Editor's blog: Eurostar - A hard lesson in customer engagement
Anyone with an interest in business use of social media should have had their eyes firmly glued to Twitter this weekend as a major transport operator learnt exactly how the customer engagement game has changed.
For those who don't know, five Eurostar trains heading for the UK broke down in the Channel Tunnel on Friday evening leaving 2,000 passengers stranded for several hours. A lack of water, heat and limited toilet facilities added to the unpleasant conditions and as more trains were cancelled further disruption was caused.
Unsurprisingly (at least for us regular tweeters) passengers on board the affected trains and those waiting for friends and families to arrive in London posted on Twitter seeking information. Among them was Colette Ballou, a passenger stranded on a train, who tweeted: "Shocked at how unprepared and uncommunicative Eurostar was. Eurostar failed to communicate with passengers and social media told the truth and got it to mainstream media fast."
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