Official Eurostar Twitter account is http://twitter.com/little_break but there’s nothing there either, and nothing on their Facebook page.

(BTW I’m stuck at Gare du Midi, Brussels, waiting for a Eurostar)

Irony too that Eurostar mailed all its customers this newsletter:
http://www.jonworth.eu/downloads/newsletter-fri.png
last night at the very same time as the first train broke down in the tunnel…

It’s a bad week for customer support apparently, I’m getting nowhere with the Tesco representatives to get my festive wine delivered. Why is it so hard for companies to take their customers seriously and get correct information out?

Hopefully everyone gets off safe and Eurostar resumes their regular service. I’m traveling to my family in the Netherlands on Wednesday with them.

The whole communication policy during the night was atrocious. There are no working phone lines. There is nothing on the website. There are no SMS updates, no emails, no social media – nothing. I finally got through to a station manager at Ashford International at 2 am, who provided 20 seconds of no BS, straight talk. That’s all it took for me to know that @coletteballou was safe and being evacuated.

Instead, some Eurostar spokesman is on BBC News talking about “avoiding casualties” and “passengers are safe…at the moment.”

It’s not like the first time this has happened – three trains were stuck in the tunnel in Sept 2008 (http://bit.ly/8uehbE). One would think they’d (1) sort out their comms policy, (2) put emergency supplies like extra water, food and toilet paper on each train and (3) have a back-up plan when a train emerges from the tunnel that can’t continue to London.

P.S. And it’s not like this is over. The train with @coletteballou has been stuck in Folkestone for 7 hours now. 7 hours after they left the tunnel, 15 hours after leaving Paris, passengers still don’t know how or when they’re getting to London and there are zero updates from Eurostar. What muppets.

I am due to return home to France on Monday, using Eurotunnel. My sister and her family are due to take the Eurostar on Monday as well.

Imagine my surprise when Eurostar sent me an email this morning, offering me a cheap break to Paris!

Utterly ridiculous. And a shocking indictment of European engineering.

Surely they should have a comms contingency plan for this after the last time this happened? That should be standard policy for a brand like Eurostar.

See our updates above. Babies are running out of food and diapers.

Are these the same English that were stoic about World War II bombings? What would happen if there was a real problem? When your car breaks down, can you immediately tell people exactly when it will be fixed? Half a day without food! What an insufferable problem!

Bit of a PR fail all round for Eurostar, within the last half hour after a shocking interview on Sky News with a passenger *still* stuck on board a train with terrible conditions and no food or useable toilet facilities, the newsreader said something along the lines of “we’ve been trying to ask Eurostar to speak to us all morning but so far nobody has come forward”.

This is a terrible event, but on what planet is this a Twitter story? Communications should be through the train PA at worst, and in person on the ground at best. If they updated a Twitter account and thought that was in any way helpful in the real world it would be outrageous (and a PR exercise only, when an emergency procedure is what is really needed).

@Dan – what a ludicrous comment.

Firstly Twitter was invaluable for those of us awaiting departures today stuck at railway stations. We were able to network people stuck in Paris, Brussels and London. A message to those people would have been handy.

Secondly, there are Eurostar comms people sat in an office in Ashford at computers. Not hard for them to write 140 chars. Much harder to get them to the track to help babies with no nappies.

The issue was more the complete lack of any distributed info from Eurostar, both on the trains as well as for waiting relatives. It doesn’t matter in what way that info is first distributed, but there was just a total lack of any granular info on train status, likely process, state of well-being, etc.

It becomes a Twitter story because at least 10 folks waiting on the ground at St Pancras were constantly checking Twitter and providing updates to those around them, which meant that during the night e.g. Sky News were the most helpful because they were talking to Eurostar and Eurotunnel and then distributing via their site, TV and Twitter.

Dan … this is a communications story, and Twitter is a major communication tool that could be utilised to help deal with it. This has nothing to do with PR, its about practical ways of dealing with the issue effectively. As a real time tool, Twitter is well placed to deliver updates as and when they happen.

I fear you don’t appreciate just how many people on the train, waiting at stations and at home waiting for news of loved ones are using Twitter.

Exactly, Max nails it. There should be information going out on ALL channels. Twitter turns into a very valuable tool in situations like this. The fact Eurostar has never bothered to claim its @Eurostar account speaks volumes about it’s attitude.

This isn’t surprising – but at least Twitter from passengers is making this debacle known.

I was on the Eurostar that broke down in the middle of nowhere in France in April last year and the lack of information from staff on the train was appalling. That was a 15 hour wait overnight for help.
We luckily had some French speakers near us who told us what the one employee who wandered past said – which was basically we’re fucked, no one is coming and there’s no food or water here.

The *only* good thing was the post incident customer service. If you happened to write to Eurostar to request a refund, they sent you a box of wine and food.

In all seriousness – this is a company that can’t handle failure in any way shape or form.

@David – Yes. The same “English”as in the language you use poorly. Like the less sympathetic Wodehouse characters, you bluster about making little sense. You are more likely to be “insufferable” as in “insufferable twit.” Your sarcasm is painful. Your “car” example is a real puzzle. Come again? Or, “Thank you so much for trying!”, meaning, “You failed in a manner most complete.”

P.S. to author: typo in 1st sent. “there” -> “were”

@David, “When your car breaks down, can you immediately tell people exactly when it will be fixed?”

Yes, David, I can, because I don’t own a car. I can, but may decline to, tell people my non-existent vehicle will be repaired post-haste. Where’s Bertie? Jeeves is an absolute genius with road-side repairs.

@David. One parting shot to discourage you from trollish anonymous cowardice.

May your travels be fraught with difficulty, such as days, half-days and hours without food, or stranded, on the tarmac, under water, in the tunnel, off the rails.

May your Grinch- and Scrooge-like indifference to “hungry babies w/o diapers” bring you pain — being stuck for 7 hours in a car full of those babies would be a just punishment.

Urm, “ignoring Twitter”? I reckon they had more important things to do rather than updating the Twitter feed – like fixing the train, for instance.

Shouldn’t the headline be “Eurostar ignore customers”?
I don’t think they’re “ignoring Twitter” if they don’t even use it in the first place – In that sense they’re ignoring it as much as discussion on Facebook or similar networks.

Companies should get face to face customer service right before deciding to operate it through social networks.
Clearly they need to work on their customer service, but nothing comes before face-to-face support in these situations and that’s where they need to improve.

Hey Mike

We’ve been working hard since early this morning to get updates out about the situation.

The @little_break Twitter account and related Facebook page are now being updated with whatever information we are able to provide.

