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The correlation between impactful communications and brand loyalty was a central theme when the Emmanuel Business Collaborative speaker series welcomed MBTA Chief Customer & Employee Experience Officer Danny Levy to campus on Feb. 11th.
A seasoned marketing and communications professional, Levy’s responsibilities at the MBTA center on improving the daily experience of riders and the MBTA workforce. In practice, that often means managing expectations amid ongoing efforts to modernize the T.
While the MBTA is updating its transportation infrastructure after decades of deferred maintenance, Levy’s focus since joining the MBTA in 2018 has been on bolstering its communications infrastructure. A deeper commitment to using social media for telling the agency’s story was a key piece. Launching an award-winning podcast (Spilling the T) was another. In both cases, the common thread was knowing the pain points of stakeholders and speaking to them.
“The only way we could fully tell our side of the story was by controlling the narrative, and the only way we could do that was through social media,” said Levy. “Now after every diversion, every closure, every time there’s work, we post something on social media explaining what the work was... and what the benefit is."
“If we want to build brand loyalty, we have to deliver on our commitment to riders, which is getting you where you need to go safely and timely,” she added. “The only way we can do that is through continuous improvement.”
The Emmanuel Business Collaborative Speaker Series was established by the School of Business & Management in 2020 with the goals of helping students foster connections with business leaders and benefit from their experiences and insights.
The School of Business & Management also does that in the classroom, by inviting leaders to meet with students and discuss the topics of the day. Levy was recently a guest at the MKTG 2200 Principles of Marketing class taught by forum moderator and Emmanuel Director of Experiential Education Peter Nunziata. He said she always brings great perspectives to the classroom.
“Danny is one of my go-tos for class discussions, whether it’s leadership, organizational behavior, or marketing principles,” said Nunziata. “It’s also nice because the MBTA is not a typical business, they’re a quasi-public agency, but they still need to market themselves; it shows students a different side of leadership, communication, and organization.”
The discussion opened with Levy asking for a show of hands from T riders in the audience; she thanked them as customers and invited their feedback. Levy is a T rider herself, and said that’s essential to both understanding the product and the concerns of stakeholders.
“You have to know your product, and you have to understand people's pain points,” said Levy.
Levy also gave students some advice about the importance of exploration during college. Her initial career goal was to become a diplomat. But she charted a course in communications after a summer fellowship with the Chronicle team at WCVB in Boston.
“I remember doing so much and enjoying it; enjoying the people I met and the stories they shared,” said Levy. “My job was to tell those stories in a way that would resonate to the public. And that's essentially what I do now.”
