╠ Words cannot explain... ╣

Today I had to catch a train home from the city after work and thanks to a few perfectly placed train cancellations I had to wait about an hour for a train then faced a train ride that I found not too dissimilar from this video. I only got home a bit before six after finishing at 4 so what would normally be a half hour to three quarters became almost two hours. Needless to say this is an experience I will remember. It will forever be a blemish on Connex's name in my mind...although by now it is simply one of many. I earlier complained of unused opportunities within connex and this is one of them. However not necessarily by connex.

Some of you may have heard a story about a famous getaway resort. I forget the name myself but basically what happened is the customers flying to the destination had a horror flight. Much like my train ride, simply longer. What the resort did was to organize a special party for those who had suffered under the fetid plane ride and by doing so earned brand equity beyond reason.

I saw a huge opportunity when I got home for something like this. There is a strip of shops across from the stations, one of which is an IGA. If you consider the fact that almost everyone on that train is going to tell someone about how horrible it is think of if there had been someone waiting for you at the station with free icypoles. You would basically become a brand hero to those people and anyone they pass the story on to. Considering there would probably be quite a few trains like this in a row all you had to do was get one person to wait at a train stop, give everyone an icypole perhaps with a business card attached and then go and refill in the breaks. At most you're spending 30c per person and you become the hero of a story that will probably be told many rimes over.

I think it is a huge win opportunity however noone ever tries things like this. I think some businesses need to think outside the box. Capitalizing on your opposition isn't all you can do, you can capitalize on faults in businesses outside your sector if you think about it right. Connex is one organizion full of them. Personally I think connex could afford to have a service that simply tells businesses when it screws up because if I were a business owner I would pay to know when there is a train full of disgruntled people in need of a lift heading to a station close by.