Just to clarify, the @little_break Twitter account and website is indeed run by We Are Social. Their primary purpose is to provide information about Eurostar destinations, however we acknowledge that it’s an important channel to keep everyone updated, alongside the main channel of updates on the homepage of Eurostar.com.

We’re currently working closely with the Eurostar team by both feeding back issues that are being highlighted online as well as providing information to their customers as and when it comes through.

Stuck in London. Really amazed by the lack of information Eurostar is providing. They’re clearly not very organized…

What makes me laugh is how the founder of We Are Social never wastes a second in commenting on how bad he thinks the PR industry is at social media, and how much better the new breed of agencies like his are. Not so quick and cutting edge in this case….

“We’ve been working hard since early this morning to get updates out about the situation.”

The first Tweet on @little_break gave no information and didn’t appear until 11am. Not exactly on top of things there Robin…

Eurostar and We Are Social have obviously never heard of a 24/7 duty mobile or an integrated crisis communications plan.

Not to rain on the social media pride parade going on here (and I wholeheartedly agree that they have to get their acts together, now!, and that TechCrunch is proving it’s strengths once again) but how about finding out how to get those poor ladies with the babies some food and diapers NOW!

Dan: I think you’re being a little harsh there as I suspect what this really reveals is the problem when marketing and customer services aren’t joined up – so you’ve got use of Twitter for marketing, but when a customer service issue kicks off that’s a different team (often different building and different suppliers too) that doesn’t turn to the marketing channels also in order to communicate.

Yes, agreed – that’s a bit more balanced than both my original comment and the article!

As a Eurostar client, I am shocked and extremely angry at this company’s attitude. Eurostar sells tickets, there is a contract linking them to their clients. We as clients never fail to fulfill our part of the contract, which consists in paying for our tickets. Eurostar however regularly fail in fulfilling their part of the contract, on a daily basis through delays, and once in a while in a much more grave manner: by failing to provide security and information to their clients.

It’s not like Eurostar sells milk shakes or pay as you go telecommunications. They are selling tickets to travel on huge very high speed machines, that can obviously be dangerous if not properly built and ran. We as clients are putting our lives between their hands, pretty much like we do when buying a flight. As such they must provide a serious infrastructure that can take a hit, especially since they’re far from being bulletproof.

Their lack or structure and communication already showed in september 2008. One would think things changed, they haven’t budged. I would imagine they cut corners and try to save money by keeping staff as low as possible. But they must be forced by governmental agencies to provide proper service in case of emergency. They need to have a scalable structure that enables them to bring in extra interim workers in such cases. This is surely very feasible, and of course would cost money to put together, but that is a cost that needs to be forced upon them.

I called their *only* available phone number (08432186186) at 9am sharp, time of opening of their lines. Already surprised they didn’t provide any line earlier given the circumstances. A gentleman spoke to me for about 20sec, asked how I booked my tickets, then put me on hold. After 15min waiting, the line was hung up, simply. After this I tried to call every 5 to 10 mins for over 3 hours, the lines were *closed*, not just saturated, but leading nowhere else but a repeated message saying the service was unavailable.

Again we’re not talking saturated lines where you wait 30min before speaking to someone (as I am now, I’ve spent 1h02min on their line). We’re talking *closed* lines. Eurostart ignoring their clients.

At 12h35 I eventually got the waiting message and eventually spoke to someone. I informed them of my desire to re-book my tickets and file a formal complaint. I was transferred to their manager, Ian, who painstakingly tried to convince me Eurostar was not at fault, that the lines weren’t closed but saturated, that he had to call in poor employees who took on their own time to come in on a saturday morning. He even had the nerve to mention how costly this all was for the company! Basically he was without knowing describing everything my complaint is about: lack of proper structure in case of emergency. He had the usual passive aggressive attitude of people in his position trying to defend the company they work for at all costs. When I remained calm and determined, he then proceeded to trying to tell me I was wrong and the lines weren’t interrupted, but merely saturated. When I asked if he implied I was lying or wrong about the dozens trials I made to contact them, he acknowledged their lines might have been cut-off following an overwhelming number of calls, and went on describing out of context examples to excuse Eurostar (“imagine a football stadium with 10 tills and 5000 people pressing against them), and treating me like a child with simplistic yet inexact examples.

Again I remained patient, knowing this is just a technique to tire people off in the hope they’ll give up. I waited patiently and once he was finished told him I didn’t agree with the arguments put forward. The reason so many people were pressed against their walls is the result of a fault on Eurostar’s side, bad engineering, and it is their responsibility to provide for such a situation.

Still willing to file a formal complaint, I informed him so, and he then started speaking very fast. I asked him to repeat, he went on to explain the complaints service is closed and open monday to friday 9 to 5. How appalling is this?

He then said he would put m through to the booking service, I have been waiting 45min since, with a looping message playing. Whether this is a normal waiting time (much longer than I originally waited) or revenge on his part, I will never know.

One thing is for sure: we as consumers need to get together and prevent this from happening again. I will post on as many blogs as I can, try to gather people, perhaps a petition would be the best approach? I am not sure how to go about this and would love to hear from anyone who has an idea how to deal with this. I have kept the names and precise call times of the people I spoke to, and will definitely follow up on this. I just hope I won’t be the only one out there, and if others do the same it would be good to join forces and push this towards the media, make things change.

I haven’t even mentioned the worst part of all this: the lack of safety for travelers. Simply because I wasn’t on one of these trains, I cannot witness. But obviously the most appalling part of this situation is the lack of physical structure to comply with incidents: spare food, water, diapers – proper management of urgent situations on the team’s part (imagine a plane in danger where the cabin crew hides in the cockpit and lets people take care of themselves!) – adequate emergency team on the go and ready to react at anytime to provide safety.

Anyone who agrees and wishes to join efforts, please get in touch here and I will provide my personal email address.

Vania

Dan, that is a little harsh. What this comes down to is information being fed from Eurostar to We Are Social. If the BBC (and plenty of others) weren’t able to get hold of this information earlier, We Are Social will have the same difficulties.

Vania, great idea. Count me in.

This situation has been developing since 2200 yesterday night, and it took until about 1200 today to get some response out on Twitter and Facebook, and I *still* have no e-mail communication as one of the passengers with an internet booked ticket on one of the cancelled services.

As for it being hard to work out what’s going on: that’s a load of rubbish. Eurotunnel had clear details of the situation on its services at 0930 this morning. Eurostar did not.

There is absolutely no sensible communications plan from Eurostar – for any social media, or even for e-mail. At best We Are Social have not been proactive. At worst they have been downright negligent in their dealings with Eurostar and should have provided social media crisis comms advice.

It’s quicker, surely, for We are Social than a BBC Online news reporter to get hold of people in Eurostar with the necessary information. They they talk to them every day. It’s their client, after all.

