My brief encounter with VoloTV shows the basics of good reputation management – with an extra ingredient
Proof you can use a laptop in a VoloTV seat
Earlier this week I found myself in a train seat staring at a newly-installed VoloTV screen that was unexpected, a bit too close for comfort and impossible to switch off. The 3 colleagues travelling with me felt the same – so, by way of feedback, covered the screens with large-scale bright orange Post-It notes saying how we felt. Later, I blogged and tweeted about it.
The next day, I got a call from Yeshpaul Soor, the MD of VoloTV thanking me for the feedback (‘I’ve got your notes here in my office’) and assuring me that he was resetting ALL the VoloTVs in the First Great Western network so that the customer (and non-customer) alike will be able to switch it off. He then invited me to visit the VoloTV office to learn about the system and get set up for some free viewing on my trip home to Plymouth.
Simple online reputation done really well:
1) Monitor the web for news items, blog posts and particularly Twitter tweets about your business
2) Go out of your way to connect with those people – pick up the phone!
3) Admit what you’ve done wrong and offer to put it right
4) Go the ‘extra mile’ to win the respect of your critics
And the extra ingredient?
Having first chosen to locate VoloTV in the distinctly unglamorous bowels of Paddington Station, Yeshpaul Soor then made it his business to get to know everyone there – from the gateline staff to the train cleaners. The same cleaners who picked up our feedback notes and took them to him within 30 minutes of our having written them.
Is VoloTV for me? Not really – but that’s just a matter of taste, and with a business model that only needs 7% of passenger journeys to pay, VoloTV can afford me not to be a paying customer. I found myself listening to several episodes of Outnumbered while Tweeting and playing Scrabble on my iPhone. The sound and picture quality is great but I’m not much of a TV watcher at the best of times. About the only thing I did look up for was highlights of a 2006 football match between Liverpool and Arsenal where Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick and got to keep the match ball. Nice.
I suspect that I’ll carry on booking myself into the Quiet Carriage for my journeys but one thing’s certain: with a willingness to listen to and act on difficult feedback, VoloTV has earned my respect and improved it’s online reputation at the same time.
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