WEEK 3A: COMMUNICATION - BUSINESS & CONSUMER

Who hasn’t experienced difficulty communicating with a business?

When you call Customer Service, it can be the highlight of your day if you can get things resolved fast and without a conflict but most likely it will be your worst nightmare.
A lot of companies (specially the big ones), if you are calling to ask about their product/service, most likely you won’t wait for long and you will get a nice person that will take the time to answer all your questions.
On the other hand, if you are calling because there is something wrong with their product/service, or your bill…that is another story.
Not only you will wait forever to get someone on the line (you better put your phone on speaker and do other things while you wait) but most likely they will keep transferring you to different departments.
Eventually, if you are lucky, you will get a helpful person that will try to help solve your problem, otherwise you will be in an endless battle.
This situation still goes on but with Social Media it is getting better.

Social Media gave businesses the opportunity to promote, advertise and communicate with consumers but most of all, it gave consumers a way to review products/services before making their choice, compare and look for better ones and most importantly, it gave consumers a voice and power to protect their consumer’s rights.

Many years ago (before Social Media), I had the worst experience with my Cellular Phone company. Every month (even though I barely used my phone, let alone the Internet on it) I kept getting charged for extra data.
No matter how many times I called Customer Service trying to explain that I didn’t use all that data, they kept saying that there was nothing they could do: “Whatever is registered in our system is what counts!”.
So I ended up having to pay for something that I never used, I had no way to fight back or let others know what was happening and to make things worse, I couldn’t even cancel my service because I was stuck in a “contract”.

Nowadays, if I have problems like this, all I have to say is: “If you can’t help me with this issue, I will have to leave a review explaining the experience I had with your company and your service”.
As expected, after saying that, they will normally change their attitude and try to work with you because they know that not only they might lose your business but from your bad review they might lose many more.

Even though I haven’t had an experience communicating with a business through social media yet, I think Social Media makes it easier to get problems solved in many ways.

On the other hand, as Social Media gave voice and power to consumers to fight for their rights, it also made companies (especially the small ones) vulnerable to negative situations they can’t control.

As a business owner, I try to respond to every issue “positive or negative” in the most respectful and professional way possible, even when the customer is wrong.
Human interaction is not always easy and you can’t control how people are going to react.
No matter how much you try doing your best, it takes just one person that is having a bad day or just have a bad attitude to create a conflict and most likely to leave you a negative review and damage your business reputation.

In my opinion, Social Media is a really good thing for both consumers and businesses if used honestly, respectfully and in a constructive way. 

The same way Social Media can help businesses grow really fast, it can also damage them in the same speed.