I am working on setting up an online petition, stating clear requirements, and will post it here asap. Never done this before so give me 24h or so.

Anyone interested please let me know, any advice welcome.

Vania

See what’s been preoccupying the minds of the We Are Social ‘team’ over the last 24 hrs.

Not (until 15 mins ago) their Eurostar client, that’s for sure.

http://twitter.com/wearesocial/team

I was not in any way involved in this, but I do agree with the command about customer service vs marketing in terms of use of social media.

There should be a 2 way dialog with consumers using this outlets. It’s not just a “publishing” mechanism light a marketing leaflet, it’s about getting a dialogue going with customers.

That means give/take & also currency. If something happens these channels can be invaluable — indeed having multiple channels is important.

Effective communication could have turned a major problem into a massive coup, instead it’s demonstrated a failure.

Further, quick effective evacuation could have been a testament to safety procedures, instead there’s been people stuck in the tunnel for hours. Ok there wasn’t a fire, but still there was a lot of discomfort. Doesn’t this now cause poeple to question safety.

Again if this had been effective it would be another proof that the tunnel is very safe.

So a double failure from eurostar here. Best they can do now is be transparent about the whole affair and figure out how they can do it better for the future. No fancy pr polished marketing just some open honesty and the opening up of a dialog.

A relative’s experience of the Eurostar fiasco: http://blog.martinruss.com/2009/12/eurostar-fail-relatives-experience.html

It’s not harsh at all Gemma. As a company Eurostar has a duty to ensure its communications and customer services are prepared for incidents like this. Everything from the call centre to the PR team to the web team should have a set of operational guidelines and a series of processes in place. Just like the ones operated by most major airlines.

As the ‘social media experts’ responsible for managing what appears to be the only official Eurostar Twitter feed in existence, We Are Social should have considered an eventuality like this and made sure they were a joined up part of any contingency planning. We’ve known for a good couple of years now that people use Twitter to campaign, vent anger and engage directly with brands and companies; all via the social media channels that are immediately available to them. Strikes me as a pretty significant oversight..

@Alastair

Whatever the ‘team’ at we are social are thinking, it’s entirely irrelevant and perhaps out of line to even highlight the individuals there who are involved in operating a twitter feed for a *marketing promotion* for cheap breaks with Eurostar..
Eurostar UK *don’t have* a twitter feed – Twitter in this case has just been a means for *some* passengers and their families to discuss their ordeals.

It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of those 2000 passengers on the train won’t use Twitter.

If there weren’t so many companies involved with different responsibilities, it would be a lot easier to communicate with customers. I’d expect Network Rail (then Eurotunnel) to be the first to have information on incidents like this – Network rail don’t even have a mention of it on their site. And Eurostar can’t deliver information from Eurotunnel and Network rail, even though they have the connection to the customers. They need to sort out their costumer service on trains and in their terminals as a priority.

Eurostar has actually been lying to its customers in Brussels today. We were categorically told there were NO TRAINS at 1215 today, and now I get this from the official Eurostar Belgium Twitter account saying there was a train for ‘priority’ passengers. So actually their communications were not actually inadequate, but plain wrong.

Oh, and I came to the solution of this one via Twitter…

My best friend is still on the train. Over 20 hours with no help from staff. She had to ask police who came on board to bring them water. She’s a little bit annoyed, to say the least. Not to mention hungry, tired, thirsty and in need if a cigarette. Toilets are overflowing and there is vomit and crying children everywhere.

My brother is stranded in Paris; god knows when he’ll make it back to the UK. Worst corporate communications breakdown I have seen for a while.

Network Rail were worse than useless. Twitter actually had information. See: http://blog.martinruss.com/2009/12/eurostar-fail-relatives-experience.html

Well done for tracking this Mike. It’s a great example of how for even the biggest companies, social media is too ‘marketing’ focused. When things go bad, it doesn’t factor into crisis comms thinking. My thoughts here: http://www.dannywhatmough.com/2009/12/19/eurostarfail-social-media-is-for-good-times-and-bad/

As mentioned on Twitter, the typical Eurostar staff response was “I’m tired, too, you know, yr not the only one.” NOT the way 2 respond to frightened customers. We listened to scary knocks and echoing thuds in the tunnel for about 2 hrs before the source was explained to us. Remember, there had been a fire in the tunnel before, you MUST have a comms plan for any unexpected delay. The only bright spot was the camaraderie of the passengers, who were simply great to one another. This could have degenerated badly into fights over dwindling water supplies & food & even toilet paper. Instead, we stuck together, giving up what we had to people in real need. Big shout out to the passengers of Eurostar train 9059, you were the BEST.

This is the kind of behaviour you get from a monopoly. It’s the Chunnel or go back to the ferries. Like it or lump it. Will there be a Parliamentary investigation and, if so, will anything change? Not likely since they’ve had fires, broken-down trains, etc. in the past and the same complaints ensued and nothing was done. The public be damned!

they could easily wifi the tunnel, a fibre probably goes right through it anyway, then people would have had connectivity to the outside world.
Just sayin.
chris

WE ARE SOCIAL

What do you guys really expect? This is another word of mouth social media agency – You should check the team – most of them are interns who are called “Account Managers” and after a little while they can become “Account Execs” – I have met many of them – they are very young in their careers and do not have any comms training and yet to the client their titles, make them sound like they are people with a few years of experience. That’s the impression I get from when I have seen them out and about – you can make up your own minds – have a look at the team yourself on Twitter and on the site.

Don’t get me wrong – age should not matter…I just wanted to clear that up, because I know some will see my point above as “Why does it matter if they are young?!” All that matters is experience. So if I hear the words ‘Account exec’ or “account manager” – I don’t care if they are young – I just expect those job roles to come with experience. As a client, I am relying on their experience to provide me with what I need. That is not the case right now.

Ultimately this is Eurostar’s fault in every way. However, it also highlights the reasons why their needs to be an investigation into the so called ‘social media expert’ industry. It seems any old company can now rebrand themselves and start charging a fortune. It’s not on.

Anyway, my point over – over to you. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Overall, all of this is academic – the reality is what matters now. I just think Robin should really show how he can turn this around for Eurostar using word of mouth – ready set go….

( I bet the only peole who should be able to are – are Eurostar themselves but we shall see)

This sort of lack of communication in a crisis is usually due to a breakdown between the operational side (who will presumably be working their backsides off to resolve the problem) and the comms people (who will probably – hopefully – be only too well aware of the PR storm breaking around their heads).

Most big organisations (and smaller ones) have this problem until either they a) do some crisis management scenario planning or b) do it for real.

