COVID-19 Transportation Webinar 18th March 2020

I’m Simon Curtis, Founder of Curtis Gabriel, a global social media agency that specializes in transportation.

We are members of the National Limousine Association (NLA) in the US, I have spoken at both the TTA in the US and the Taxi, Limo, and Paratransit (TLPA) in the UK. Additionally, Curtis Gabriel works with The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) in the UK and I’ve been asked to speak at the Australia International Trade Association (AITA) too.

We have managed over 100 significant crises for our clients, ranging from floods and fires to situations that have caused significant potential damage to the reputation and commercial enterprise of our clients. In many ways, this is no different, but it’s affecting everyone, all at once.

All in all, I’d like to think I’m pretty qualified to offer you all some advice today. I believe everyone should try and do their bit to help everyone survive this and I felt this was the best option I could offer at this time.

We have nearly 200

transportation clients across 4

continents

The key to any crisis is calm thinking, good decisions

and to be both reactive and proactive at the same time, this crisis is no different...

What to do with social media in this crisis?

The last thing you should do is appear like you’ve given up or have nothing to offer. Keep up with consistent content across all channels, around 3-4 times a week to maximise your organic reach.

Additionally, you should not forget your clients who haven’t chosen to cancel jobs with you, show you are still thinking of them by liking and sharing their posts, keep in their social conscience and think about YOUR brand and your businesses brand.

Above all else, you

mustn’t go dark.

What to post?Part of this will be influenced by your operational capacity and appetite. The key is to present your unique selling points (USPs) and points of difference against rideshare apps in this time, it’s a huge opportunity. You should be looking at ways to keep your drivers busy and you should not be obsessing over COVID-19 either, no one wants to hear that constantly. We advised our clients to look at the following:

Inspire People are looking for hope at this time, whether it is your employees, clients or the community you serve, sharing an

inspirational message (vlog, text, sourced or original), what support there is out

there, advice on staying safe and showing that you care and are human too, will not

only show empathy but generate a powerful strategy.

Real imagery of solutionsReal imagery of practical solutions you’ve

adopted as quality operators, of your drivers and your operations team doing what you

are saying you are offering and implementing and you as owners and

managers mucking in and helping.

1 2

Humour is just as important as practicality and inspiration

There is plenty to laugh about during this time and it gets the endorphins

going which makes everyone feel better. Again, sourced content or something

you can come up with, have a bit of fun, it’ll make your social channels more

engaging.

For example, I have been sharing pictures of my home working

attire...smart top half, sweat pants bottom half!

Community is the heartbeat of any

transportation company Take interest in what is going on, see if there is anything you can lend a hand with, share good

causes and be active.

3 4

Reminders of your brand USPs and valuesIf you reinforce these during a

time where more people will be on social media than ever before, for example, why they should be choosing you when they decide

to travel next.

Clear communication, ideally visual but if not, spelt out

clearly and concisely We have a couple of animated videos

that we have produced for the executive taxi and chauffeur company, Windsor Cars in the UK. They have agreed to

allow us to remove logos and share with anyone. Just get in touch and we can do

that for you.

5 6

Share customer testimonialsCustomer testimonials are important to

share at this time, reminding people why they should be using you now if needed

and in the future is key.

It’s also worth dropping a few names in, remind people that if they’re using you,

they should be too.

CompetitionsCompetitions are a superb way to organically

grow your following when people are on social media a lot more.

A simple 'like and follow' organic competition for people to win something during this time. For example, a paid-for grocery shop that you will collect and drop off OR something more aspirational that people can look forward to

after this passes. Either way, both will get more engagement than usual.

7 8

How to manage customer service and communicate effectively

During this time it is key that any questions and comments are dealt with quickly. If it’s negative, move it offline as soon as possible and show you are looking into it publicly but ask for more information to be sent via direct or private message, including contact details.

Make sure you follow these up immediately, show your customers that they are still your number one priority. If it’s a positive, get it amplified by sharing as a creative or screenshot. If you have a chatbot, I would probably disable it right now as these comms will be bespoke and should be dealt with in person.

Finally, don’t forget your drivers are your customers, set up a private driver group or engage with them on your own social media channels, keep them updated, stay in touch and let them talk to you.

They will appreciate this more than you will ever know and it may well stop them from being tempted to leave to go elsewhere and this is something a faceless company from Silicon Valley will not be doing!

Be prepared to disable reviews and comments, but I doubt it’ll come to that. Give Simon an email if you need any more advice on this.

Again, if anyone has a crisis issue that they

can’t get a handle on, please get in touch, I will happy to advise.

How to optimizeWe have advised our clients consider the following:

Cleanliness and hygiene practices

From wipe-downs between rides, high standards of service, hand

sanitizer in vehicles and deep cleans and sprays at the end of every shift. Content of this happening with your vehicles makes this real and shows you’re not just all talk, giving the

customers confidence in your operation and this is something that rideshare apps cannot compete with.

Engage in partnerships with businesses in the

community

For example, many restaurants are keeping the kitchen open for

delivery and collection services. You could offer a collection service

which will be swifter and more reliable than other services.

Community collaboration will be even more powerful than usual at

this time.

Flexibility

Flexibility to do jobs you normally wouldn’t advocate, such as

fetching click and collect groceries for those in

self-isolation.

1 2 3

Local courier services

Identify businesses that are still open, can you offer a simple local highly

flexible courier service or a great deal on business continuity for staff who

still need to work such as doctors and nurses?

A fare is better than no fare in these times and the impression you can

make now, might win you work in the future, especially against ride share!

If you do NEMT and NHS work currently…

Can you offer this standard of service for people so they will look to choose you over rideshare and

again advertise your points of difference? You should be shouting

about the fact you’re continuing with this and working for your

community.

Can you help the elderly or vulnerable members of

society?

I would be advertising that you want people to reach and ask for help and that there is no job too big or small. You can

choose if you offer support free of charge or just go above and beyond for people. This will be challenging times for a lot of

people and you can offer a solution, show you care, that the community you’ve served

for decades is still and more than ever at the forefront of your mind. When you do help people, don’t brag but simply post

what you’ve done and say you’ll do it again, just get in touch, we are here to serve!

4 5 6

How to stay in the game?

This will pass, China is already moving again and if you think

how quickly things have unfolded, the same will happen

with the recovery.

It will seem like a millennium but once people see the light at the end of the tunnel, it will be time to go again with business as usual comms and ads.

Remember as I said before, you must keep up with brand activity, engaging with your customers, looking for new ones and be super proactive in these times, keep up the momentum and when the restrictions are lifted or close to being, what is the first thing people will do? Get on the move and travel!

Businessmen and women will be desperate to get out the house and into the meetings and a comfy hotel away from the kids, people will want to hit the pub or restaurant hard, book a holiday and that flight that they’ve been waiting weeks to jump on.

Keep up with brand activity, engaging with

your customers, looking for new ones and be

super proactive in these times, keep up the

momentum.

You will also need a huge driver recruitment campaign to recoup those that you have lost and you may be able to pull the disillusioned from rideshare over to your fleet!

The end of this will see more opportunity than you can ever imagine and social media is the number one way to capitalize on this, but you must keep things going during the quiet times and I hope this advice will allow you to do just that.

If you keep the momentum up, stay in

the game, you can turn this on and get

the bookings in.