Q&A: Patrick Nathan, SMRT's VP of comms on crisis management

When it comes to improving consumer confidence in the public transport sector, no one has it quite as challenging as SMRT.Speaking at Marketing's annual PR Asia 2015 conference, Patrick Nathan, vice president, corporate information and communications of SMRT, ensured the audience that SMRT was on track to enhancing public trust.Because crisis communications vary in its proportions, the transport company adapts both its communications and engagement strategies differently - to tailor it to the level of urgency required. Addressing the train delays and disruptions suffered by commuters, Nathan pointed out that there are also other stakeholders that would need to be considered in times of crisis.Eager to resolve complaints from customers of all age groups, it is important for an organisation to harmonise social and traditional media so that they may address customers at all available touch points. He said:You have to understand all your available assets. One could be used as a means to engage and create awareness while the other could serve as a customer relations channel.For example, SMRT uses its Twitter account to disseminate information to keep commuters updated regularly and on-the-go. Meanwhile, its Facebook page is said to act as a transparent feedback platform for quick turnaround of responses.Nathan said that it is not uncommon for customers to complain on social media platforms. Hence, crisis communications personnel should try to move the conversation into a space where they could get as many details as possible for further investigations.Commenting on the aftermath of a major transportation crisis, such as in the case of its train disruption on 7 July this year, Nathan outlined four steps to rebuilding public trust:1. Maintain regular and sustained flow of informationDuring the disruption itself, SMRT dealt with the problem in real time ensuring that information flow was managed through communications to the commuters affected on the ground, as well as to the general public through various channels.2. Provide assurance through accurate and timely updatesAt the same time, approximately 1,000 station announcements and 4,700 in-train announcements were made throughout the disruption, in addition to signage at stations and bus stops. Service updates were also issued to public via 24 tweets, 11 Facebook posts and two media statements. 3. Demonstrate accountability, sincerity and transparencyThe following morning, an LTA-SMRT media conference was held to apologise for the disruption, assuring the public that an investigation was underway.During the session, SMRT's managing director for trains gave a presentation to members of the media, providing a chronological account of what happened on the evening of 7 July - what led to the disruption and how service was recovered. 4. Transmit positive and constructive messagesA 'wrap-up' LTA-SMRT media conference was held on 29 July to provide the findings of investigations carried out on the cause of the 7 July disruption.At the end of the session, Nathan opened the floor for questions from the audience. Here are some of the questions that came in after his talk.Q: Setting up a space on a social channel for your customer relations is good, but what about those who choose to complain only on their social networks or on public social accounts. How do you reach out to those people?The rules of engagement are actually quite simple. I only engage in my own space. That's why we have our Facebook page, to invite our customers to reach out to us.In fact, for every complaint we have, there are actually about 10-12 compliments that we receive. That's what's great about Singaporeans, and the availability of this and other customer relations platforms.Q: How do you cope with satire accounts like SMRT Feedback . How does them using your name affect your brand?That's a favourite question. What can we do about it? Once a Facebook page has been set up and publicly declared as a satire site, there's nothing much that we can do about it.So what do we do? We live with it.In fact SMRT Feedback has been good for us, it forces us to be more active on social media. Now when someone mistakenly goes on to their platform to complain about a bus or train disruption, they get heckled - because only a few don't understand that it's a satire site. Most people know what it'sabout and they go on that platform to have conversations about topics aside from SMRT. Q: Why did it take you so long to get on social media?We took that decision about three years ago. It was a careful decision that we arrived at. We all had to agree that it was the right thing for us to be on Facebook.Presence on social media comes with a heavy burden of not just maintaining presence but also building advocacy and effectively communicating your messages.But you also build expectations. Now I have a different sort of challenge to meet. People ask me, "So how many fans do you have on Facebook? Can we get that number up to 200,000 next year?" I said: "Sure, I can always buy ads."But this won't be genuine, organic growth. Q: The recent disaster you had was with the free rides offered to seniors that resulted in long queues - how did you manage that?Actually it's not even our fault - that was TransitLink. This is a real dilemma for us - how far do you go to tell people that 'this is not SMRT'?For example, we get hit for something that happens on the North East line. But we don't go around saying that it's the other public transport operator that's responsible for that crisis - it's not the right thing to do. When it comes to customer service problems, we tell the complainant that we willwork with the agency concerned to help resolve the issue. We see the other operators as partners, not competitors. That has always been our strategy. Q: How do you work with SBS Transit? Is it safe to say that when a breakdown happens for SBS Transit, the blame automatically goes to you?We have a very good relationship with SBST. Every major disruption will have an impact on other MRT lines and the bus networks. There will be a spill-over of commuters. We make announcements on our line when other lines are affected. They are all interconnected. When there is a disruption, all the buses that run parallel to the line are opened up for free rides including SMRT and SBST.Commuters are at the heart of it. We want to ensure that when there is a disruption, people still get home safely and our partner operators help us out too.Q: Given the past scenarios, it seems that your PR and comms staff have to be on alert at all time. It'll be very challenging to hire and keep comms people in such a scenario, wouldn't it?We need to be constantly alert and vigilant. We work while we are on the go.There's a code of practice that governs our communications. We have to get the first tweet out in 15 minutes and at constant intervals at every 20 minutes. People must be fed with a constant stream of information.It's a tough job. We have people coming to us to fill up vacancies. Having SMRT on your CV means that you've worked in a crisis comms role. I try my very best to "dissuade" people from joining SMRT because the applicant has to have the right attitude and aptitude, and they must be able to work in aplace with very high tempo. Those who are not "dissuaded", make the cut. Q: When it comes to disseminating positive messages on print ads to improve public perception of SMRT, how has it worked for the company?For our latest campaign, we have our regular metrics employed. For me, real movement in terms of social media sentiment is the most important when it comes to making an assessment on the impact of your campaign.You can do pre and post-campaign surveys. We will be investing in on-line survey techniques instead that we can use at any point in time. As I said, there are KPIs and ROIs we look at but the actual movement of social media sentiment, the changes in conversations - that to me is more important.