Eurostar have the advantage, for advantage it is, of having been through this before. As a comms professional it worries and frustrates me that they haven’t apparently learned the lessons – they could be setting the standard for customer and crisis communications right now, and they are not doing so.

A quick note of positive praise for @creamoflondon though; the Belgian Eurostar twitter team, although not having much more real info to offer than the website, does at least seem to be giving it a human voice – which goes a long way when dealing with frustrated customers.

[...] Obviously the twittersphere and TechCrunch are exposing ing the twitter viewpoint here. [...]

[...] nowhere has this been more evident that on social media and, in particular, on Twitter. Mike Butcher at Techcrunch has covered the unfolding of this story in detail. But, essentially, there were no updates on either the [...]

I am a very frequent traveller on Eurostar and for the great service I have always received for 2 years in a row I have to try and undertsand how can these people mess up so badly?

I think it’s a mix of bureaucracy + security + unprecedented situation. The internal communication failure must have happend way up before even coming to twitter.

I’ve posted longer thoughts here, not to excuse the mistakes but to try and undertsand:
http://eurostarclient.com/2009/12/19/eurostar-pr-fallout/

@vania I don’t disagree with you frustration, however if I understand correctly your call did not have any urgency? I would have waited to call maybe on monday, after they had sorted out the crisis situation and avoid stressing the system even more.

And I thought Ryanair was bad… I had planned to travel with my family (which includes 3 young children) on Eurostar- reconsidering now. Scary really – if things are this bad during a breakdown then let’s hope they’ll never encounter a real emergency again… Quite unbelievable.

Hi everyone

There’s lots in the comments above that I intend to respond to later, but for now I just wanted to let you all know about a blog post and video statement from Richard Brown, Eurostar Chief Executive:
http://littlebreakbigdifference.com/blog/2009/12/19/our-apologies/

Pleased to see the Little Break website being put to good/informative use finally.

The bit I don’t understand is the twitter shambles…

@eurostar belongs to somebody in Shanghai. Perhaps, as Mike suggests, Eurostar should have been quicker off the mark to grab this important bit of domain real estate… but they weren’t…so there you go. Chalk it up to bad luck.

But who the hell has @eurostar_uk? Or rather, had it. At lunchtime it posted that it was not the official Eurostar site and then deleted itself!

But it was certainly somebody at Eurostar, as the account details made clear…

@eurostar_uk
Name: Eurostar
Location: London, Brussels & Paris
Web http://www.eurostar.com
Bio: High speed international travel over 3 countries

Why wasn’t/isn’t this the twitter account for Eurostar to officially disseminate information when there is an incident like this… instead of leaving it up to two short break marketing sites, @little_break and @creamoflondon?

Twitter at its best: follow @Matthieu2007 tweeting live from London St Pancras (in French).

About 150 people facing police and station security staff as they have nowhere to go tonight. Need an emergency solution tomorrow morning. Eurostar will apparently setup buses for these passengers to be transported on the freight routes of Eurotunnel tomorrow morning.

The saga of trains in transit still isn’t over! My daughter is on the ONLY train to leave Paris today (at around 2pm). Still not made it to London. Broke down in tunnel then twice in Kent and are now onto their 3rd train transfer! And I suppose these are the lucky ones in some way. Bit of a ‘mare’ all round as she puts it.

Nah not really convinced – a little bit lost in techcrunch there – twitter is useful for the 2% of people that have and use it, as a guess the vast majority of people on these trains (and their relatives) don’t.

Not any urgency other than my wife having booked a working space to rehears her work on monday, and my daughter being super sad not to see her grandparents. However, it’s not a matter of urgency here. Just a matter of a company selling a product, not being able to provide their goods after having taken my money, and hiding away from me when they should deal with it.

I’m not saying Eurostar should have put us in a train regardless of external conditions, what I am saying is it is unacceptable to just retreat in silence when faced with unsatisfied paying customers.

What kind of urgency does it take to get someone on the phone and deal with their faults?

[...] again discussed the need for a listening and responding programme (and about taking action to claim the errant @Eurostar_UK twitter account), and after the positive experience from Little break, Big difference, we we’re given the [...]

It is easy and non committing to apologize. Also such a typical attitude when faced with badly handled situations in this country.

Why didn’t these apologies take place and, more importantly, yield results after last year’s september failure! It’s just the same story repeating, and I do hope this time apologies will not suffice in tempering the public opinion and waiting till the next, potentially worse incident.

Will it take deaths before things are taken in hand? How many deaths?

What I see happening is profit, shareholders’ well being, taking over responsibility of a company which is accountable for – not the well being – but the safety of thousands of people, women, men and children.

It’s not a matter of rejecting responsibility on external influences… acts of god, bad weather, whatever. This might be a strike of cold weather, it’s in no way a reason for what happened. We buy laptops everyday guaranteed to work between temperatures of say 10-40 celsius. One would expect such a high tech piece of technology as the Eurostar to function between -15 and 50 to say the least.

But mostly, whatever be external conditions, the biggest fault here is lack of security and communication. There is no excuse whatsoever for Eurostar to shut down its rare communication lines in case of emergency. None!

I can’t help but laugh when hearing the words communication and account execs in such a situation.

We are not talking selling washing powder or toilet paper here. We are talking about the well being of thousands of customers putting their physical well being in the hands of a transport monopoly.

Being deeply involved in the advertising business, from a post production point of view, I deal with “young” account execs everyday. Which is fine when creating broadcast advertising for selling products. But I would never have associated this world with the seriousness of such a topic!

I am shocked that we have come to this, and this is to me the sign of a multimedia modern communication system that has gone way too far.

Let’s redefine responsibility when dealing with matters of mass transport.

[...] The mess around Eurostar this weekend reminded me of my favourite “conversation agency”, we are social (who list Eurostar as a client, and are apparently in charge of the brand’s social media strategy). Let’s leave aside the pisspoor job Eurostar and their representatives have done this weekend: Mike Butcher has taken them apart already. [...]

I agree, hope for the best, plan for the worst – and don’t expect the system to save you.

Good reporting of this Mike.

[...] blunt criticism comes from social media news sites like TechCrunch Europe with Mike Butcher’s scathing commentary about Eurostar’s communication efforts, which prompted a spirited and credible defence from Robin [...]

Why hasn’t this happened before e.g. with the bad weather in February ’09 ?

Unsealed Control electronics with temperature and humidity controls that were overwhelmed by -5 C (With windchill of movement say -15c) ? Hmmm ! Surely @ a top speed of 186 mph windchill would be a major design consideration.

Security incident/exercise, contrived test for lessons learned?

