What if the #YourTaxis ‘fiasco’ is actually good social media, not bad?
In this guest post, Simon Veksner argues the widely panned #YourTaxis campaign was actually far from the social media fail of the year.
News.com.au called it “the social media fail of the year.” It was featured on Gruen, Buzzfeed, in The Australian, The Guardian… and of course it trended on Twitter.
In case you haven’t heard, the Victorian Taxi Association’s request for people to share their taxi stories attracted a shitstorm of tweets such as “It smelled like a wookiee’s armpit” “I was preached at about how Somali immigrants are destroying Australia for 25 minutes” and “Driver fell asleep on freeway and almost wiped out car in next lane because he’d pulled an all-nighter.”
And that’s before we even get onto all the reports of assaults, sexual assaults, and epic rudeness.
Good post. We’re always quick to jump on the bandwagon of criticism without considering the medium/long term implications. No campaign ever turns out as expected. It’s how you manage the unexpected that matters.
I agree it is the wake up call the VTA need, but likely too late. They clearly have serious shortcomings in their business strategy and future focus.
The agency are at fault for not foreseeing the outcome and mitigating the risk. Just horrendous.
The only logical outcome are the client leadership and agency are totally disillusioned.
They should both be fired.
I think the headline said it all for a change
This campaign showed the strength of social media and the weakness of the client.
Social media 1 million Vic Cabs -10
Off target once more Simon.
Yes, companies can learn an awful lot from criticism.
And yes, Domino’s Pizza could probably rejig their menus and product based on negative comments.
But clearing out hundreds of bigoted taxi drivers?
How does that work?
The one I had this morning spent a good ten minutes explaining why the ‘Muzzies’ should be sent packing and then farted when I complained about him slowing down for a set of traffic lights.
Will he get fired for it? No.
If I use a hashtag to describe his behaviour lead to a more liberal, friendly taxi workforce?
I think you know the answer to that.
I don’t think I’m off target. Yes, it’s probably a lot easier for Domino’s to change their recipes than it is for Vic Taxis to change their drivers. But my point surely still stands – understanding the true scale of a problem may provide the motivation to tackle it.
Hmmm. Its the taxi industry Simon. Hardly marketing progressives and sensitive to customer feedback don’t you think.
Im not sure a campaign that as an outcome highlights to your customer base how deep the hole your industry is in is what i would call success.
I would suggest a quality research followed by education campaign of the drivers and operators would have been far more successful in changing the industry behavior than what has occurred.
I suspect the drivers and operators just see this as a social media campaign that was out to get them or simply a failed attempt at marketing and there for not to be taken seriously as a result they ignore it out of hand.
Agree with the point that basic point that bad data can be good data if acted upon but I’d argue that in this scenario there are better ways to go about sourcing that information.
The same outcome could have been achieved with active social listening and less brand and reputational exposure.
Haha – love the contrarian in your thinking.
Like Andrew, I suspect that VIC Taxis might have been able to find out that people think their service sucks – by doing something revolutionary like taking a couple of taxi trips for themselves (and why don’t people do this basic research on themselves?) – without having to highlight it to the whole world.
However, perhaps it’s like a company hiring management consultants largely to tell them what they already know. No one takes things seriously until someone else highlights the problems. And it would be pretty hard for anyone at VIC Taxis to stand in the way of change now, so I’ll keep an eye out for the 2018 Effie Entry!
To be fair, most high up middle men getting paid gazonks in the taxi industry couldn’t give a flying fiddle what their service is like. It is a shoddy operation and has been for years. It has milked the driver and passenger to fill their fat pockets. Uber has came in as a real threat today. Longer term there will be local brands, with their own apps, who will offer great service and loyalty bonuses. Imagine if Qantas and Virgin offered frequent flyers with certain taxi firms… Ooh, now there is a thought…
Changing times: reward the driver more and reward the passenger more and don’t take as much as before and you might be able to build a great transport business in 2016.
P.s. If any fat cats from the taxi industry want some consulting, feel free to get in touch by asking questions to the following hashtag: #customerservice101
I drove taxis in melbourne, so I know of the problems… but so do we all.
I’m amazed at the need to invest in a bit of social listening, to hashtag it, or research the obvious just like banks do with their customers, only to discover as one bank boss said “they hate us” – no shit sherlock
CEOs are scared of disruption but unwilling to change – and by change I mean the suggestions made above – unless of course you are a US company that understands the concept of customer service
so there you have it – Real Service is the Lost Continent of Customer Engagement and the ONLY way forward
you watch: one forward thinking co will do it and the others will follow
the question is ‘who will be first to market?’ – guesses anyone??