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Author Topic: GrumpNow - a Competitor to The Coffee Shop??  (Read 5082 times)
grahame
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« on: June 07, 2018, 14:58:55 »

http://www.grumpnow.com

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Often dissatisfied with public transport? Don’t know how to vent your frustration constructively in the heat of the moment?

GrumpNow is a free mobile app that gives passengers a way to quickly, easily and constructively vent their frustration about public transport, for example a delayed train, a broken bus or even a cancelled airplane.

GrumpNow empowers the passenger, builds transparency through social media, and makes data available – all of which give the transport operator actionable insight to make informed decisions and improve services.
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ChrisB
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« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2018, 15:02:51 »

Wonder how it covers its costs?.....
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grahame
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« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2018, 15:08:49 »

Wonder how it covers its costs?.....

Sponsored by the companies that people will be grumping about?   A trick we may have missed here, bearing in mind that it's been known for GWR (Great Western Railway) to read and learn what people thing from the forum - we are valuable to GWR  Wink
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grahame
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« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2018, 15:12:10 »

A longer review I have received:

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Why use GrumpNow?

The purpose of the GrumpNow app is to give passengers a quick and easy way – in real time – to collectively vent their frustration about poor public transport.

Unlike other channels such as Twitter, GrumpNow forces the user to select from pre-defined dropdowns, not only making it intuitive to use but also ensuring the data is consistent and remains relevant. This is particularly useful as many complaint channels either capture too little detail or are in free-text form which often constitutes of unhelpful and inappropriate language.

Building a robust database of bad journeys across all common transport types, initially focusing on rail travel, over time the company will be able to share more data, analytics and insights with the sector.

Unlike other solutions, GrumpNow records detailed journey attributes such as date, time, from, to, complaint and impact, and consequently the company can identify unpopular journeys from the results, e.g. only standing room available on the 07:33 from Maidenhead to Paddington Station.

GrumpNow goes further and captures less familiar, more subjective complaints that can’t be determined automatically, such as poor customer service, no seat reservation, dirty conditions, inadequate disabled facilities, antisocial behaviour and more. It is these types of complaints that passengers often experience but can’t and won’t be compensated for.

GrumpNow is the only ‘aggregator’ of poor public transport data; no other mobile solution records, collates and publishes statistics deeper than punctuality and reliability.

Is it making a difference?

With more and more commuters being blocked on Twitter by rail operators, people are beginning to see GrumpNow as an independent and impartial solution for complaining and a channel that can give them a voice. Clearly rail operators would prefer not to be named and shamed but GrumpNow believes timely submission and transparency of issues is as beneficial for the operator as is it for the passenger.

Recently, more carriages were added to key routes to and from London providing additional capacity. It may, or may not be, a coincidence that these key routes are three of the most grumped about journeys in 2018 with the main complaint being ‘standing room only’.

What are the benefits of using GrumpNow?

Passengers can quickly, easily and constructively share their experience by registering a complaint as it happens, unlike more traditional complaint procedures that require the passenger to fill in forms and wait for a reply. This immediate gratification seems to be more appealing to the modern-day commuter, as time is arguably more important than compensation.

What is interesting is that operators are active on Twitter and often engaging with users by replying to shared Grumps. This is good customer service and needs to be done, however, one rail operator recently confirmed that Twitter is an “informal channel” and therefore “does not influence formal statistics”.

How does GrumpNow work?

Once the user has signed up to the free app, they enter their journey, reason for complaint and the impact it has had on them and then submit their ‘Grump’. It’s simple and the journey details are saved on their homepage as a quick link for next time.

Once submitted, the app also builds a message with all the relevant journey attributes, that can be shared via social media. This is optional, yet more and more people are taking advantage of this functionality and sharing their experience using their own social media accounts, exposing issues as they happen and helping operators better understand where recurring problems may exist.

Where is GrumpNow going?

