While discussing Zappos.com in class today, it became apparent to me how important customer service and relations is to a business. For companies today, they have to maintain their image among their consumers or else their at risk for consumer backlash.
WIth social networking sites and many places for customer reviews, the consumer holds the power once again in the forever power struggle between business and consumer. With mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, it is easy to report a bad experience with a company and therefore hurt them where it hurts... word-of-mouth.
With Web 2.0, spreading bad experiences has never been so easy. It should be every brand's mission to maintain an attentive customer service base to support their company. More pleasurable experiences for the consumer=more profits for the company.
I agree. I think social networking sites are bad news for businesses that don't have a good customer service branch. Some people on facebook just spend their day writing negative statuses and they like to bash anything they get a chance to. So if they bash a company for bad customer service or anything, all of their friends hear about it and now agree with them because of her/his bad experience there.
ReplyDeleteYEah, your post definitely reminds me of the pottery barn case. Contacting customer service the old fashioned way yielded no results, but when they posted a picture of the broken table, it was instantly attended to. Because of the broad range of audience, complaining about customer service has never been easier or more effective!
ReplyDeleteI agree. At the same time, if the company does a good job with customer care, there are postitive posts on the social network sites. I also feel that brands are being advertised on sites such as facebook and twitter of how friends post a picture or a tweet about their favorite product or store which influence others knowledge of the brand.
ReplyDeletei think you need to bear in mind the audience too. yes, almost everyone is on the web. but still, there is a large group/age bracket of older consumers who would rather deal with traditional customer service. they are not on their death bed, and do have influence on shaping younger consumers identities (parents/children). it's important to use a hybrid approach to customer relations.
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