The Role of Community Management in Improving Rail Transport Services – Interview with Philippe Hamard-Gaziello

A meeting timed by two rail transports. 9:30 a.m. and its five minutes delay and 10:52 a.m. for the return…

Philippe Hamard-Gaziello descends from TER -regional express train) at Chartres station (Eure-et-Loir), head to the Brasserie de la gare to relax for an interview and sip a coffee. Finally, a decaf because his schedule is already very “speedy”! Opportunity to exchange with the one who is the creator, community manager of a user community from Paris-Chartres-Le Mans line particularly active and much appreciated.

The meaning of service to users

Is it because he works at the later as a customer relations manager that this 25-year-old young man has a sense of service to the public in his DNA?

Surely, in any case he swears by the train for traveling from his home in Rambouillet (Yvelines) to all his workplaces.

I’ve been a regular on this TER Centre-Val de Loire Paris-Chartres-Le Mans line for five years and just two years ago, in November 2021, it clicked for me to create a real community around .

Philippe already likes creating links and he said to himself that it could make sense to quickly transmit useful information to passengers.

“A group is much more active”

On the SNCF side, in terms of communication, there is already the Twitter feed Rémi Train Centre-Val de Loire but Philippe considers that a Facebook group “is much more responsive and active. It targets a community of users of a very specific line with its own concerns.”

Today Philippe has therefore become, in addition to his work, the community manager of this page, now with some 4000 users and which grows daily.

“Constructive posts”

The creator of the page insists on the community rules to be respected so that discussions remain courteous and above all “constructive”.

Here “no random posts saying that we are five minutes late” or getting into insulting exchanges.

On the contrary, all information related to the weather, works, suspicious packages, social movements, alternative means of transport, major delays are welcome.

“The objective is to benefit from good, relevant information. There are discussion groups that are formed on themes where 500 people sometimes meet,” adds Philippe.

Fight against fake news

Philippe discovered the “joys” of moderation on social networks. He admits, he had left the agora in open bar mode at the beginning “but the page found itself invaded by fake news through several fake profiles which slipped into the conversations. I had to block them.”

The exchanges are now cleaned up, however, we do not fail to check daily whether they remain within a courteous framework and always with this search for constructive information.

After two years of existence, the community manager says he is rather delighted with what his page has become.

I now receive quite a few private messages telling me that they are very happy to have this space for exchange and information. What stands out is that it circulates quickly and well.

However, he was not contacted by the SNCF “but I am not its spokesperson either” smiles the young man.

Dead leaves are collected when called

At the moment one of the big topics of discussion concerns leaves on the rails which, classically, causes trains to lose traction and therefore delays. “We had a user, Nathalie, who greeted the initiative of the train driver who took the trouble to warn his train that there was going to be a delay.”

The group is completely open and Philippe finds it interesting to see that people from Nantes, Angers, Tours are active there. Some members are also big contributors who contribute to the page almost daily.

Apart from leaves, the other big topic of the moment concerns suspicious packages which are growing rapidly, “like recently in Chartres. And then, everything stops for one or two hours! »

Philippe is on the train every day, even during his holidays! Suffice to say that he knows the line and the railway world like the back of his hand.

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