Mathias Hüske 1. 18/09/2012 DB Vertrieb GmbH Mathias Hüske Online Sales The social media revolution: DB-strategy and lessons learned

Mathias Hüske

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18/09/2012

DB Vertrieb GmbH

Mathias Hüske

Online Sales

The social media revolution: DB-strategy and lessons learned

3Karina Kaestner, Exchange JR East, September 20113

Our customers talk a lot about us. We want them to also talk with us.

10 million passengers a day 27,000 trains per dayHigh level of public interestNegative prevailing mood

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DB Bahn in the Social Web:We took our time – consciously – and learned a lot

@DB_Info is transfered to DB free of charge communication of traffic reports and offers in

push mode

End of 2009 End of 2010 Beginning of 2011 08/06/2011 08/12/2011End of 2009

„Chefticket“ as temporary sales campaign on facebook

concept development of a customer dialogue and service chanel for the public transport sector on twitter

End of 2010 Beginning of 2011

decision and start of the project customer dialogue 2.0

The „Social Media Guide“ as the essential document is developed

08/06/2011

start of the twitter chanel @DB_Bahn @DB_Bahn is designed for customer dialogue @DB_Info is continued in push mode

08/12/2011

start of the facebook sites „DB Bahn“ and „Deutsche Bahn Konzern“

„DB Bahnoffers dialogue, information, apps and promotions around public transport

„Deutsche Bahn Konzern“ presents topics of the DB group in total

DB Vertrieb GmbH | Mathias Hüske | Online Sales | 18/09/2012

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The DB‘s social media strategy is based on four modules

Dialogue

Campaigns Benefits

Information1

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2

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focus on twitter and facebook

Dialogue as the most essential prerequisite for the activities of the public transport

sector in the Social Web

Information is fundamental to all our work and is part of our marketing effort

Applications create benefits and aim to simplify mobility for our customers

Campaigns serve the acquisition of fans and new customers and the generation

of additional traffic


Steady dialogue and customer oriented information generates additional fans and high customer satisfaction

Highly increasing numbers of fans (>144.000) 100 answered customer requests on average at aprox.

200-300 incoming user postings and comments daily 98% of service issues are answered immediately The priciple of „users help users“ is successfully adopted Mind. ein Gewinnspiel pro Monat wird durchgeführt At least

one competition per month is realised Ranked #1 in „socialbakers“ ranking for the answer rate of

German companies on facebook

Facebook

Increasing numbers of followers at @DB_Bahn and @DB_Info (> 66,000)

135 answered customer requests on average at aprox. 200-250 incoming tweets daily

99% of service issues are answered immediately High customer satisfaction and recommendation rates

Twitter

figures as of 17/09/20126DB Vertrieb GmbH | Mathias Hüske | Online Sales | 18/09/2012

A common denominator can always be found that meets the interests of customers and companies

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Service and dialogue are the key to

Customer satisfaction (willingness to discuss with others, solving problems)

Close contact to customer (humanising) Crisis resistance (advocates, dialogue capability) Strengthening brands (service leadership, dependability,

responsibility) Extending reach on the social web (fan growth, increase in

interaction) Sales


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The employment of company owned personnel was essential for an authentic dialogue

Ressources

Social media agents

- Recruited and trained out of existing customer service teams

- Markenidentifikation und fundiertes Fachwissen brand identification and in-depth knowledge

- Empathetic and communicative talent

Social media manager

- mixture of internal and external recruited employees

- Strategic and conceptual competences


DB Bahn is not immune to trolls, spam attacks and discussions that go on forever – but knows how to respond

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Massive spam postings on the DB Bahn Fanpage

10.08.2012 – 22:00 hrs /to

Dear DB Bahn Fans,Our Facebook Fanpage is under attack from massive spam postings and spam likes. This is evident from user postings with no specific service enquiries that contain thousands of likes and hundreds of comments, a large number of which contain insults and obscene content that violate our netiquette. We are also receiving a large number of postings on the History page, which are repeated with the same insults directed at DB including abusive content. Similar attacks have also appeared on a whole range of other brand fanpages in the course of the last few days. We are trying to maintain our support service by deleting obvious spam postings from the pinboard. We are doing this very cautiously in order not to remove genuine enquiries. Please excuse any inconvenience you may be experiencing. We are available as usual during our normal opening times of course to reply to authentic enquiries and criticism.

