Push- and Pull-Services

Enhancing customer satisfaction with push services

Push services are the modern answer to increasing expectations on the quality of passenger information. If the train is in general on time, commuters don't usually notice whether their train is running on time today. It is much more practical if the traveller is automatically and actively informed in case of delay – even if they are already en route. 

Travellers who instead find out a delay of 30 minutes can spend some time reading the newspaper. People awaiting guests who are supposed to be picked up at the station, may use the extra time to prepare their homes. Anyone who is already on the way to the station now gets some extra time to run some errands. The travellers who get to know about a delay on the platform may choose an alternative connection. This all does not cause any effort for the passengers. The information including alternative connections is directly forwarded/pushed to their mobile devices, without them even having to ask.

Push services can include more than just text messages or emails. That are for example new channels, such as iPhone Push, RSS-Feed, MS Live Messenger or Twitter. Transport companies can inform their passengers via different communication channels once the connections being monitored by the customers are affected.

This does not just include announcements about departure delays at the place of departure, arrival and departure delays for transfers and delayed arrival at the destination. The push service can also include imprecise messages that can be generated using the HAFAS Information Manager (HIM). Those could be storm or flood warnings for a specific region, for example, not possible to express in concrete measurable delays. Even changes in the regular timetable during its period of validity – because of long-term construction sites, or even changes in the frequency – are cleverly prepared with HAFAS and ready to be simply communicated by push services.

HAFAS can monitor three kinds of timetable information:

• real-time information (usually beginning one to two hours before the departure and continuously until departure)
• imprecise information from the HAFAS Information Manager, HIM (from one hour up to seven days before departure, usually also known one to two days in advance)
• as well as changes to the regular timetable data (once a week or day).

Because passengers can actively decide between proposed alternatives, they remain flexible in public transport. Transport companies can thus increase the attractiveness of public transport. Push services make a long-term contribution to encouraging more people to use public transport and thus gain new target groups as customers.

Push Services for Employees
Push services also support employees of transport companies doing their daily work. They can give professional information and thus provide better service. The internal flow of information in a company is also optimised. Conductors and sales personnel gain profit from RSS-feeds with clear real-time information and imprecise messages based on HIM, either on a PC or a mobile device. 

In-Vehicle Push Services
Push services can be used to outfit vehicles: HIM messages are sent directly to the high-speed train ÖBB-Railjet and displayed for passengers on monitors on the train. This way they are kept up to date about the connections at the next stations.

SMS pull services

HAFAS SMS sends timetable information in the form of simple text messages. If passengers send a text message to the HAFAS SMS online timetable server, they will immediately receive the timetable information requested on their mobile phones as a text message.

Anyone who cannot or doesn’t want to log on the Internet with a mobile phone can still make online timetable information requests on his way. It works with any mobile phone or organiser that is capable of text messaging.

With a simple, short request text message sent to the HAFAS-SMS timetable server, the passenger gives note about the type and degree of detail for the information requested. Frequent requests are saved to be reused as desired without having to repeat the actual query. Abbreviations and code numbers of stations help to enter the necessary information on the mobile phone keyboard quickly and easily.