By 
SMRT's official Twitter account description.
COMMENT
It really beggars belief.
If the photo above is any indication, it’s no wonder SMRT is so totally clueless about communications in this new media age.
How can its recently launched Twitter channel describe itself as operating only during office working hours, “9am to 6pm, Mon – Fri (except public holidays)”?
Dear me. Weekend, then how? Public holiday – even worse.
Template or otherwise, it's not the first time this week the good people at SMRT
have shown how woefully unprepared they are to face a new generation
of commuters who demand and deserve better, and rightly so. (This is
Singapore after all, isn’t it?)
Earlier this week, radio deejay Hossan Leong
was "censured" for reading out a supposedly unverified tweet on air
that said the Circle Line was down. Why? For apparently not waiting for
an official statement from the transport operator.
Two days later, SMRT
sent out the by now infamous “income opportunity” alert to their
affiliated taxi company, telling its “partners” to take advantage of the
commuter chaos caused by Thursday’s massive breakdown.
Blogger mrbrown even
wrote on his blog that on one of the affected trains, an actual announcement
on the public address said, "Due to a slight delay, there will
be a delay."
One of the major fails during what has surely been the worst week of the transport operator’s history has been how slow they have been to communicate any major disruptions. The people are not asking for the cause because that understandably takes time.
People just want to find out if they can get to where they need to
go in time. No ifs or buts or face-saving PR tactics -- just inform
people what they need to know, preferably real-time. After all, there's no point hiding now
because there is no place to hide.
Hopefully this lesson hasn't been lost on other
government agencies out there that have often been criticised for “not
getting it”.
(Updated) A full public inquiry has now been convened, says PM Lee, to determine the root cause of the breakdowns. A separate panel of experts will also do a "thorough check" on the healthiness of the rail network.
Hopefully, maybe either one of the two will be able to tell the people what SMRT so far hasn't been able to -- just what the hell has been going on.
(Updated Sunday 728pm) SMRT have updated their Twitter channel. Its profile description now simply says "The official Twitter channel of SMRT".
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