Customer Stories: King County Transit
Customer
Mark Frietag is the Chief of the Transit Control Center for King County in Seattle. For several years Mark has worked with his employees, particularly bus drivers, to provide prompt and reliable service for millions of Seattle residents who rely on the city's bus network.
Background
King County Metro Transit relies on Konexus' notification system to keep drivers and line workers informed of emergencies across the city, from assaults on buses to adverse weather conditions that impact transit services. Before Konexus, Mark and others had to send individual messages or make individual calls to employees one at a time. To make matters worse, any text messages they sent were severely truncated due to the limitations of traditional MMS messaging services. Timely communication between his office, shift bosses, dispatchers, and drivers was difficult and tedious.
Impact of Konexus Solution
After his department began to use Konexus' platform, notifications, both emergency and non-emergency, became much easier, clearer, and instantaneous. “It's all point, click, and shoot. I love it,” says Mark. “I can pick a template that auto-fills with the information I need. I send out thousands of notifications every year to my employees, and Konexus makes that process very simple. It's quite lovely!” Whether he is sending out text notifications about overtime shifts that need filled or sending text-to-voice messages to emergency dispatch coordinators on the scene of an accident, Mark feels like Konexus gives him the control he needs. Using either the web or his mobile device, Mark can send out messages, record notifications, take polls, and get the responses from employees that he needs to ensure Seattle's transit system runs smoothly. “It's easy to use. The simplicity of the templates and alert history system saves me a ton of time. And what I really like about Konexus is I can even plan messages to be sent via text, voice, and email at a later date when I know I will be away from a computer or cell phone. That's really the cream cheese frosting on top of the carrot cake!”
