Of course I have had difficulty in the past with communicating with a business. I believe social media, may have made it easier to communicate with them, although I did not use social media to contact them. I guess it depends on how large the company is, as to if you would actually get a personal response or just someone paid to answer disgruntled customers. I have had to contact businesses through their websites, and often just get an automated response saying someone will respond within a certain amount of time. I do see how social media can help a company by making them easier to locate and research although social media can also hurt a company with the ease of being able to voice your dissatisfaction in front of a extremely large audience of potential consumers. I know that the company I work for sometimes, goes over and above to please a dissatisfied customer, even if our company was not in the wrong, because a dissatisfied customer voicing the frustrations, in front of potential consumers could be more damaging to a companies social image then the fact of not being the one at fault. I guess the saying "The customer is always right", is even more important to live by in a time when customers have the ability to use social media.
I have used Yelp to research the customer service of many companies! It is nice to read other peoples comments on things the company has done well, as well as the things they have not done so well.
Hey Bobbi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts. You are definitely correct about customer complains being visible for all. It can be a very powerful tool for customers to get attention and make change for companies that are not delivering a solid product or service.
I find that their reaction to the customers by giving them a response and addressing their needs immediately is crucial. When a company responds to an upset customer, the response by the company is also public. This shows other customers that the company is willing to listen and willing to fix the issue. Thus, they end up looking better because of it.
Hi Bobbi,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about certain clients having way too much power to cause real pain to small businesses in the social media environment. It’s because of those powerful 3rd party review based companies (such as Angie’s List and their members) that have literary caused us to dumb down our service capabilities in an effort to avoid even a remote chance of receiving a poor review. Most of us have already felt the pinch of a crazy reviewer or a con who wanted something for free—or else.