It *has* happened before. At least twice before Eurostar trains have broken down due to temperature differentials. Thing is this time there were more trains, and more of them in the tunnel, hence this is the most serious breakdown so far.

As I understand it, the problem is not a -5° temperature, but that the temperature within the tunnel is higher than it would normally be with such an outside temperature. This being due to the relatively warm weather before the cold spell. The rolling stock was then confronted with an almost instantaneous temperature change of 20° or so – something virtually unknown in 200 years of rail history. Whether it should have (or was) anticipated would depend on how frequent such weather changes take place, perhaps at precisely these temperatures. (A similar temperature difference at other temperatures would not have the same effect – crossing the freezing line of various elements augments stress.)

[...] As hundreds of Eurostar passengers languish, Eurostar ignores TwitterDecember 19, 2009 [...]

Privatisation of transport, originally a public service, is what allows Eurostar and others to run their operations without being challenged or accountable. Even if there is a Parliamentary investigation, it will be very hard to create a punishment. This is the ONLY rail company that performs the service, so there is NO COMPETITION.
Someone mentioned it before: it is Eurostar or the ferries.
This is why they have been so INCOMPETENT. Because there is no REAL ACCOUNTANCY.

Mike, this was a great report. Thanks for initiating awareness.

No it’s not unprecedented, and not unprecedented for Eurostar. Northern France and Belgium had similarly cold weather in January 2009, and previously in 2007. The temperature differentials then caused Eurostar trains to break down, precisely the same reason as now.

Trust me on that – I am a Brit living in Brussels and take Eurostar a few times each month.

Such large temperature differentials might happen *only* to Eurostar because such differentials do not exist anywhere else, but this is definitely NOT the first time Eurostar has been confronted by this problem.

As I understand, to repeat, “cold” weather is not the problem, but rather a “differential”. If the previous situation(s) you mention are indeed similar, that does not mean nothing was done to deal with them. Perhaps the answer was inadequate, or perhaps the situation here is different. Neither of us have the information to judge.

It is even possible, as in many – if not the outright majority – of the problems of Eurostar (and other high-risk rail travel, such as San Francisco’s under-the-Bay BART, for example) that system failures are due to security measures. Whether those security mechanisms are over-reactive depends on the relative risks. It is better for people to experience discomfort than a train crash. That several mechanical failures on several trains could take place with relatively small damage could also be seen not as a systemic failure, but as a success.

In the present case, the passengers who “had to evacuate themselves in the dark” were probably the greatest danger. They endangered themselves and others by moving from a situation of safety to an obviously dangerous situation because they were afraid and unwilling to accept instructions to stay put. Since their actions didn’t kill anyone, they are now heroes. But no qualified first responder would have suggested such a course of action.

As far as the communication, undoubtedly it could have been better. But I’m not sure that a bank of telephone operators (who would have been impossible to reach in any case – even thousands of operators would not have been enough) saying, “yes there is a problem, yes we’re trying to fix it, no we don’t know when it will be fixed, no we haven’t been able to check who is on the trains, so no we can’t tell you that your loved one is safe, and be couldn’t give personal information even if it was available” – in other words telling the truth – would help or just make people angrier.

On the other hand, that fact that reservations were still being accepted (by the SNCF for example, because I tried) for trains that had already been cancelled, shows lack of preparation for relatively simple backup procedures.

But dirty nappies are perhaps a smaller problem than train wrecks?

[...] headline on TechCrunch was comical – “As hundreds of Eurostar passengers languish, Eurostar ignores Twitter.” On the face of it, it’s rather like saying “As its shelves run dry of food, [...]

@David – what is your problem? I know it’s not the temperature itself that’s to blame and it’s the differential. I say that in my comment! And I also know – from statements from Eurostar now, and previously, that they *know* they have a problem with temperature differentials. Now it’s possible that differentials caused more severe or different problems this time than they had before – that part we do not know. But that Eurostar has problems with temperature differentials is well known and well established.

Eurostar technology is very similar to the tech used for the French TGV, so there is no way to judge your assertion that it’s some sort of security settings that cause the breakdown, as there are no other TGVs operating across similar temperature differentials. It’s however worth saying that no-one has ever died in a TGV style train due to a crash – the safety record of the technology is absolutely impeccable.

As for the evacuation procedures – yes, it is no fun to have to evacuate a train in a tunnel. I’ve done it in a damp Thameslink tunnel in London. In comparison to do so in the Channel Tunnel is actually very safe. That’s the reason Eurostar trains are so long – they are long enough to make sure there is an exit to the evacuation tunnel in the channel tunnel that can be next to the door of at least one carriage.

Now don’t get me wrong – it’s not nice, and the problem should not have happened in the first place. But there was no danger to the lives of the passengers evacuated in the tunnel.

What Eurostar should have is a better procedure to swiftly retrieve trains broken down in the tunnel. On most European high speed lines there are backup locomotives in place to go and retrieve broken down trains. On the Köln-Frankfurt HSL there are 2 stabled at Montabaur for example. Eurostar needs to look at this for the future.

As for the overall safety etc., of this, look at it this way: being stuck in a broken down Eurostar in a tunnel or in the middle of nowhere is not likely to endanger your life. It’s unpleasant, nasty, and surely avoidable. But it’s much better to face that than be in a plane with a fatal technical problem.

Two interesting pieces of information to add to the story.

1) A press release from Eurotunnel ( http://bit.ly/8XvusU ) describing how they heroically rescued Eurostar and its passengers. Note the venomous sting in the tail. They were able to tow Eurostar’s train to their destinations because “Eurotunnel locomotives and Shuttles are prepared and maintained so that they are not affected by rapid temperature changes. ”

However Eurotunnel don’t come out of this smelling entirely of roses.

2) In Robin Grant’s slightly overdue, but very welcome blog post ( http://bit.ly/6OImY1 ) explaining We Are Social’s role in yesterday’s events, he reveals that passengers trapped in the tunnel were literally and metaphorically kept in the dark.

“It’s important to realise that the disruption that happened overnight in the tunnel was somewhat out of their (Eurostar managers) control – they’re not even allowed to communicate with their own staff on board when the train is in the tunnel as all safety regulations and operational responsibility sit firmly with Eurotunnel, which has obviously made it particularly hard from a communications perspective.”

Even THAT piece of information, in a tweet, would have made a difference yesterday morning, Robin.

However, Robin’s blog makes plain what many of us had guessed; it was not for want of trying that when the music stopped, it was a third party (We Are Social) who were left holding the comms parcel by their sm-incompetent client.

It must be so frustrating for Robin to know that it all could have been so different – Eurostar’s customers might have been more inclined to support them instead of criticising them – because We Are Social had already tried and failed to persuade Eurostar to adopt a real-time social media listening and responding programme + crisis plan.

