What happens when consumers complain on social media?
“Data from social media analytics and monitoring service Sprout Social revealed that many US internet users believe social media has given them more of a voice to expose unfair treatment from brands and be more critical of them in general. The study, which surveyed 1,003 US internet users ages 18 to 64 in July 2017, found that eight in 10 respondents said social media helped to uncover instances of brands treating people unfairly. And seven in 10 said that it helped encourage transparency.”
“For the most part, dishonesty and bad customer service led many internet users to complain about brands on social media. But those weren’t the only reasons. Troubles with a bad product, brands being too political and a lack of responsiveness also triggered some respondents to air frustrations about companies on social media.”
Click on the chart below to read more about how online consumers react to social media complaints.
The article conveys that social media, in some cases such as this one, can be used to express oneself in a productive manner such as relaying the unfair treatment by brands. It is important that people have the ability to generate the appropriate responses on what they would rather do when certain brands treat them with some sort of disdain, and how the brands respond. It is also interesting to see the variety of responses from customers on whether they boycott the brand for a poor response or forget about it for a ignoring their response.
The article shows how beneficial social media has become in regards to a Brand. The buyer is able to share with anyone and everyone about their experience with a certain product rather than just being able to offer their feedback to a smaller circle of friends. This in turn can help other buyers as well as the companies offering the product that has been “rated”. In the buyers point of view you are able to warn others about a certain company and for the company you can choose to read these reviews and act by improving or as the chart showed like many you can choose to react poorly or unfollow the buyer complaining.
This article shows how powerful social media has become in today’s world. If a brand screws up or does not meet the consumer’s need, the consumer can go to social media and bash on the company for a large volume of people to see and the companies reputation can go downhill.