Don’t Stop me now – I’m having such a good time…

Ah yes. Most mortals will agree that the NRA radio and TV campaign for the M50 becoming barrier free was irritating. I’m not sure what got to me most – the cover version of the Queen hit from the 1970’s, or the pseudo “where oh where is shadow” sharp-and-pointy-type-characters from the Bear in the Blue House.

I’m such a snark really.

Right up until the end of september, the advert continued to play unchanged – and still rattling on about the fact that the M50 was going barrier free “from the 30th August“. Fair enough you’d probably say – getting bang for the buck by just doing one version, reinforcing the change over date, how much better it was goinf to be and all of that good stuff….

So it came in the light relief slot of the Last Word on Today FM yesterday evening, that actually there are some huge problems with the system, and specifically the positioning of the tag in a travelling car.

In fairness to the NRA – they have all of the requirements for the tags well documented – in information sent to those who bought the tags. The NRA website however, is a different matter – I wasn’t really able to find any information about tolling and possible teething problems – apart from that contained in press releases.

Getting to my main point then – are the NRA guilty of not being customer focussed? From the little I heard today, having a quick look at the report in the Irish Times, and checking their website – I think they are. What could they have done?

• Be more proactive with these issues on the airwaves. They mention it deep in a press release on the website from the 20th August that “teething problems” are expected. They should have known that any hack worth their salt, and their old friends in the AA would be crucifying them by now; the financial meltdown over the past few weeks has probably saved them to this point.
• Press Releases are not for ordinary people; they are for media outlets; don’t communicate with your customers through press releases. If you are – you are failing the customer.
• Make these teething problem difficulties more obvious on the website. Have a huge feckin’ button on the home page that leads the customer to a dedicated sub-section (not a press release !) about the issues; at the very least, replicate the materials that were sent to customers – that should be a no-brainer.
• Don’t let Minister Dempsey infer that motorists are lazy or stupid on national radio.
• Drop the “Don’t stop me know” ad campaign, and instead inform the lazy and/or stupid motorists how to use the tag – (now should that be in front of or behind the rear view mirror?)

Customers should always have a good time, they should always have a ball.

Update 1 : Have I been too harsh, given that main site is not nra.ie but rather www.eflow.ie ?

Update 2 : I received my statement for september (video registration) and it was correct.