Perhaps They’ll listen now. (Ask @easyJetcare to show Eurostar how it works)

Jon, I realize you mentioned differentials. As well as saying that Eurostar should have anticipated this problem because there had already been similar cold weather. I am not sure that there has been a similar weather pattern in the past (here where I live they have said last night was the coldest weather since 1956). Having this degree of cold, following a relatively warm period, makes relatively unusual weather. What that adds up to is that even if the previous problem WAS solved (I’m not saying it was), that doesn’t mean a similar problem in different conditions can’t arrive. It’s like construction – preparing for 100-year flooding doesn’t guarantee against a 1000-year flood.

As far as evacuation procedures – my point was that the passengers did NOT follow procedures, notably, according to their reports, evacuating in the dark, without supervision. Then later passengers complained they evacuated to the wrong side of the tunnel, and that they found themselves in uncomfortable conditions. All leading to the possibility that remaining uncomfortably in a train, on seats made for people to sit 16 hours, is better than evacuating dangerously to find yourself in a worse situation, in a train station, sitting on the floor.

My main point is that things do go wrong, that no company can nor should plan for everything, and that bad is better than worse. Anyone who can anticipate each and every possible problem has a wonderful and profitable career ahead of them in gambling.

Thinking that we can be made invulnerable to any possible problem in our lives by “them” is an illusion. There isn’t always a guilty party.

I think there are two issues here which have been unhelpfully merged into one by some commentators.

Firstly I don’t think that anyone is disagreeing with the fact that Eurostar failed to effectively communicate to its passengers over the weekend. My heart goes out to all those who were stranded and I guess I’d be pretty fromaged off it it were me in that situation.

However, the role of communicating the chaos SHOULD NOT FALL UPON THE SHOULDERS OF EUROSTAR’S AGENCY. As Robin states above, We Are Social was taken on to manage the Little Break, Big Difference campaign, and from what I’ve seen have done a brilliant job. In fact, a few months ago I took a Eurostar to Paris for the weekend for my girlfriend’s birthday and on my way back as I tweeted about my fab trip I received a message back instantly from @little_break. This blew me away. The tone was pitched perfectly and made me feel good about the Eurostar brand.

I’ve often pitched against We Are Social in an agency capacity and have been frustrated with how often they win great clients. I can only put this down as a testament to the quality and diligence that goes into their campaign execution.

It irks me that clients think that by hiring a conversation/social media agency they have ticked a box on a marketing checklist and in effect wipe their hands of engaging directly in communications. The responsibility of customer updates should be firmly with the customer support team and I feel a little disappointed that Eurostar failed to see this. Conversely, hats off to Robin, Nathan and the team for attempting to steer the client in the right direction.

Also, Richard Brown’s statement was something that Eurostar should have thought up but didn’t. Luckily We Are Social were at hand to make it happen.

If anything, We Are Social should use this as a case study on how they go the extra mile for clients even when it clearly falls well outside of an agency’s remit.

Finally, people have commented unfairly on the inexperience of the team at We Are Social. I disagree totally with this as I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the newer recruits who actually live, breath, eat and sleep social media. A really strong agency.

[...] The story “broke” on social media via Tech Crunch on Saturday morning via their post “As hundreds of Eurostar passengers languish, Eurostar ignores Twitter” [...]

Since Robin’s post I hope people are finally managing to separate the 2 issues (which never should’ve gotten confused in the first place).

1. What happened on Eurostar was bad thing

2. It’s not OK to start flaming their agency, We Are Social, about their entirely unrelated activity with Little Break

While I agree, this is a massive communications balls up, I don’t think you can lay the blame at We are Social without knowing the facts. I am guessing (hoping) they have been advising them that they should be active on Twitter (and other platforms) and be monitoring what is going on (online and in all other media).

What it does highlight is that organisations using in social media need to be ‘on the front line’ and not outsource all their efforts to an agency or consultant and they need to have an integrated strategy using the relevant tools (in this case, Twitter) Someone at Eurostar should have been monitoring the media/social web and getting alerts AS WELL as We are Social.

I wonder how many social media agencies will be calling Eurostar in Monday?!

7 Spey Terrace
Edinburgh
EH7 4PX

Telephone: 0131-550 0895
E-mail: JohnEDouglas@gmail.com
Blog: http://johneoindouglas.blogspot.com/

20th of December 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

NOT CHUFFED WITH EUROSTAR

None of the problems with the Eurostar trains would have occured this weekend had the railway company decided to stick with reliable and proven-in-service steam traction instead of this new fangled electric nonsense!

Sincerely,

John Eoin Douglas

Good coverage here. Perhaps on page 1 of the new 2010 Eurostar Emergency Procedures Handbook it should state

1. update twitter to say we’re on the case, aware of the incident and this is the place for real time updates on the incident at hand.

2. find out what is going on and update twitter and the website/customer care/PR/Marketing

I’ve posted on London Calling » How to prevent your own “Eurostar moment” http://bit.ly/eurostarmoment

Lovely Eoin!
Hmmm… however if 5 steam trains had been stuck in the underwater tunnel we’d now be looking at hundreds of asphixiated casualties, me think

To be clear, the term ‘account executive’ is generally used for the most junior member of any account team in a marketing agency. They generally have 0-2 years of experience after graduating from University. Then it goes Account Manager, Account Director, Group Account Director, Board Account Director. So therefore it stands to reason that these kids would have those titles.

Um…

Who exactly is @Eurostar1912 who suddenly burst into life 8 hrs ago??

(http://twitter.com/EUROSTAR1912)

And what about @Eurostarwatch who also burst to life a few hours ago?
http://twitter.com/EurostarWatch

This ripple effect is an interesting social phenomenon to monitor.

In the meanwhile, BBC has interviewed the Eurostar Chief Executive – appalling performance, my further comments here:

http://eurostarclient.com/2009/12/20/eurostar-chief-executive-interview-bbc/

I’ve contacted a good friend of mine at Eurostar HQ to see how we can help them improve on this front. Hopefully next time around… we will all have much more info. I was also waiting to get on a train yesterday morning to Paris.

Sorry, one more tincy wincy question that has been puzzling me…

When Richard Brown apologises profusely and tells BBC News ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8422978.stm ) that the problems Eurostar encountered on Fri/Sat were “an absolutely unprecedented event”, does he mean “since 1995, or 2002, or Feb 2003″?

http://bit.ly/8femlJ

Disregarding the real-world failure on Euostar’s part as a company dealing with their customers on a on-to-one basis, this article is a perfect example of why I originally stopped reading TC and TC EU. In fact, reading this article, and some of Mike’s comments makes me so angry at the vacuousness and facetiousness displayed just because a company doesn’t find Twitter as important to the world as you do that once more I have to remove myself from the vortex of suck being generated by this post and by the attitudes of the bloggers in general.

