V/Line urged to ‘Tweet back’

By Cherie Donnellan
A COMMUTER has lashed V/Line Geelong for failing to respond to customer concerns sent to its Twitter account.
Technology enthusiast Andrew Caple said he was “frustrated” the transport provider’s social media account was a “one-way conversation”.
“(V/Line) tries to embrace social networking by creating the account and then they only have a one-way conversation,” Mr Caple said.
“The whole point of Twitter is to have two-way conversation to promote better customer service.”
Mr Caple said he often tweeted the @vline_geelong account to find out why services were delayed or cancelled but never gained a response.
“Huge companies like NAB, Commonwealth Bank and Telstra respond to their customer’s concerns on social media, so why can’t V/Line?”
V/Line spokesman James Kelly said the company actively used social media and would continue to improve its services.
“As far what we do online, we feel, it’s probably one of the best communication tools that we have,” Mr Kelly said.
“We’ll put processes in place to improve our (social media) service in coming weeks and months.”
Mr Kelly said V/Line was unable to respond to every tweet because the company was inundated with feedback.
“The nature of modern technology is that people have high expectations of it.
“We sometimes get criticism during peak times but the majority of the feedback we get is positive.”
On a Monday morning peak service from Geelong to Melbourne,
Mr Caple said his Monday morning peak service train from Geelong stopped for 25 minutes near North Melbourne Railway Station without explanation for the delay.