Web 20 Dutch Railways Teststation Leiden 1228861397788772 8

The Dutch Railways, Test Station Leiden and Web 2.0 Coen Dirkx

to give you a presentation about:

Mijnproefstation.nl my test station.

This is a website that belongs to the virtual world we’ve just seen

And that’s part of the project World Stations .

The title of my presentation is:

How we try to build a new station together with our customers…

How the Dutch Railways try to listen more carefully to their customers

First a little history of myself:

My University major was political sciences

with a minor in communication,

which is now my core business.

then I worked as a communication manager in the world of training companies for 15 years.

Two years ago I made a move to the Dutch Railways

as a senior advisor in communication,

always inspired by doing new things

and trying to learn and grow .

It was a Monday in January last year

a small team with a mission :

a test station where 1. the latest ideas about stations are put into effect

and 2. where c ustomers are being challenged to

help think up ideas and join in.

A test station, where we can learn

for the upcoming new international stations.

Such as this one in Rotterdam.

step outside the usual working process

even when it implies taking ‘unusual’ steps.

sometimes it’s easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

we were asked to really take responsibility.

instead of mostly talking about things.

I was in charge of the communication

in the process of making this test station.

Well, we started with nothing:

just a small team of enthusiastic people.

I organized a brainstorm session

or maybe it was more of a dream:

to improve our performance in cooperation with our public

where we build a new station together with our clients?

And let’s use the latest communication techniques

in order to fulfill this dream.

Mijnproefstation.nl was born 9 months later, in December 2007

We didn’t succeed to build the real station in 1 year,

it was easier to build the virtual one .

One of our first learning points.

Actually, this interactive website is an ongoing learning process.

It’s also – like the test station – one big experiment:

How can we use the new media to our gain?

Our intention with this website was

to introduce and improve the station of the future.

that deserves a serious answer.

To inform our customers better and broader than before.

into the future of stations in The Netherlands.

of the actual building process of the test station in Leiden.

First of all, the visitors know more about our plans,

where the international train will stop

More knowledge leads to more understanding.

For example, for the inevitable chaos of a building construction.

How many people visited the website during these last months?

We had more than 60.000 visitors,

who could read about the new stations

and experience the new dynamic shops in the virtual world.

They could read about our plans to improve

we’re not only telling our customers about our innovations

we’re trying to get them involved :

To get a real and direct opinion of our clients.

‘ what do you think of this?’

‘ And do you want to help us?’

following the rules of Web 2.0 :

information sharing and collaboration of the public,

And how did we get them involved ?

is asked to share his opinion,

into the hearts and minds of our public.

What do they really care about?

What’s their perception of the station?

What can and must we do better ?

do our new stations’ concepts work ?

That’s what we hope to find out in Leiden

and that’s what we are already testing virtually,

before everything is realized.

This involvement of our visitors and

insights in the needs of our customers

must lead to more sales in the station area.

It gives us the opportunity to learn

More than 4.000 filled in surveys (with 38 questions!)

2.500 responses to the Study of Colour and Light

and more than 400 ideas, tips and warnings from the public.

To work together with the business partners in the station.

In real and in the virtual world.

that must lead to more traffic

not only to our site, but also to the site and shops of our partners.

The Photography contest Mooi op het station (what’s beautiful in a station?)

Mooi (‘Beautiful’) is our new station perfumery.

about the arrival of Mooi in Leiden,

and in the other big international stations

To enrich the brand of the Dutch Railways.

By showing that we are more than just a company with trains

We want to improve the station, the station area and our service in the station.

And by showing that we try to listen to our customers:

‘ Think and work with us’.

But there’s another relationship between a strong brand and business,

especially in the world of business – to – business .

When you’re building or rebuilding a station

How can a website contribute to building a brand ?

by telling the public what goes right and what goes wrong.

One of the most visible features of the website

which allows people to peep behind the scenes.

a big, anonymous organization

10 colleagues of mine who are working within this project

write about their daily routine, but also

about their hopes and dreams

and –sometimes- about their fears and furies .

we have been giving some visitors

this platform to write about their

this is unusual on a corporate blog.

Does this building the brand work ?

the Dutch Railways are climbing in the list of

most popular employers in The Netherlands.

I’m not implying that this is an effect of

it may well be just a pure coincidence.

Let me finish my presentation with

a case study: the design contest.

It’s an example of co-creation and crowdsourcing

(outsourcing to the crowd )

which means: use the knowledge of your public.

I’m going to tell you what we have done

and what we have learned from this contest .

to design the station toilet areas of the future.

There were two parts to this contest:

2. Make a design for all the glass walls.

The public was asked to participate in 2 ways:

1. by sending in designs and 2. by voting.

The winning design would be realized at Leiden Station

and the winner would receive 5.000 euro.

Choose a serious subject for co-creation, so the people can really join in. So Lesson 1 is:

was convincing all the internal players.

So that they would cooperate with us. think of the internal designers, the project managers, the builders.

And that is Lesson 2: Focus on selling your idea in your own organization.

The next step was more difficult:

to make the right regulations for this contest.

that you get serious contestants and serious designs?

but you must anticipate and hope for the best.

We had to think about: which procedure, which upload mechanism, how to vote? etc., etc.

A lot of questions, because some of us

a lot of non serious contestants.

We devised a procedure with a “way out”.

In short: the public made the short list

and the jury (staffmembers of the Dutch Railways) picked the winner.

And that’s Lesson 3: Think carefully about your procedure.

We decided to inform every Art School in Holland

So, Lesson 4: Give it the right exposure

We received almost 250 designs -in our modest opinion- of good quality.

After that we had some serious discussion with the jury.

They did pronounce a winner for the glass walls.

But they decided not to choose a winner for the logo,

due to a ‘ lack of quality and applicability’ (as they put it mildly).

they explained their choices openly and transparently .

That’s Lesson 5: Be transparent and honest at all times.

And this August we opened the new toilet area in Leiden

So, let me finish by saying one more thing:

it’s the most important thing I’ve learned these last 2 years.

We must realize that the new media

give our customers more power.

to let them use this power to help us !

And if you take them seriously

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