Twitter is not the most important thing in the world, and using Twitter should not *ever* be the first thing a company does when something goes wrong. Twitter is a low-rent, low-use (per capita when compared with other messaging services – call me when Twitter hits billions of messages a day) messaging service – it is not an emergency broadcast service, it is not the second coming, and it certainly isn’t the best thing since sliced bread – although reading TC you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The basic gist of this article is: Because Eurostar didn’t (a) register the ‘eurostar’ Twitter name and (b) didn’t *immediately and before anything else immediately start sending Twitter messages*, then somehow they’re doing something completely and utterly wrong and have failed as a company. Well, it appears that all they’ve failed to do as far as this article is concerned is to act as you expect them to – and that’s a major fail on your part. Do you honestly think you and your thoughts on how social media should work are so important that if a company doesn’t act in the way *you* expect them to that they’ve failed?

Wow. Just wow. It is really sad how self-important and full of yourself this articles makes you appear.

The saga goes on. I find Eurotunnel’s press release finger pointing, unprofessional and even suspiciously defensive.

http://eurostarclient.com/2009/12/20/eurostar-communication-failure-causes/

I’ve been traveling Eurostar regularly for the past two years and all I’ve had is bad experiences.
Being I have difficulty using french computers, my family buy me tickets from London and send them to me via email.When instead of booking my ticket on Monday, as i asked, my ticket was mistakenly booked for Sunday, I arrived to the Station exactly 24 hours late, not realizing – of course – that I was late. But instead of putting me on one of the many empty seats on the next train, They offered to do me a favor and sell me a ticket for approximately £65 instead of the usual £115 being that I had already paid £50 for my original ticket.
(This “favor” was actually useless to me being that I had no english cash and no debit card. when I informed them of this and they told me that they could’nt help me and that my Father couldn’t pay over the phone).
I missed my train!!!
This past week I travelled from France to england. My train was scheduled for 21:13 to arrive in london 22:34. After check-in and security there was an annoncement that the train was delayed an hour. Arriving in london at 23:34 it would still take me an hour to get home and arriving home at 12:34 a.m. isn’t the thing you do without prior notice. I didn’t have a Mobile (cellphone) and the high-tech payphones in the waiting room didn’t accept my French Calling card so I asked to use the phone at the desk to which they answered that it only makes internal calls. After 45 Mins. of debates and following staff members anywhere thy took me i was informed that if I exit the security I cannot return and that they couldn’t help me.
They missed (or messed if you like) my train!!! But there wasn’t anyone home!!!
Now I am waiting to return to Paris, like everyone else.
The customer service on eurostar is ridiculously terrible. If they would have some competition maybe things would change

“If Twitter does not exist, the earth will still turn.”*

TX

* : Galileo ? No

[...] to grips with, but there was a growing online reputation issue to be dealt with, as reported by the Techcrunch article Reading tweets this morning I was struck at how many people felt like they had no idea what was [...]

[...] but in this case it resulted in a plethora of seriously vexed travelers and Eurostar facing a backlash of epic proportions about their communications throughout the [...]

[...] was plenty of hand-wringing over the weekend about the failure of Eurostar officials to communicate to passengers what was going on via Twitter [...]

And Colette Ballou twitter is not protected anymore.
Fame whore!

“Eurostar officials are blaming the weather. They cite a combination of unseasonably cold temperatures and unusually powdery snow that was sucked into engine intakes, creating condensation that caused short-circuits when trains entered the relative warmth of the Channel tunnel … the problem isn’t new in Britain. In early 1991, the national rail system suffered massive breakdowns after a snowfall in which fine, powdery snow was sucked into train engines, damaging their electrical systems. Although the official explanation about the “wrong type of snow” was met with public derision at the time, the problem was solved by installing finer filters on engine intakes, says Roger Ford, a veteran British journalists specializing in railroad technology. Eurostar is now putting similar filters on its trains, Ford says.”
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/europeinsight/archives/2009/12/bad_weather_isn.html

Since 1991. See my other comment.

It’s interesting if you remember back to earlier this year when Eurostar services were the only links that WERE working. Many airports have cancelled their services and there isn’t such a panic. I know for a fact that Eurostar have already started making modifications on the shields and that services are due to resume as soon as today or tomorrow.

http://plebbler.blogspot.com/2009/12/eurostar-hows-been-at-kool-aid.html

The Eurostar fiasco is not a story about social media. It’s a story about failing to provide ANY information at a time when passengers and staff desperately needed it. If the info had been provided, it would have spread via social media, frankly whether Eurostar wanted it to or not.

Totally concur with this.

Max “Fame Whore” Niederhofer

[...] TechCrunch Europe: As hundreds of Eurostar passengers languish, Eurostar ignores Twitter. [...]

I hope Techcrunch will submit this blog to the independent enquiry that is being set up. Its a great catalogue of stupid mistakes by both Eurostar & Eurotunnel which I don’t think has been captured by other means. In the Netherlands, Dutch railways, Schiphol airport and ProRail have all proved incapable of communicating important changes to their schedule in a timely and efficient way. Dutch railways forgets that it has international passengers who can’t read Dutch and basically shut their site down with the message advising people not to travel. Ludicrous – and for the rest of the year they want people to travel by public traansport. Heads really need to roll here too.

The real com question here is what do you communicate when you have nothing to communicate. Of course people wanted to know when the stopped trains would get unstopped. But no one knew. Of course people wanted to know when the trains would be running again. But no one knew. Of course people wanted to know the situation of their loved ones. But no one knew. As has been amply demonstrated right here, when you have nothing to communicate and you say something anyway, it comes across as lame excuses, self-justification, empty and insulting. Everyone here has been saying “communicate, communicate”, but without offering the least real example of what could have been said. The fact is that it is likely that any possible communication would have made people even angrier. Thirty minute updates that we still don’t know what the problem is and we have no idea when it will be fixed? Or inventing a story? Listen to the reactions to Eurostar saying the weather had something to do with it. So do you tell people that airplanes are also not running? Do you tell people how many dozens of highway fatalities there have been in the last couple days on the other alternative form of transportation? Trains are a victim of their own reliability – we expect them to work better than anything else. But can you tell people that when they are not running? People like being angry. Sometimes the best you can do is get out of their way.

