Week 2: Communication Between Business & Consumer

Social media makes communicating a lot easier. When we are happy with a service or upset with a service, we typically go on social media and tell all of our friends about our experience. When we share these experiences we directly telling the company, especially if they are tagged in our post, what we liked or what we didn't like. By tagging them, we are telling them we want them to see the post. Typically when we have a negative experience, we want the company to acknowledge us and attempt the fix the problem or alleviate the situation. Tagging the company in a post or using hashtags are great ways for them to notice. If a company wants to be successful on social media, they have to be listening to the chatter. If someone is actually doing that, our posts about the good things and bad things should be seen. In the past, people would have to call the customer service number and sit there and push a bunch of buttons and wait in the queue just to talk to someone. Some people would even write to companies with little to no luck. Social media has made things tremendously easier because social media happens in real-time. 

As a society, we are typically focused on the negatives. Most comments we see about products or companies online are negative ones. I once had a horrible experience with an airline, and I tweeted about it the moment I landed. We had planned this trip over a year before and were excited about it because we don't take vacations that often. The airline had started our vacation off horribly and I wanted them to know. It took them about two hours to reply to my tweet. I messaged them privately to tell them my experience and even then they were not that friendly. Since then I have not flown with that airline. On the other end of the spectrum, I leave positive comments about a product or business when they have to go above and beyond. I want others to know this a good thing these people have going and the employees are exceptional. If this was my company, I would want people to tell me I am doing a good job by telling others I am. When it comes to the negatives I also want to know so I know what to improve on in the future. If something has already happened and someone was telling me about it after the fact, I would attempt to alleviate the situation and try to offer them something extra to make up for the mistake.