A MRB* to First Great Western for their customer service in yesterday’s snow chaos
Train Operators don’t get much praise because most people only ever remember the small percentage of messed up journeys, not the majority of good ones. And few of us ever stop to consider what a miracle getting from one end of the country to the other actually is.
Well, a mukau Reputation Boost for First Great Western and their customer service is in order for their handling of yesterday’s shock UK snow traffic chaos. Why? Because they ran trains yesterday when it would have made far better economic sense to cancel them. And the people who ran them were polite, informative, empathetic and helpful.
During the 2 hour delay on the freezing platform at Plymouth, I watched customers venting their anger at First Great Western – for things over which it had no control. Being able to work with the barely suppressed rage of the Great British Public is, make no mistake, quite an achievement for any company’s customer service department.
Getting aboard a warm train after 2 hours on a freezing platform was, delays aside, a truly wonderful experience. In addition, the service was good too – the train manager not only kept us informed every step of the way up to Paddington, he also checked with every passenger on the train and co-ordinated their onward travel.
For my measly £13 fare, I not only got to London warm and dry, I also got a £25 taxi ride to my destination – free – with a genuine apology from the Duty Station Manager at Paddington ringing in my ears.
One last thing. You’re rubbish at taking good feedback, FGW. I’ve tried several times but you don’t know how to do it. Pity – because you deserve it sometimes. Like yesterday. Thank you. 
*Mukau Reputation Boost: A independent, positive and confidence-inspiring comment about your company high up in the Google search results
Hi Jason.
Thanks for the comment but I think you're missing the point here. You're quite right that it's easy to get to P1 when there are only 19 other exact searches on the web but that's not what what I set out to achieve. My objective was simply to place positive comments about FGW in front of anyone typing “first great western customer services” in the Google search bar.
Are you generous enough to admit that I've achieved that (limited) objective? A quick search showed the post in position 9 on P1 this morning.
Online reputation isn't about whether you can muscle into P1 of Google for your hot keywords – and this blog isn't about that. It's about using blogging to create a credible and rounded picture of your business online that your prospects (or other interested parties) can use to quickly assess who you are, what you've done and whether or not they can trust you.
Whenever I have an issue with a business, I will use the web to evaluate who they are, how they come across and (most importantly) what other people have to say about them. If I want to know what people are saying about First Great Western customer services I'll search for that expression in Google. I'll expect to find lots of stuff put out by FGW itself, but I'm looking for what other people have to say in blogs, forums and so on.
Since my objective is to play into that area and since the post I created delivers what it promises (to put a positive customer comment about FGW customer services high in the Google search results to be found by other people searching for “First Great Western customer services”) I don't see how it has a negative effect on my reputation.
But thanks for your comments anyway!
Mind you, it’s not just Great Western that’s been affected, the euro train services have only been reduced, which seems to be common sense for people’s safety to be honest.
I got back yesterday from Strasbourg so I wasn’t stuck in the tunnel, but I think people should check the Ebbsfleet, and indeed the station websites as they do give out all the info.
Jen
Hi Jason.
Thanks for the comment but I think you’re missing the point here. You’re quite right that it’s easy to get to P1 when there are only 19 other exact searches on the web but that’s not what what I set out to achieve. My objective was simply to place positive comments about FGW in front of anyone typing “first great western customer services” in the Google search bar.
Are you generous enough to admit that I’ve achieved that (limited) objective? A quick search showed the post in position 9 on P1 this morning.
Online reputation isn’t about whether you can muscle into P1 of Google for your hot keywords – and this blog isn’t about that. It’s about using blogging to create a credible and rounded picture of your business online that your prospects (or other interested parties) can use to quickly assess who you are, what you’ve done and whether or not they can trust you.
Whenever I have an issue with a business, I will use the web to evaluate who they are, how they come across and (most importantly) what other people have to say about them. If I want to know what people are saying about First Great Western customer services I’ll search for that expression in Google. I’ll expect to find lots of stuff put out by FGW itself, but I’m looking for what other people have to say in blogs, forums and so on.
Since my objective is to play into that area and since the post I created delivers what it promises (to put a positive customer comment about FGW customer services high in the Google search results to be found by other people searching for “First Great Western customer services”) I don’t see how it has a negative effect on my reputation.
But thanks for your comments anyway!
If you search exactly “first great western customer service” on Google the term only appears in 19 pages on the entire web. It’s pretty damaging to your reputation if you think your number one position is a success story…