دانلود رایگان مقاله مدیریت بحران رسانه های اجتماعی با مشتریان

Abstract

Social media (SM) are transforming the ways in which customers communicate with firms following service failures. While there is a positive side to this phenomenon, there is also a negative side, which can lead to serious social media crises. In light of this duality, the current article addresses the good, the bad, and the ugly uses of SM in the customer complaining process. Herein, we identify six different types of SM complaining situations. The good represent opportunities: (1) when customers complain to the company online immediately after a first-service failure, or (2) when consumers publicize extraordinary recoveries. The bad involve risks: (3) when customers discuss a failure without complaining to the firm, or (4) when consumers reach out to online third-party complaint intercessors. The truly ugly represent the peak of online threats and public crises: (5) when customers spread negative publicity through user-generated content SM following a double deviation, or (6) when competitors respond to this content to steal customers. As a takeaway for managers, we formulate specific recommendations to deal with each type of online complaining.

4. Conclusion

Social media has created a new version of the Wild West for firms, replete with frontier justice, where angry citizens and customers take the law into their own hands. Consequently, firms need to defend themselves. Perhaps the best defense is not to commit a crime in the first place; that is, do not create service failures, and especially don’t commit double deviations. However, mistakes happen; customer policies often have unintended side effects and sometimes inattentive employees disappoint customers. Therefore, firms need both a good system for spotting such service failures before they become public crises and a communication plan to address online complaints. In this article, we have provided such a plan. Our plan tailors the response to the type of complaint and type of social media. While SM evolves rapidly, we currently see patterns emerging that could be stable for at least the near future. After all, even though technology changes, mistreated, angry, and loud customers have been and always will be a constant fact of life for firms. While customers may have louder megaphones now, what they seek from the firms that let them down really has not changed all that much.