Your DB Bahn team

Clean the toilets on the train it stinks something terrible I hid from the conductor inside one but the stench was so bad I decided it was better to pay €40 for a ticket than die...

Dear DB Bahn Fans, our Facebook Fanpage is under attack from massive spam postings that mostly contain insults directed at Deutsche Bahn. We are trying to maintain our support service by...

Spam postings and comments on the DB Bahn Fanpage www.bahn.de

Background to the massive spam postings on DB Bahn’s Facebook page


The complexity of a large group of companies requires intensive communications, defined processes and several structures to implement new service & dialogue channels

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Structures and committees

Decision-making committee for new DB Group/Passenger Transport website

Editorial conferences on a monthly basis

Processes

Winning over the Management Board

Coordinating internal processes with all specialist departments

Integrating new social media processes into existing service procedures

Documentation, training, coaching

In-house communications

Generating awareness among employees and executives for new field

Approval from data privacy, labour law, works council groups, etc.


The focus from the customer‘s viewpoint is on background details, online prize contests, exclusive offers and dialogue

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N=1.156

Key results

The most frequent reason given for visiting the DB Bahn Fanpage is (at 63%) interest in news and background details on passenger services.

Followed closely by interest in prize contests and exclusive offers.

28% indicate they visited the page to engage in dialogue.

Results of Facebook customer satisfaction analsysis Reasons for visiting the Fanpage(Multiple responses allowed)

Question: Why did you visit the page and do you visit the page regularly? (Multiple responses allowed)

Interested in news and background details on passenger services

Interested in campaigns, prize contests and competitions on the DB

Bahn page

Interested in exclusive offers and discounts

Assistance in questions and problems related to rail travel

Chatting with other users about experience with DB


The four strategic modules and the customer‘s needs are addressed specifically on Facebook

Marketing campaign with promotional eCouponing and user-relevant travel content and helpful hints

Information campaigns: Link up promotional and ecological, user-relevant contentPromote the strategic Group topic of “Sustatinability“ with passenger transport marketing background Being able to answer almost any question

and turning dialogue with the customer into a positive experience

Kunden involvieren, ernst nehmen und einen Mehr- bzw. Nutzwert schaffen

12DB Vertrieb GmbH | Mathias Hüske | Online Sales | 18/09/2012

Social media is about people, communications and interaction - Twitter, Facebook & Co are (technical) channels that create a relationship between companies and the customer.

In the field of Customer Relationship Management, DB Bahn uses:

Social media monitoringTonality analyses Customer satisfaction surveysComplaints and improvement management

The customer is not a “supplier of data“, but is an integral part of a partnership

Social CRM stands for DB Bahn Service and dialogue – and that means direct customer feedback


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Customer dialogie 2.0:What remains / what becomes relevant?

Additional platforms:

- Google+ … more than SEO? Future?

- Location Based Services … applied by small but active group of users – train stations are popular

- Youtube and video platforms … fokus on brand

Expansion of social media on bahn.de

To interest existing offline customers in online activities

Expansion of social monitoring

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Thanks

for your

attention!


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Backup



People talk about DB passenger services and whether they‘re involved in social media – DB‘s been involved for a year now.

Technical problems at @DB_Bahn? I really didn’t expect that.

pleased to soon and THANKS, DEAR DB!!!got the delayed IC in Ko 30 minutes before the connection I’d planned to get. nice ? not nice! the train driver now has problems with the power trailer up front. this time we’ll place the driving trailer at the front just before münster, make some tests and then continue to crawl on... time needed unknown...easy come... and no mobile snack bar onboard :-/

@DB_Bahn just try without your advance knowledge to order a sample BC valid for the future... you might notice something.

Your service doesn’t work. I’ve been trying for 2 hours to get a 1st class ticket. Your useless women are a HORROR: I’m going to rent a car.

Dear @DB_Bahn, before you get excited about the “sunshine”, do the air conditioners work in the ICEs to Bonn? Question for Thursday

...train replacement service and then the bus driver drives off to the fuel station – what’s that – no more trains available – what a mess !!!!

@DB_Bahn (It’s not comfortable on the floor. Oh and can I get a free ice cream at the age of 16. P.S. I’m small and look cute)

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Mathias Hüske 1. 18/09/2012 DB Vertrieb GmbH Mathias Hüske Online Sales The social media revolution: DB-strategy and lessons learned