Punctual tweets NMBS/SNCB reduce complaints by quarter

Complaining on social media about poor service? They know all about that at the Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB, plagued as it is by the many delayed and canceled trains.

Yet NMBS’s communication strategy on X, formerly Twitter, has significantly reduced the number of complaint tweets, according to the doctoral research of administrative scientist Steven De Vadder (UAntwerpen).

Tagged about 100,000 times a year

Each year, NMBS/SNCB, which became active on Twitter in 2013, is tagged about 100,000 times by critical or disgruntled citizens. In just over half the cases, these are questions about abolitions, strikes, and delays. A third of the tweets are complaints, mostly about poor service.

De Vadder wanted to investigate whether public institutions could also turn the tide by becoming active on Twitter themselves. To determine whether the NMBS/SNCB strategy was bearing fruit, the researchers ran an algorithm on 200,000 tweets to NMBS/SNCB between 2011 and 2018. This allowed them to see month by month whether the number of messages with negative sentiment was increasing or decreasing.

Surprisingly punctual

This showed that the efforts did have an impact. In the period before 2013, when NMBS/SNCB was thus not yet active on Twitter, the share of negative tweets per month clocked in at 80%. In the period after, that percentage dropped to an average of 57%.

NMBS/SNCB’s tweets also turned out to be surprisingly punctual. “In total, NMBS/SNCB ends up handling 95% of all questions about service,” says De Vadder. “80% of those types of tweets are answered within 15 minutes. To complaints, compliments, political discussions… NMBS/SNCB responds less consistently.

The company also appears to be consistently thoughtful in replies. “The graphs and analyses clearly show that 2013 represents the tipping point. At the same time, we know that NMBS/SNCB’s service has barely improved in the years since,” De Vadder concludes.

In general, less satisfied with the service

Apropos, trains in Belgium have again been running more punctually over the past six months. Since the beginning of this year, punctuality has averaged 89,3%, compared with 88,1% in the same period last year. The main causes of delays are so-called third parties, such as thunderstorms, cases of rail walking, copper theft, and aggression towards train personnel.

In general, train passengers were slightly less satisfied with NMBS/SNCB’s service in 2023 than the year before. On average, travelers gave NMBS/SNCB a score of 7.17 out of 10. In 2022, this was still 7.26 out of 10.

Train passengers also contacted the ombuds service Ombudsrail 3,861 times last year, up 11% from 2022. In its annual report, the rail passenger ombudsman service points to the many delayed and canceled trains, among other things.