Each day more and more users are following GrumpNow, as well as registering with the app. The dataset is becoming more robust and meaningful and the immediate focus during the first six month’s pilot period remains on rail travel in the UK (United Kingdom), which alone equates to 1.7 billion journeys each year, according to the Rail Delivery Group (RDG(resolve)).

Over time GrumpNow aims to significantly ramp up its user base in the UK and abroad and ‘open source’ public transport complaint data.

Where to find GrumpNow?

GrumpNow’s website is www.grumpnow.com and the app can be found on Google Play and the App Store.
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Timmer
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« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2018, 17:03:23 »

Sponsored by the companies that people will be grumping about?   A trick we may have missed here, bearing in mind that it's been known for GWR (Great Western Railway) to read and learn what people thing from the forum - we are valuable to GWR  Wink
That we may well be but it sure hasn’t improved the service being offered  Sad
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grahame
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« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2018, 13:28:48 »

Trying to work out who's funding this I asked.

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Silly question … who pays for the service? Do the train operators pay you for the data?

Answer:

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Thanks for contacting us.

The service is free to use. Overtime we may "sell" our data, but that's not a priority for us and at the moment we are comfortable sharing relevant data with 3rd parties, including the rail operators.

If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Hmmm ... does the App carry paid advertising?  If not, who / how is it funded?
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ChrisB
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« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2018, 14:31:25 »

They are currently making a loss by allowing TOCs (Train Operating Company) the 'free' use of (I hope!) anonymised data obtained by people grumping on the app.

In time, once the amount of data becomes useful to the TOCs, my suspicion is that they'll try and ask trhe TOCs to pay for it, and thus start making money.
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Timmer
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« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2018, 14:55:19 »

If TOCs (Train Operating Company) don’t know by now where they are failing they never will.
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Richard Fairhurst
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« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2018, 15:44:39 »

Building an app is the easy bit. Building a userbase and a community is much harder and more important. Maybe GrumpNow will manage it in time but I don't see any sign of it yet, and they're certainly not the only company to have tried something like this.
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eightf48544
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« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2018, 15:57:07 »

No good to me i don't have a Smart Phone. Can't be bothered to get the App for my PC. By the way how would one do that for Windows 7?

Seems to me that it is not at all like Coffee Shop, you just Grump my train was late which the TOCs (Train Operating Company) should already know.

Coffee Shop is much more a discussion group why was my train late, what might be done about it,  Plus discussion on possible improvements to services re-openings new stock etc. etc.

As Grahame says just complaining can be ignored but if we put forward sensible suggestions there's a chance they might be acted upon.

In a different field who would have thought that the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Narrow canals would be restored so who knows if we keep plugging it Portishead may get back it's train service.

 
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bobm
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« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2018, 19:28:28 »

I'd more interested if you could offer praise as well as criticism and that doesn't appear possible.   
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martyjon
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« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2018, 20:54:10 »

I'd more interested if you could offer praise as well as criticism and that doesn't appear possible.   

Then set up a "Praisenow" website, simple.
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Richard Fairhurst
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« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2018, 13:07:56 »

In a different field who would have thought that the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Narrow canals would be restored so who knows if we keep plugging it Portishead may get back it's train service.

And closer to home, the Cotswold Canals have just got preliminary approval for Lottery money to connect the (newly restored) Stroud section to the main canal network at Sharpness!
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johnneyw
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« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2018, 23:06:04 »

In a different field who would have thought that the Rochdale and the Huddersfield Narrow canals would be restored so who knows if we keep plugging it Portishead may get back it's train service.

And closer to home, the Cotswold Canals have just got preliminary approval for Lottery money to connect the (newly restored) Stroud section to the main canal network at Sharpness!

Strictly speaking in will join the Sharpness Canal at Saul Junction. Jolly good news though.
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grahame
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« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2018, 08:24:25 »

Many thanks for the inputs ... readers will note I added a "?" on the subject;  I don't really think it's a competitor - any overlap is narrow.  Much more positively, it's food for thought looking at what else people are doing around the periphery of the area we're operating in.
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