The time is now 2226 - or 10.26pm if you prefer your times in 'classic' format. The office phone is diverted to me this evening and I am at home, mixing my time between watching TV, surfing the internet and trying to get a couple of jobs done for the morning.
In the last half hour I have received two enquiries from members of the public asking about bus services from Parkway Station to the Rose Bowl. The first came from an 0208 number so that got the heart racing - I was convinced it was going to be South West Trains! Neither enquiry has been a problem, both gentlemen have been a pleasure to assist and they seem to appreciate the information I have given them.
So why am I writing about this?
Well it just strikes me as odd that anyone should expect to ring up at such a late hour expecting lines to be open and people on the other end of them! As a rule, if I am ringing a business as a customer, I would expect them to be winding down from about 5pm onwards, with only the biggest companies still manning their call centres at 8pm, and not much after that.
I am more than happy to help, but it just seems to be an odd time to be ringing with a query about bus times. Is it just me that finds that odd?
About Me
- Phil Stockley
- Welcome to my blog! On these pages you will find a series of posts dating from 2010 to 2018, spanning a period of my career in which I ran my own bus company in Southampton (Velvet), then moved on to Wellglade Group to run TM Travel before moving into the Group Development Director role; then finally ending up at HCT Group - latterly as Commercial Director. These days I'm working for FirstBus as part of their franchise bidding team, and time and circumstances mean it's no longer possible to keep this blog up to date. But I'm happy to leave my musings in place for anyone interested to read. Earlier posts tend to concern themselves with the day to day minutiae of running a small bus company in Hampshire; in later posts I talk about wider industry issues. I hope you will find something of interest and, who knows, maybe in the future circumstances will allow me to get out the virtual pen and start writing again!
4 comments:
No, it is VERY odd. Perhaps Velvet is getting a reputation for such a special service!!!
It is odd to have calls at all hours of the day, but not uncommon in the bus world. One of my previous employers had a lot of phone calls and one could hear those phones going off well into the night from the restroom next door. Office all safely locked up and alarmed.
Customers expect to be able to get through to someone when they want to speak to them, and that's not especially important when the time is concerned. Oddest call I have ever taken was some lost property at 0715 as we were opening up the office and the customer was adamant they'd left it on our coach.
Its something our industry doesn't do collectively, but suffice to say if you ring National Rail Enquiries at 0215 you get through to someone.
Ironically if they'd rung one of the big groups they'd have been lucky to get much of a reply after 1700...how do the Travelines compare?
travelines are mostly open 'til 2000 - but is 24/7 in Scotland!
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