This is a good example of what customer service has to put up with. The young man has problems with computers where he lives, but thanks to Eurostar, his parents can reserve for him in another country.
Thanks to Eurostar, he even gets a substantial discount on this reservation.
Thanks to Eurostar, he can have his ticket emailed to him.
Thanks to Eurostar, he can verify that the date on the ticket is the date he wants to travel. This he doesn’t do.
When he shows up an entire day late to take a train he missed (leaving an empty seat that might have been used by another passenger), Eurostar even offers to refund the full price of his ticket. Try that at an Arctic Monkeys concert.
And yet he is dissatisfied with Eurostar.
He is upset when they won’t allow him to use their phone to call overseas to a number that not even the Eurostar employees could call themselves. Everything is Eurostar’s fault, and he blames them. Even though it is obvious that he has made mistake after mistake and they have made none.

[...] Eurostar was criticised on Saturday for failing to use Twitter in the crisis. [...]

[...] Eurostar was criticised on Saturday by Tech Crunch for failing to use Twitter in the crisis. [...]

[...] Eurostar was criticised on Saturday by Tech Crunch for failing to use Twitter in the crisis. [...]

Pedant’s Moment:

“The lack of information on suck a big accident …”

I think that you mean “such”, not “suck”.

[...] (or at least primarily) using traditional mainstream media – Twitter and other social media have not been used extensively to communicate direct with the public.  Why go the long way round when there are [...]

Update: confirmation that root cause for communication problem is between Eurotunnel and Eurostar.

Eurostar is not authorized to talk to its staff inside the tunnel. And Eurotunnel does not help if there isn’t an “official” Eurostar request for help (er…?).

Finger pointing keeps going. Twitter is the last of problems here.

http://eurostarclient.com/2009/12/20/eurostar-communication-failure-causes/

[...] much of what’s already been said, nor lay out the background of the situation, which is neatly summarised at TechCrunch. You can read what I have found to the best articles on the theme of this being a Communications [...]

I think Eurostarclient is right. When reports are written, the focus is likely to be on this (vitriolic, judging by Eurotunnels’ press release) relationship between the two organisations.

A railway insider posted on Monday that he had read the Network Rail Control Room log for this incident and “a lack of communication, co-ordination and control between the three parties played the biggest part in the failings of that evening”. ( http://bit.ly/4FVa1A )

Eurostarclient’s assertion that Twitter was the least of their problems is also true, to a point.

There have been several contemptuous posts about the self-importance of Twitter in all this, but I think Twitter is now the crucial ingredient in any crisis management plan for three reasons.

1) It is way better suited to mobile platforms than other social media (eg facebook) because of its simple list style and 140-char limitation. That makes it a far more efficient method of getting messages to crowds ‘in the field’….though, almost uniquely in this case, not down a 31-mile long tunnel with no wi-fi!

2) It is also way faster than other social media. These days we all learn of events on Twitter even before RSS or email, the telly, the radio, or anything.

3) And those who patronisingly suggest it’s only a minority of… say, a trainful of distressed passengers… that indulge in Twitter (‘in the real world you need traditional real world mass communications’) are missing the point. Twitterers may be in the minority, but they are targeted (interests: travel, railways, Paris, London, etc) and extremely influential. They become the focus for information exchange. They will pass the word in a crowd, and be referred to for info, in a crowd. And what source are ALL, repeat ALL, online & traditional journalists monitoring? Twitter.

[...] Crunch has a thoughtful article about it: As hundreds of Eurostar passengers languish, Eurostar ignores Twitter They could have used Twitter, but didn’t think of [...]

[...] outcry from the technorati was instant and deafening: Eurostar ignored Twitter! Where was the [...]

Well they are all running today, because I’ve just got back from Cologne. They’re just reduced which makes them safer but doesn’t cancel the services altogether. The main St Pancras website, and all the other station websites say all the info.

[...] TechcrunchUK] Aquí la shortURL: http://bit.ly/8oPFIq Comparte este post [...]

[...] was quick to pick up on Eurostar’s lack of use of Twitter, and slam UK agency We Are Social: “It owns a Twitter account at @little_break, allied to its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] we saw with the recent Eurostar debacle, ignoring Twitter can be a big mistake. News travels very fast on Twitter (and Facebook, [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

[...] Remember Eurostar? [...]

[...] media isn’t something just for the marketing department, as Dell and more recently Eurostar and Nestle have found to their [...]

[...] example, recently I’ve read reports that Eurostar didn’t start updating Twitter until 14 hours after the incident began. Some have [...]

[...] No corporate crisis comms plan. Social Media involved at the fringe. Agency gets slammed. Behold, the source and the fall [...]

[...] long as they plug in every search term they can think of to avert that client disaster (Eurostar, we’re looking at you). So there are a bunch of new features which extend the app quite a bit and greatly enhance its [...]

just close this fucking eurotunnel because there is more danger than safety !

lets go for sea

hate eurotunnel!!!!!!!!!!!bad expierience!!!

[...] other. Only a very few (and highly honourable) people stood up for We Are Social when they took an unnecessary pasting over Eurostar. I’m ashamed to say that I wasn’t one of those; while like many others I left messages [...]

[...] other. Only a very few (and highly honourable) people stood up for We Are Social when they took an unnecessary pasting over Eurostar. I’m ashamed to say that I wasn’t one of those; while like many others I left messages [...]

[...] Thousands of travellers gave them a hammering on the social media networks, primarily Twitter. This Techcrunch article gives you the [...]

[...] my favourite observation in the comments section comes offa Mike who questions if WeAreSocial really is a PR [...]

[...] year. They themselves had a ‘lifestyle’ Twitter account (created by a social media agency) and came under fire for ignoring their Twitter users who were seeking much needed [...]

[...] is a guest post looking at Eurostar’s social media response a year we wrote about their very public lack of response during a huge failure. The piece is by Colette Ballou, the founder of Ballou PR, who was stuck in [...]

[...] De nombreux cas de « bad buzz » comme Pizza Hut, Nestlé – KitKat avec GreenPeace, BP, Eurostar et la grogne online des passagers bloqués par la neige, le Twitter du Ministère des Affaires [...]

[...] Techcrunch Europe has a round up of the problems people stuck on the trains were suffering including no food or water for 15 hours and a lack of diapers for babies. [...]

[...] we’ve noted before, brand management in the age of the real-time web can be a tricky business – it’s a forever moving target where even the most established brands are being caught [...]

[...] understandably a daunting task for big brands with a big emphasis on customer service. Jet2.com and Eurostar are very recent examples of social media channels being swamped by customers during a difficult and [...]

[...] so, companies can prevent public outrage like this weekend’s Channel tunnel drama The real disaster there was not knowing anything. It [...]

[...] by following this link.  I have to add my surprise that the article made no reference to the MAJOR sh*t storm that was caused when Eurostar misunderstood the power of communication.  I could write it [...]