainants over the company's page.
Including one in the last week, that has been virtually identified by service number and departure time, everyone now knows has been reported to the police.