How Spokane Transit Authority deployed Trapeze’s mass notifications tool to reach out to passengers during emergencies and beyond
With an average snowfall of 44 inches annually, Spokane in northeastern Washington state had its fair share of weather disturbances affecting residents’ mobility. For Spokane Transit Authority (STA), snow days could lead to a disruption in paratransit services. STA provides paratransit services to the cities of Airway Heights, Cheney, Liberty Lake, Medical Lake, Millwood, Spokane, and Spokane Valley.
Phone calls had been STA’s standard way of notifying paratransit passengers about disruptions to service, especially during winter. But as ridership grew, it became increasingly harder to reach out to every passenger promptly. STA had to pull in people from other departments to make the calls late into the night, straining its workforce.
“Every passenger is contacted, and it works really, really well, But Floodgate is more than you think. We initially thought it would be for emergency services, but now we contact riders for anything we want to get out. It keeps all communication (to passengers) open.”
Spokane activated Trapeze’s Floodgate messaging solution to send out notifications to riders about disruptions to service through Cloud Interactive Voice Response (IVR) - with immediate results. Instead of employees frantically working through a long passenger call list well after office hours, only one employee was needed to get the message out to all STA passengers. “It was an instant call-out,” said Alex Sharpe, STA Operations Specialist. “Once you hit send, it was instantly (communicated to passengers).” The system also logged all the calls, enabling staff to double-check if each passenger was covered.
STA immediately improved emergency communications with passengers with an easy mass notifications tool. Floodgate’s most significant impact was in the drastic reduction of manpower utilized to ensure passengers were fully informed about any changes to service. It needed only one staff member to activate the system within a matter of minutes. Floodgate worked so well that STA started coursing passenger communications beyond emergency services through the system. Some of the information communicated through customer mailing lists, pamphlets inside vehicles, social media, website content, or direct passenger outreach could be relayed instantly through a quick call-out.
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