Cautionary tale: taxi cab association Twitter fail

Author: CIMCOM

In a bid to counter the rise of new-kid-on-the-block Uber, this month the association of taxi cab drivers in Victoria, Australia launched a social media campaign to highlight the benefits of using their service.

Twitter call out for positive stories

The campaign was designed to generate positive PR stories from taxi cab users.

It used a Twitter call out: Tell your taxi story! #YourTaxis

The campaign was backed by weekly prizes for the best stories, including $100 of YourTaxi vouchers, special offers and the promise of free cab usage for a year for one lucky winner in their prize draw.

Take a look at the campaign website 

Customer feedback backfires

Having opened up the lines of communication with their taxi users what happened overnight was that the association received a stream of stories on Twitter – but they weren’t the positive ones they had hoped for, most were negative and some were downright shocking. This was picked up by the media and resulted in negative publicity on TV and in the press.

Customers shared their experiences of using a taxi cab which included:

• Rude, abusive, homophobic and racist drivers
• Drivers not knowing how to reach a destination
• Drivers refusing to take customers if the journey was only a short one (a short fare) or passengers having to beg the driver to take them for vital short journeys
• Being overcharged for a fare where the customer knew the exact charge, being refused to make a payment by cash, being locked in the cab until they overpaid, being asked to pay more than shown on the meter and having to call the police
• Dangerous driving, driver driving whilst on the phone, driver falling asleep
• Forgetting possessions in the cab and being unable to get their property back

See the video: Taxi industry’s social media campaign backfires

Not everyone had a sorry tale to tell. A taxi user working in breakfast TV, told his story of reliable taxi rides every day at 4am for five years, shared between three taxi-driving brothers who became great friends. And a hitchhiker recalled his surprise when a cab stopped and gave him a free lift, as the cabbie had sons of the same age.

Good, bad and everything in between

Chief Executive of the Victoria Taxi Association, David Samuel, denies that campaign, and the negative responses it has elicited, is an epic fail.  In a statement he said, “This was never about selling something, this was about starting a direct conversation with everyone who uses Victorian taxis. This is what we have achieved. The response online over the last 24 hours isn’t anything we didn’t expect. We asked for feedback and we got it. The good, the bad and everything in between. It also demonstrates the number of people that rely on taxi services and we want to make sure our service continues to meet customers’ expectations during a period of rapid change. We will respond to everything that comes our way on YourTaxis.”

Comments show some taxi user’s reasons for switching to the ride-sharing service Uber.

Damage limitation

This was clearly a topic which people were ready to vent about. If you take a look at the @yourtaxis Twitter feed you can see that the Victorian Taxi Association is genuine about responding to every complaint. But it makes for pretty uncomfortable reading as problems with the taxi service are exposed.

The association’s taxis handle 35 million journeys a year. In their defence, their website shows that they receive just one complaint in every 7,800 trips.